Twilling's Blog: Was Hulk Hogan's 80s run as bad as John Cena's current run? What was different about the times and why Chris Jericho is so valuable

Wednesday, SEPTEMBER 30 – 4:59 P.M. (CT)

-This past Monday on WWE Raw, John Cena was advertised to face Chris Jericho, Big Show, and Randy Orton in a gauntlet match. Basically, that is Cena facing wrestling three consecutive one-on-one matches in a row. Once the match was made, it was hyped as “What will John Cena do now?”

Well, I’m sure those fearing the “same old thing” knew exactly what Cena would do. They all knew Cena would overcome the odds once again. Well, he did. I want to direct a question to anyone who watched the old WWF during the Hulk Hogan dominated era of the 1980s, was that as bad as this? Newsflash to WWE, it is no longer considered “overcoming the odds” when you do it every time?

In the late 1990s, the Attitude Era took over and in the process, it (along with bad internal decision making in WCW) steamrolled their competition, essentially putting WCW and ECW out of business. Granted, things change and all great things must come to an end, so I am not surprised that WWE has changed to a more child friendly product over the past couple of years.

However, is the current Raw product as nauseating to adults as it seems? John Cena wrestled and struggled through the first two of the aforementioned three singles matches. However, he won them both because his opponents were intentionally disqualified. The idea was to weaken him for Orton and for his WWE Championship defense on Sunday.

The planned backfired. By the time Orton got to the ring, and granted he walks slowly, but not that slowly, Cena had completely recovered and was ready for Orton. Not only that, but Cena wanted a Hell in a Cell match six days early, and he got one. Orton tried to cowardly run away, but Cena thwarted that attempt. Of course, they ended up on top of the cage and Cena stood triumphantly.

I was never a Hulk Hogan fan, but damn, I would gladly take his act from the 80s for the next five years than watch Cena do his thing over the same time period. Are we really back to “good guys beating bad guys?” The problem is: when Hogan was in his prime, the bad guy made it interesting. The bad guy actually went after Hogan and enjoyed some success against him before losing the eventual match.

John Cena gets the best of everybody on every Raw and every pay-per-view. When he doesn’t, it is rare and it is quickly forgotten. Wrestling is different now than it was back then. Back then, Hogan was the guy; there were not multiple guys. So, it could be argued that Hogan did not get people over, but he did get them wealthy. Hogan’s opponents were strong coming into their match(es) with him because Hogan made them look strong during the match buildup.

Today’s business is about building and sustaining stars. Does John Cena do that? If you asked a bunch of ten year old kids, they would say something like, “Goo goo, John Cena, gah gah.” If you asked a series of adult fans who the best in the world is, Chris Jericho would probably get the most votes. The last time I checked, Jericho takes a loss from just about anyone. Also, the last time I checked, he isn’t any less of a star.