WWE Friday Night SmackDown hit the SyFy airwaves last night (Sept. 5, 2014) from Lincoln, Nebraska with a taped show featuring all the latest build to the upcoming Night of Champions pay-per-view (PPV) later this month in Nashville. That meant more from John Cena.
Click here for full results and the live blog. Let's react to the show.
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Man or Machine
John Cena's promo from last night:
"No more talk about if I've changed or if it's best for business. In less than three weeks, I will face Brock Lesnar at Night of Champions for the WWE world heavyweight championship. The match is made, so enough. Stop. Stop talking about if it's right or it's wrong, if I'm ready or if I'm not, if I can or if I can't, if I should or if I shouldn't. Stop.
"I've been here for 12 years, I've had thousands of matches. Yet, after SummerSlam all the superstars, including The Authority and Triple H himself, they're looking at me like I'm at the end of my rope. They're looking at me like I'm some fragile old man who should be brought down here to do the queen's wave because it's best for business.
"My name is John Cena, I'm a WWE superstar, and I fight. I fight because I want to be the champion, and I want to be the champion because it is the symbol of excellence. When the day comes I step my two feet in this ring and I don't want to be champion, I turn around, I walk out, and I never come back.
(Crowd chants for Cena.)
"You see, you understand. You understand but everyone in the WWE after this one match at SummerSlam, they don't get it. They do not get it, and it was after one match. Oh and by the way, one match with the most destructive force that has ever step foot in the WWE and that's Brock Lesnar. Since 2012 when Brock came back, he has destroyed everything in his path. Brock Lesnar is for real, Brock Lesnar is everything that Paul Heyman says he is and more. I know Night of Champions will be difficult but I have my rematch, I'll find my resolve and at Night of Champions I'll get my redemption.
"I don't care if Brock Lesnar's a badass or if Paul Heyman's a loud mouth or if Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels don't think I have a chance or if Hogan knows best or if Triple H can't make a decision -- shocker -- I will stand right here and say 'you line 'em up and I'll knock 'em down', and you can still get the WWE Network for $9.99."
John Cena's resolve is the thing that defines him. He doesn't know how to quit and he doesn't know how to fail, so it makes sense that everyone around him telling him how mind numblingly stupid he is for even attempting to test Brock Lesnar a second time despite the crushing nature of the last defeat wouldn't make sense to him.
But the fact that it doesn't seem to occur to him how it might be somehow odd that almost everyone he's come across has told him he's an idiot for doing what he's doing shows a stunning lack of understanding of the situation. It is as though he is legitimately a machine with only one gear. He goes forward and nothing anyone says or does will stop that, for any or for no reason.
That's commendable on some level but it also makes him nearly impossible to connect to. Cena is a guy you depend on but never one you feel bad for. You can always count on Cena to continue moving forward until he achieves his goal, so you never really have much reason to care because you know he'll simply keep moving forward until the goal is achieved.
And he'll do so while never once showing any vulnerability.
At the heart of every deep emotional connection you feel with all the people you feel deeply emotionally connected to lies vulnerability. You open yourself to someone and you allow them to see you at your worst. You allow them to see you when you're weak, or afraid, or when you're everything you try not to be but sometimes are because life just kicks the shit out of you.
And it will, at some point or another. It always does.
That's when you rely on those people you've opened yourself to, those people who established a connection to you because you showed them that vulnerability. We don't get that from Cena because he's always telling us he'll overcome. Even in the face of everyone telling him he can't, he's not doubting himself for a second. In fact, he's getting frustrated that everyone else is, in their right mind, telling him he can't do it.
He's not admitting that maybe he can't (because maybe that's so, and we all know that but his admitting that would show vulnerability). He's not telling us he's scared (which he almost certainly should be, and we all know that but his admitting that would show vulnerability). He's not asking for any help (which he definitely should be, and we all know that but his admitting that would show vulnerability).
What he's actually saying is "I don't care what anyone else says, LOL CENA WINS, buy the Network".
Vince McMahon -- and maybe Cena himself -- seems to believe that having Cena show weakness for any sustained period of time will drive fans away. Maybe the problem is they aren't considering the reality is probably far closer to the exact opposite.
Segment grade: D
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Quick hitters:
- Brie Bella is actually a pretty good wrestler and that's something we all forgot in the time since she was booked to do everything other than the one thing she's actually gotten relatively good at. How amazing is it that Brie actually did the one thing most fans constantly complain about when it comes to women in WWE, improved her in-ring work, and then WWE stopped booking her to actually wrestle and gave her a million talking segments? If nothing else, it was nice to see her back in gear and working a match.
- By the way, the two storylines merging was a surprisingly good thing here. Weren't you a fan of AJ Lee getting absolutely sick and tired of Nikki Bella just sitting near her and jumping her? Didn't it feel like something that should have happened a really long time ago?
- Dare I say the best thing WWE could have done for Sheamus was stick him on commentary for the Cesaro vs. Dolph Ziggler match? We've always needed more personality from him. We finally got it.
- At this point, wouldn't it be far more entertaining if Slater Gator became the main focus of the tag team division? They're versatile, as demonstrated last night. There are a million wacky and wild ways for them to lose and argue about it as heels but just as many wacky and wild ways for them to win and celebrate it as overcoming babyfaces. This is a team we want to get behind, don't we?
- "Since you all live in Nebraska, something terrible has obviously happened to you in your life." - Bo Dallas, perfecting cheap heat.
- I've been grappling with how I feel about WWE presenting sexism, casual or otherwise, on television in its feuds. Ultimately, I think almost anything should be acceptable as long as it's presented properly. So when Mark Henry is accusing Rusev of hiding behind "that loud mouth woman that looks like an escort", it bugs me because Henry is the babyface we're supposed to cheer and accept as good. Sexism should be the heel move, and said sexist heel should get his/her comeuppance. This is the other way around and while it's certainly not the end of the world, it just sucks to think of how many ways they could have gone with this and never had to resort to such things.
Not the worst show, but nothing special.
Overall grade: C-
That's it from me, Cagesiders. Now it's your turn to sound off in the comments section below with all your thoughts on last night's show. How did you like it, if you liked it at all?