FanPost

That John Cena promo was not necessarily what you think it was

WWE.com

Greetings from the deluged city of Houston. I haven't really been inspired to write anything in a while. I mean I want my fanposts to be like Brock Lesnar appearances (ha ha).

In all seriousness, I took a look at Brigade's post "Hey WWE wrestlers! John Cena destroyed all of you". I think he was on the right track. Many of you disagreed. Brigade is right in a way, but not necessarily in the way that he stated it.

Let's go back to that promo between Cena and Reigns. It was a hell of a promo, wasn't it? "Shooting from the hip!" "Worked shoot!" "Completely scripted!" "Bringing in reality!" ... Or whatever else has been said in and around the Internet.

I saw something completely different. I saw someone that has serious acting chops (in John Cena) run his mouth against someone that does not have good acting chops (in Roman Reigns). That was the difference in the promo.

That's the difference in their careers.

Keep in mind, professional wrestling is just athletic theater. A lot of you, as wrestling enthusiasts, probably care more about physical wrestling ability than acting skills. The truth is that most of the time, pro wrestlers are not going to have both.

John Cena and The Rock are two guys that are not going to wow with their "workrate". They had a formula that they used in their prime and they largely stuck with it. But their formula was usually flexible so that if they worked with anyone that was spectacular or mediocre, it wasn't going to be an absolute shit show.

They also happened to be -- along with Steve Austin -- the two best actors the WWE has ever employed.

Anyone can play a part. I mean anyone. Bray Wyatt owns the cult leader gimmick. Finn Balor is great with the demon paint. But ask either of those guys to rely on their acting skills to sell a feud and both of them are going to fall short.

Consider Jinder Mahal. Most applaud his current physique (granted, he gets a lot of accusations for steroids). And he approaches his character as a cross between the typical foreign pro-wrestler heel and the over the top vocals of a cartoon villain. He does not have the acting ability to pull that off and it shows. To cover up his shortcomings in fluid in-ring performance and acting ability, WWE had to resort to wasting the Singh Brothers.

However, there are examples of performers lacking great acting skills, but do a good enough job of portraying their character naturally to the point where it could be ignored. Think of Daniel Bryan. Or most notably, AJ Styles.

Let's go back to Roman Reigns. I like Roman Reigns. Sharp in the ring. Sharp look. When he is not asked to do too much (you know, convey his character through recited lines), he's incredible. But when you ask him to recite lines and deliver them as convincingly as a trained actor would, then his flaws show.

Reigns did briefly take acting classes. And to his credit, as soon as he started taking acting classes, he started to slightly show improvement in the microphone department. He's serviceable, but not at the level that a franchise WWE star should be at.

And the Cena promo, at large, showed the gulf in acting ability between certain performers. Your upper echelon -- and I am talking your actors with A+ acting skills that could legitimately go out at anytime and take legitimate, featured acting roles in film or television -- are Cena, The Miz, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, and Lana. And Lana was formally trained as an actress! But let's look at that list:

  • One is a part-time wrestler (Cena)
  • One is probably the best mid-card anchor WWE has ever had aside from Jericho (Miz)
  • One is touring and not even on the active roster (Chris Jericho)
  • One is a manager that vastly needs to improve in the ring (Lana)
  • One is an authority figure that, if he ever stepped back in the ring, would be running on borrowed time (Angle).
Enthusiasts, from what I've seen, will generally forgive not so great and even weak acting as long as the performer does a stand out job in the ring night in and night out. That's fine. However, ask them to do too much and their weaknesses will show. That's why scripting lines for untrained actors is stupid and nearly half of every promo that's cut is unwatchable. That's a reality that is facing an overwhelming amount of the WWE roster. And ultimately, that will bring down entire shows (see WWE Smackdown).

So what is my point? Cena's promo "torched" the rest of the roster because that's what happens when the man cutting the promo is one of the five most convincing actors in WWE. And yes, I am well aware that Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Randy Orton all have had acting roles -- but put those three against those previously mentioned five.

The issue is not so much no one is prepared to fill John Cena's shoes so to speak, but rather WWE sets up too many performers for failure with its approach -- and yes that includes Reigns.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.