The People’s Column: John Cena Injured – Possibilities for Future
by Will Pruett on December 29, 2010

Tonight at a WWE live event, John Cena’s match was stopped and he had to be helped from the ring to the back. There was no stretcher involved, but he could not put weight on his leg. This obviously could be a major blow to WWE’s future plans.

Of course it is too early to tell and it’s possible that he will be able to work through the injury. It could also take Cena out for a significant amount of time, which would mean a giant hole on the Raw roster. Lucky for WWE, Cena ended Raw on Monday being laid out by CM Punk and Nexus. This gives them an easy way to write off Cena and an instant rivalry to bring him back with.

Now, let’s talk about the options if John Cena is out for a significant period of time.

Triple H is the obvious one. His return is rumored to be more than imminent at this point and he will receive a major babyface reaction upon his return. It is easy to just take Cena out and insert Triple H after he has a blowoff match with Sheamus. Hunter could be a viable option, but he does not play the sympathetic babyface that gets beat down well. This will hurt the credibility of The Nexus, since they can’t get any heat from him.

Of course, the new major babyface on Raw is John Morrison. He is being given a test run, where at this point he is below John Cena and Jerry Lawler, but he is a big deal. Could it be possible that Morrison will step up here and fill this role? He has yet to cut a money promo and desperately needs that ability, but these are desperate times. This would not be an ideal choice, but if he actually stepped into the role and broke out because of it, he could finally fill the potential we have all been discussing for years.

Another option could be moving a Smackdown star that is doing nothing at this time. Could Big Show fill the major babyface on Raw role? He would not have pretty matches and I shudder at the thought on him crushing CM Punk again. He does meet the star power requirement that WWE often seems to put on their upper card guys on Raw (Nexus not included). I would hate to see them take this option, since Big Show is such an unexciting act.

Could WWE actually decide to turn someone? What if Wade Barrett came back and had an issue with CM Punk replacing him as the leader of Nexus? I don’t know if fans would buy Barrett as a babyface this soon, but he could mention that somehow he has come to respect John Cena in this feud with him. Wade Barrett is one of the best talkers in WWE right now and if anyone could make this turn work, I’m convinced it is him. I doubt WWE would do this and I hope they don’t, but anything is possible.

Of course there are a ton of possibilities beyond this list. These are the ones that I felt like writing about tonight. Where do you see WWE going with this? Is Wrestlemania is jeopardy with Cena possibly out (especially with Undertaker questionable)? Make sure to follow me on Twitter and interact with me regularly at twitter.com/itswilltime.


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Will Pruett

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  • incognito

    What, has Randy Orton faded into obscurity?

  • Sebastian Howard

    Randy Who (I type while winning a match with him on SVR 2011), Randy will either be brought up in the role or Trips, Trips would act shock value so E will most likely go with that.

  • Steven

    Bryan Daniels? Or is he too Benoit-like for their liking to go that far up the top? I mean, he has a ready-made feud in the Miz, as he beat him already a few times, he’s a secondary belt holder…

  • Jim

    “Of course” count sits at three, good job.

    Even if Cena is hurt, he’s still the biggest face they have right now, and I don’t see anyone just coming in and taking over his role in this. The only way that works is if they spin it that the beatdown this week, is why he’s out. Nexus runs wild until the Rumble, when someone comes in to fight them. Sadly, it’ll probably be HHH, which then means Nexus (and Punk) get buried all to Hell. Sigh.

  • Joe

    If he wasn’t injured (or depending on when he gets cleared), I’d say bring Christian over from Smackdown and stick him in there. The promos and matches would be great. His feud with Del Rio can wait – Nexus would benefit far more from a feud with him than Del Rio would.

  • sd

    Gonna have to agree with Joe on the Christian thing based solely on the E&C rule that states you can NOT have Edge and Christian (the most exciting tag team in the past 20 yrs, and two exciting performers individually) on the same show, due to hopes of the reunion…

  • http://itswilltime.wordpress.com Will Pruett

    Just thought I would point out that Cnristian is still injured and not slated to return anytime soon.

    Thanks for counting the “of course” uses. I’m a repetitive and redunant writer at times.

    I also want to point out that this news has been out for a while and Pulse Wrestlig still hasn’t actually covered it in the news section. The only mention of it is in this column. I’m just patting myself on the back here.

  • Limodriver

    Independent of Cena’s injury, being fired from Nexus has to mean Barrett’s turning face, unlee it’s all some kind of elaborate swerve, but I don’t there’s a way to do that without hurting CM Punk.

  • sd

    What about the possibility that Punk was behind Nexus all along? Even though Barrett did a good job with them.. they still needed a veteran prescence…

  • incognito

    Well, since Nexus debuted by attacking CM Punk (and John Cena) there would probably be a lot of complaining about plot holes.

  • Sebastian Howard

    No it’s brillant because they faked it!

  • incognito

    Like Hogan and Hardy faked the Abyss beatdowns? Everyone let that slide, right? No? Hmm…

  • WallyKovacs

    Daniel Bryan would be a great person to take a run at either either the Miz or the Punk lead Nexus. Punk teased a possible involvement with Bryan before his injury, and there is still the whole “he was once a member of Nexus” thing that only really involved his debut and not much after.

    With Punk “in charge” of Nexus, it seems like an odd choice (they’ve conveniently left out that he was attacked along with Cena … so I don’t think the reveal is that he was always in charge, but that this is something new).

    It’s probably that Punk will make it so that the Barrett/Otunga split in the Nexus can work (since you have Barrett and Punk being the pay off feud, where both guys can work, unlike Otunga). They have a legit reason to oust Barrett. Of the former NXT season 1 cast that is still on the main roster, Barrett is the only one that hasn’t won a belt (Bryan is US champ, the three still in the Nexus having held the tag belts) despite having more title shots than the rest of the group combined. Heck, the guys from season 2 haven’t even had any opportunities for the most part, compared to both Kaval and Alex Riley. Basically, the Nexus has been like Legacy, where only the leader got any benefit (although at least Nexus got the tag titles, albeit entirely thanks to Cena). It’s possible some may side with Barrett, but odds are he’ll be the only one really left out in the cold. Either way, Punk will likely lead to the end of the Nexus eventually. Which, when Cena comes back, can be another “truth” Punk can hold over Cena … he did what Cena couldn’t, destroy the Nexus (and at that point, Punk can reveal he took over and drove them apart, not just to have some backup, but for revenge on their initial beatdown).

    Also, a bit if has to do with the length of time Cena is out. As long as he can make it back for Wrestlemania, they can set him up for a match with Miz at for the title, and then have Punk/Nexus as his first challenger … so that would mean Punk and Nexus could feud with say Orton while a returning HHH goes after Sheamus.

    Another possibility is that Punk uses the Nexus to win the Rumble and goes after Edge (they’ve had an on and off feud for a while now, although with Edge face and Punk heel, it’s a new dynamic, and both times were brief feuds involving Money in the Bank) which may lead to the end of the Nexus, or to their being sent to Smackdown as well to set up something between them and the Undertaker upon his return (perhaps with the Nexus getting back the tag belts and actually invoking Freebird rules as an excuse to float them over to Smackdown along with a Royal Rumble winning Punk …

  • Sebastian Howard

    That sounds really intresting and I’m not exactlay sure what they’re going to do with PuNuxes (yes I’m calling it that). I would say fued with Barrett but the Rumble’s coming up. For once I have no idea what WWE’s going to do, let’s just see if they can hold my intrest as RAW was so terrible this week I was thinking of just not watching RAW this week, thank God that Back To The Future was on or I might have gone insane watching RAW.

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