You guys remember Super Cena, right? You know, the “babyface” act in 2010-ish WWE where John Cena simply couldn’t lose? Pay attention to those quotes around babyface. They matter.
Super Cena
John Cena technically was a babyface in that era of his career, but you wouldn’t have known it if you were a casual viewer of WWE programming. Cena was cheered by adoring young children and women, but a large majority of the male audience saw through the Cena antics and mercilessly booed the guy into oblivion.
The antics? Think Superman. Nothing could beat John Cena during that era of his career. One opponent, two, hell, he even took on the ENTIRE RAW LOCKER ROOM with Randy Orton as a partner and was victorious. Cena eroded the credibility of a hot Nexus faction during this time, won lots of championships, and leapt tall buildings in a single bound. Cena didn’t have a kryptonite and fans began resenting him for it. After all, part of being an effective babyface in wrestling is having something that audiences can relate to. Who can relate to winning all the time?
Super Cena was an enormous star for WWE and the 50/50 reactions for him will live in infamy inside WWE lore, but certainly isn’t something you wan replicated for future top tier babyfaces.
Super Cody?
Fast forward to the Backlash 2024 PLE from over the weekend. There was Cody Rhodes. He’s in the main event of the show, defending the WWE Undisputed Championship that he won in the main event of WrestleMania, and has the entire audience firmly on his side. Perfect. Well, almost.