Solomonster Reacts To WWE Calling John Cena The Greatest Of All Time 

As someone who booed Cena, I'll say, him being nice to the kids was one of the good quality of his. That certainly was not one of the reasons I booed Cena. Main reason I did was because felt like he was being shoved down my throat by WWE.

I'm convinced that Vince never wanted to turn Cena heel because of how Austin's heel turn went.

John’s run on top is unprecedented. I will never deny that but for me personally. My GOAT is Stone Cold Steve Austin.

20 Years Of Jorts, Fruity Pebble Tees And Pump Up Sneakers...Lol

As much as well all hate to admit it, Hogan had the greatest effect on the company’s history not John Cena

2002-2005: We loved him 2006-2019: We hated him 2020-2022: We missed him

When John Cena was promoted as the poster boy for the WWE, his hip hop freestyle raps, and the hardcore street clothes, disappeared and Cena became a very boring, happy go lucky, milquetoast character. That was the problem, it was the hip hop white rapper character that made Cena popular to begin with and he should've never changed it.

One of biggest superstars in the history of the company: absolutely THE greatest of all time: absolutely not

I completely loathe the whole "Super Cena" era. In fact, that is what drove me away from WWE. But I have huge respect for what Cena has done through Make A Wish. And unlike Brian Gerwitz I can differentiate between the two

I learned to appreciate Cena later on, but I can’t call him the best. He certainly deserves to mentioned in the conversation.

Cena is ONE of the greatest of all-time. Saying he's THE greatest, over Rock, Austin, Hogan, Savage, HBK, HHH, Flair, I'm sorry, but no lmao.

The matches he had with Cesaro during his open challenges after he won the US title from Rusev... Cena looked great because Cesaro made them both look amazing. As far as I'm concerned, those were the best matches I've seen for both of them.

Cena Was One Of The Reasons I Took A long Hiatus From Wrestling...I Was Sick Of Seeing Him.

He indeed maybe one of the greatest of all time and some of my favorite matches ever involve him but after his Dr. Of Thuganomics gimmick I found his Super Cena gimmick to be boring. Not to mention WWE having Cena winning way too much rubbed me the wrong way as well.

I am one of those who turned off wwe because of the super Cena era and only listen to podcast like yours for almost 10 years now and JdfromNY for a couple of years now.It's been close to a decade since I last watched a Raw or Smackdown. Thanks for watching so I don't have to.

Absence does make the heart grow fonder. Cena was never going to be truly appreciated as long as he was full-time. Once he was gone and there were people like Reigns and Charlotte for fans to target next, John was officially off the hook. People appreciated his dedication and hard work and all the great matches he has because they were no longer distracted by the company incessantly pounding him down their throats. Yes, he's definitely in the goat conversation.

His open challenge series with the US title definitely deserves a spot here. That is when a lot of his past detractors warmed up to him. Combination of his own work and the shifting of heat onto Roman at this period

Big fan of your work. I play it all the time at work on the night shift. Is there any chance you do an even deeper dive of the 2005 run of cena?? Greetings from Baltimore!

I can't think of one thing that Cena did that changed the business in any way. Was he good for WWE? Sure, but greatest in what? I can safely say John Cena is the greatest at Making Wishes. Ha.

I remember the ruck fools days and seeing him at house shows with my dad in oshawa/toronto. Had a JBL: Just Big Loser sign lmao. I miss grade school.

Thank god somebody else finally tells the truth, I was there through those Cena days and no matter how they try to change history I remember those days and it sucked. He was boo’ed for a reason he was stiff and generic. Even his home town boo’ed him

The comments about The Rock actually got him cheered more. He was booed when came out and by the end they were clapping

When Cena was a regular part of the program I absolutely resented him. What I realize now is that it was never about the man himself, but about everything he represented. it was WWEs one company guy policy. Everything revolved around one guy and you always knew where things were going. We all saw what he is capable of if he wants to go, but they wanted him to be a video game character with his 5 recognizable moves. He can go on the mic, but he mostly had to cut the milk toast babyface promo. To me his monotonous, somewhat forced hero persona always felt out of date and like a leftover from the 80s.... and let's face it the John Cena character was a hypocrite and a prick really. Countless talents running into a brick wall facing him, which you could always see coming from a mile away, didn't help either. If somebody actually defeated him you also knew he would get his win back and more often than not the other guy would never feel as special as he did before again (Bray, Rusev...). It was never about the actor, it was the directing.

Cena from 03-07 was great. After that, with the pg era and everything, he got stale and many people tuned out. I only came back around the time of the Punk feud.

He buried the entire NEXUS

Wwe say that since they cannot make stars no more

The greatest wrestler of all time is Lou Thesz. He set the standard that everyone else followed. The WWE always lists a specific wrestler as the greatest of all time regardless of if it is true or not.

It just amazes me personally how even after all these years they're still trying to get Cena over. Calling him the goat like it's true to me is just an insult to the 80' to early 00's time before he became big.

My mount rushmore for WWE are Bruno (60s/70s), Andre (70s/80s), Hogan (80s/90s), & Austin (90s/00s)

As much as I feel like I took cena for granted & although I do respect him for what he brings to the table, WWE pushing him as hard as they did from 2005-2010 & continuing to shove this narrative down our throat that he's the GOAT has really left a dent in his GOAT argument imo. Charisma & ring work, I think to have to give Ric Flair the GOAT nod. Not necessarily wwe ric flair, but NWA Flair for sure.

I view Cena the same as I view Triple H. Solid wrestler, but got boring fast, yet constantly pushed.

Who cares what wwe says anymore honestly

He’s definitely one of the greatest of all time but whether he is the greatest is up to your opinion.

Mark Henry referred to himself as an “AEW wrestler” in his testimonial which is why they cut it.

Greatest of all time? That's I don't know. To be honest you have your Bret Harts, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Ric Flair. For me the greatest of all time is a term that has been used loosely. I think Cena carried the company for a while and I appreciate his body of work, but to call him the GOAT? That I'm not sold on

The thing that irked about Cena was that not only did he beat all the talent but with the exception of Orton he seemed to beat the talent of his era out of the company. Dupree. Carlito, Masters, Barrett among others. Not saying it was intentional but there were so many that I thought would be at his level in the heel role that got knocked down a notch after Cena feuds. Oh yeah, almost forgot Rusev.

Do I personally think John Cena is the best of all time? No but I do think he deserves to be recognized as one of the greats. He is easily the biggest star of his era and I do think that he is unfairly criticized more than a lot of other wrestlers are. Unfortunately for Cena he came up in an era we’re fans got really trendy with who they like and who they disliked. I mean back in the 90s yes we had the Internet but it wasn’t as used as much as a big group think tank like it is today for wrestling fans. Mainly what we use the Internet for back in the 90s as far as pro wrestling went was finding out what was going on behind the scenes and arguing with each other over opinions. There really wasn’t a big huge groupthink in the pro wrestling world online back then like there is today. Jason will even tell you that fans would get online and fight like crazy back in the day. Not saying they don’t still do that today but we did it a lot more back in the 90s. Today everything about your average wrestling fan is so trendy though and unfortunately it became very trendy and cool to hate John Cena and that’s my other thing with pro wrestling fans today, it’s OK if you don’t like somebody or someone isn’t your favorite wrestler but to actually personally hate another human that has done nothing wrong to you except be a professional wrestler you don’t like is a sign that that person probably desperately needs to get laid. I will admit that there was a period of time right around when I gave up on wrestling in 2006 that I was kind of getting tired of Cena and I really wanted them to do something different with him I really did want him to do a heel turn But I can’t say I ever hated the guy. In 2004 I was really behind him and that’s probably when I was the most over for Cena but for most of his career I had pretty much given up on wrestling. But he was that face of the company for like 15 years easy. You can’t deny how over he was in 2004 in 2005 before the fans turned on him because it was trendy and cool to not like him. And to me that’s just another testament of The kind of man he is because I think there’s a lot of other people that if they were positioned to be the top baby face of a wrestling promotion and they got that kind of treatment from the fans there’s a lot of people that would’ve just quit. I do think hate that he got was not fair and it was unwarranted, I can understand The fans getting tired of the same thing over and over again but that was never his fault . He was the face of the company during a time when WCW was gone and Vince didn’t have to change anything up because there was no real competition back then. I wish those fans that hated him back then would’ve been stated just stopped watching and stopped supporting WWE because that actually would’ve got them to change something more than still buying your tickets and watching wrestling every Monday night but just hating someone that was just doing their job. I don’t know really where I would rank him as far as greatest of all time because it’s hard to do that in pro wrestling. A lot of the best workers in pro wrestling history were never world champions a lot of them were the enhancement talent but there is something more to it than the promoter just making you a top guy. When I think of the greatest of all time it’s more than just ring work I think of guys like Hogan, Flair, Dusty, Sting, Austin, Savage, HBK, Brett Hart, Undertaker, Triple H, Ricky Stramboat, The Rock, Terry Funk…….And I believe John Cena deserves to be in that group. He’s had more than his fair share of classic matches and he has been the main event on top of the card more than most people ever have been.

Top 10 greatest ever, but no way he’s ahead of Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, Undertaker. I think they were all better workers than Cena but Cena is a phenomenal worker and excellent promo skills as time went on. Total Jack of all trades.

When him & Batista was on the rise at the same time I like Batista more!! Cena was being forced down our throats but I believe he didn’t become the face of the company until 09-2010 , a lot of ppl was gone & being inactive at the time, angle was gone by 06/07 Eddie passed & undertaker HHH & HBK been in the company more then 10 years to become the face of it, would had been to late , I really think when Batista was fired or left how every he left that’s when John became the face of the company

I would say that Cena definitely belongs in the Top 10 in WWE history. Any list that excludes him is invalid in my opinion. But “greatest” definitely is a stretch.

I used to hate on cena so much once i found wrestling was scripted lol but I gained alot of respect for him when I went to a show and he wrestled 3 long matches back to back and plus all the charity work he does. Also ever since he became a part timer made me realize how great it was when he was around

Greatest is subjective based on drawing abilty or match quality, he is not in the top bracket for either

A lot of fans are blind by nostalgia. His character has been boring since 2005.

He was one aspect of me not wanting to watch WWE for the better part of twenty years. He seems a genuine and sincere fellow who in a good mascot for the company, but I was never interested in his character or persona

Just to note, from 2005 to 2017, John Cena put on at least one MOTY candidate for WWE

He's definitely in that conversation

WWE G.O.A.T. ? Maybe. In wrestling? Not even top 5.

Cena might be top 25. There’s so many wrestlers ahead of him: Taker, Hogan, Austin, Rock, HBK, Macho, Flair, Angle, Hitman, Andre, Brock, HHH, Orton, Styles, Eddie & that’s just who I thought of in one minute. Hmm, maybe he’s not 25. He was a massive ratings killer.

Eh, Vince started saying this about 10 years ago. But the short answer is: No. Greatest of All Time Cena is not. He is an all-time great, that I will give him, he’s one of the best to ever do it. But to say he’s THE greatest to ever do it is a very big stretch.

I think Cena has definitely earned the right to be in the talks of being the greatest of all time for what he’s done for the company I don’t know where he’d rank for me but he has earned it

He's on the Mt. Rushmore of wrestlers but like most I'll say Stone Cold. Anytime you hear that glass shatter you freak out

Big difference between goat in WWE and goat in pro wrestling. I'd say he is 3rd in WWE

Mark Henry’s tribute video to John Cena didn’t air on RAW because Henry mentions AEW in his video. Mark Henry speculates this in an interview on Busted Open Radio.

10:30 was he the one that had a argument with Paul Heyman that one time

Nostalgia has not changed my opinion on Cena's garbage work and annoying same exact promo every week for years during his 15 year long push. If he was here every week doing his silly no sell grin during promos and bad comedy you'd all remember why you booed him before.

people say cena was a bad worker, he was way better in his prime then hogan was, like hogan couldnt do much in the ring and never tried to get better, i dont see someone like hogan being a top draw anymore

Cena's cool, but, legitimately, he falls behind Austin, the Rock, Bret Hart, Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Randy Savage, and maybe even Roddy Piper... anyone who ranks Cena #1 is probably younger and never saw these other guys actually wrestle

Even with all the kids he's helped and all his good will, he's certainly amazing and as far as we know an excellent human being, but he's no Stone Cold Steve Austin, and he's no Hulk Hogan. He's certainly the last massive big name star in wrestling... But he was never the biggest or brightest star in the sky.

From 2005 -2009, the roster was still deep enough that dealing with Cena dominating like he did, at least, made it bearable. After Mania 26 in 2010 and guys like Taker and Triple H went part time, HBK retired and Edge went away, Batista and Jericho gone, that's when everything with Cena became unbearable. Everything from the Nexus, the Rise Above Hate, Bray was just awful. Maybe if today's roster actually was treated with any level of respect then Cena coming back wouldn't be seen all that fondly. For me, even when another 20 years passes, how dominate Cena got booked and how he did more harm will never leave. Was he a great ambassador, sure... Not denying that. But Solomonster, you're right about him being transferred to Raw... Beat up on JBL and that's ok but when you start doing that with Y2J, Angle, Christian, HBK... And had the same match, it was awful. Summerfest 05 is when I remember it first really starting to happen.

John had sustained greatness, but he was never top 10 all time in drawing power, never in the top 50 as far as in ring talent, definitely not top 25 all time in promos. He’s just further established things that were already established. He wasn’t the breakout movie star the rock was and that’s about the biggest impact he’s had inside of the wrestling business aside from the make a wish things he’s done which I respect him for. But does that make him better than Kurt Angle, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Ric Flair, Chris Jericho, Bryan Danielson, Harley Race, Macho Man, Hogan? And I can go much further on. Absolutely not.

I've been watching Lucha Libre in Mexico since I was a tyke in 1977 and US Professional Wrestling since 1981. Ive seen alot of talent in multiple territories in 2 countries over those years. This is not even counting the multitudes of Japanese talent back in All Japan Pro Wrestling and when New Japan was in its infancy then. I can honesty say that after thorough analysis and reviewing my experiences in watching endless amounts of talents in my lifetime, Juanito Cena is not even in my Top 100. The reasons for my decision will require me having to write a doctoral dissertation on the political, social, and personal reasons in supporting my assertions for this argument. However, I dont have time for that. Furthermore, as a longtime Hip Hop head from the Golden Era of the early 80s to mid 90s, Juan's gimmick is a major turn off for me personally as Marky Mark Wahlberg and the Funky Bunch already laid claim to that gimmick he bit in 1991. Hell, Marky Mark himself was not on the level of the Beastie Boys in the mid 80s and 3rd Bass in the early 90s. Although, I commend Juan's outside the ring work with his charities, I can name multitudes of athletes both inside and outside of professional wrestling who have done the same. Whether you agree wholeheartedly with me or vehemently disagree with me, Ive said my peace. If you like the guy, I understand. Likewise, if you despise him, I can relate. This is no different than Don King calling one of his WBC fighters the best in the world, however, those same fighters in the WBC are protected and live in the bubble of their own world in their safe promotion. "Best in the World" means you fight the best in every promotion, in every country, all over the World. Many talents I have seen since the late 70s and early 80s have done that; Juan never did. Here endeth the lesson. Class dismissed!

5:00 yes. The amount of things that I have seen people now appreciating John Cena is just interesting to me

If you take all things into consideration the John Cena era did more damage than good to WWE. The ratings fell off a cliff, the profits weren't close to what they are today, the fans were booing him off every building and no single wrestler was elevated by him to another level, actually he buried more people than he made. Revisionist history won't make up for the way WWE alienated a huge chunk of the fanbase to shove Cena inside people's throat

That Nexus burial still is unbelievable too me

I'm 37 and my Mount Rushmore is....Hogan, Austin, Rock, Cena

The metric is what I don't understand. By what metric is John the GOAT?

oh please

Still not a fan of Cena but as long he puts over new talent I don't mind him.

Hogan made it part of mainstream media. Austin made it part of pop culture. Cena was able to do both.

This is a pretty fair and accurate assessment. Cena was obviously the top star of his time and one can make the case in the all time Mt. Rushmore. I personally wouldn’t either due to the combination of personal preference and the product being more popular under other guys’ eras. But my dislike for him was not the claimed “because he was nice to kids”. It was the corny gimmick and Superman booking.

I think WWE calling Cena the Greatest of All Time is like calling HHH a Goat yes HHH Is talented and had a run on Top but people give him retroactive praise based on who he became more than him being a big fucking deal when he was full-time. For whatever reason WWE didn't really build multiple big time stars at the same time.

It's a none news story as they said the same thing to The Rock 10 years ago, in 10 years time they'll say the same thing about Roman, and in 20 years time they'll say the same thing about Butch idk

Cena was a good company ambassador and eventually became very good in ring but he shouldn’t even sniff GOAT conversations. There’s wrestlers who destroy him in-ring, in the box office, and some even at both.

In pro wrestling there are many variables to look at when saying the greatest. It's scripted so championships only mean so much, obviously they usually put the strap on those who make money, so it means something. Hogan made wrestling mainstream. Flair was a great traveling champion for all the territories. Andre was an amazing attraction. Bret was an amazing in ring storyteller. Stone Cold defined a generation, and helped win the Monday night war. The Rock made wrestlers into legitimate crossover stars. Cena carried the company for a stretch of time that none of the others matched. He has went on to follow The Rock, and Batista. All of these guys sold tickets. John Cena may be the last mega star wrestling will ever see. The WWE isn't interested in building a guy just to see him become bigger then the brand.

He ain't the GOAT but whatever

At Mania, Taker was the greatest of all time. SummerSlam, Cena. I'm guessing it will be The Rock by the time we get to Survivor Series.

As a Cena fan, Taker and Austin are the GOATS

2006 was the year is when people started to hate Cena.

Back when I got into wrestling in 03, Cena was one of the first guys I saw and instantly became a fan of. I didn't have cable back then, so I could only watch Smackdown since it was free ota. After he was drafted to Raw, I was disappointed. The times I did see him on TV or the internet (at the library or at a friend's house), he wasn't the same character. It became even worse after the pg era started in 08. I tuned out for at least 3-4 years during that time. Cena is one of those guys you loved booing during his peak, but now you respect for how he conducted himself.

Don’t forget John wanted to be the only one at the top he tried numbers of time to get randy fired but I think HHH always had randy back

I’m glad Solomonster corrected himself with Cena being “a great human being” when even Solomonster has told stories of how he fucked over other talents.

Everyone has thier own criteria on what constitutes is being the greatest of all time. For me, it's a combination of in-ring ability, charisma, marketability, putting people over, bringing out the best match in your opponents (when other people can only get so much out of someone), promos, etc. This combination is why I call "Macho Man" Randy Savage the greatest of all time.

I was never a John Cena fan but i never "hated" him either. I simply did not care for him one way or the other. And for those who did hate him did themselves no favors by booing him because he still got a reaction one way or the other. I never cheered for him nor did i boo him. I would watch something else or not talk about him. Sure i respect what he's done over the past 20 years but i'm still not a fan. Again, i simply don't care for him.

No one will ever come close to Hogan, Austin and Rock, probably in that order in terms of a draw. Wrestling became mainstream under Hogan, drawing 34 million viewers on network television for his rematch with Andre. Monday Night Wars drew 6-10 million combined for about 3 years, with Hogan STILL on top on TNT. On USA, Austin and Rock were the other half. I wasn't ever a huge fan of Hogan, even as a kid growing up (preferred Flair on TBS because he was way cooler lol) but it's hard to argue with Hogan being the GOAT in terms of a draw, followed by Austin/Rock albeit a bit behind Hogan since he had a 15 year head start.

Cena has my respect because getting over has a face in post Attitude era going in to the PG era was challenging but Hogan and Austin still ahead of him, Stone cold made wrestling cool and Hogan was apart of two most profitable era the 80’s and mid 90’s. Cena reign on top was longer but I can’t say he’s the Greatest of all time.

Wouldn't they need him for summerslam given injuries and absence of some of the top guys?

I don't see how anyone can be called the greatest of all time when it's more of a generational thing. If you grew up watching the attitude era then of course someone from that era would be considered the greatest of all time looking back on it today but the generation before that thinks the same about the wrestlers during that time. Same goes with greatest match of all time it just doesn't really exists it's a matter of opinion. But given cena's work ethic he's earned the right to be called one of the greatest of all time.

john Cena treated wrestling as a business I can always respect for him doing business with wrestlers that deserves to get over and attention for the causal fans

Vince was even at UFC 276 after money in the bank went off air

No issue with it coming from WWE, he is their greatest company man of all time. Not my GOAT but as Solomonster said, it's all subjective. My GOAT isn't most people's as well so im not fussed by it

It’s 2022, we’re at the point where kids who were born in 2002 look at him the way many of us look at Hogan or Rock. He’s certainly top 5 all time from unbiased perspective. Personally I was never a huge fan post 2005.

Cena is not the greatest of all time BUT he is also not the worst of all time.

Well Vince always wanted another Hulk Hogan not another Stonecold ,til this day how long do anyone really think that Vince can continue to have Wild stuff on tv shows even in the ruthless aggression era also

Honestly, I think the hate he got was deserved back then, not because he was a bad wrestler, which he never was, he was average at first and improved leaps and bounds over time. No the problem with me was the precedent he set. He was the first in WWE to receive such a divisive live reaction, most times pending over the negative side, that didn't result in a turn. It was in a way when WWE decided to stop listening to crowd reactions as a sign of where a character should go. And when that happens at the highest level of the card, it's a problem, because it makes the crowd feel less important in the overall direction of the show. I'm not saying the crowd should make the decisions, but their reactions were never so blatantly ignored either and I think that's why a lot of people stopped watching during Cena's era. It's not just that this guy was getting all the opportunities where others were not, is that this guy was getting them while not being almost universally beloved live like the one that stood in that role before him, Rock, Austin, Hart, Hogan all the way back to Bruno. And I hated the idea of Cena's character being the "I'm not a character, this is who I am" type of deal, because nobody on screen is who he/she is for real. Wrestlers plays characters that change and Cena never changed even when he desperately needed it. And after Cena it seemed to me like the miscasting of characters only kept growing in WWE to the point where people stopped cheering for the characters and just cheered the performer they liked beyond the character. And this with time I think might have been what made WWE stopped putting effort into their stories and character development. In my opinion, it all starts with Cena. As good as it is, when you consider the failure that was Roman Reigns up until his heel turn, you can realize he set a dangerous precedent.

Oh, yeah...I also forgot HBK...

NOPE. Not even in the top 10. Without Hulk Hogan's success in 1984-85, there is no WWE today, no Wrestlemania, etc. I would even wager to say that there would no longer be professional wrestling as all the territories died off as well.

I wonder different things would be if he was kept on Smackdown instead of going to Raw. He could've stayed there until after Wrestlemania 23. Maybe he still would've been loved.

Who else was big enough to have beaten Umaga at the time? HHH? He'd have gotten the same type of heat for doing it because he's Mr. Golden Shovel. But they could have booked it so the first match didn't have a finish. Cause the way he beat him at the Rumble still made Umaga look like a monster, even in defeat. As for the Nexus, it was about the follow up that WWE failed. Barrett main evented 3 of the next 4 PPV's for the WWE Title, had he won it would we be saying Cena killed them? And Rock left for Hollywood in his prime. He was what 30-31? Cena was around for twice as long as Rock before he put his foot in Hollywood's door. Just saying.

I believe Cena was the reason why today heels are given more preference over faces. WWE pulled the same with Roman but he was booed even heavily but after they turned him heel look where he is today.

who was more popular, ric flair or john cena ? ric flair (ALOT of people went to see him 5-6 days a week). who worked more by his 40s, john cena or ric flair ? ric flair worked almost every day, sometimes 2 matches a night. who was more interesting in and out of the ring, ric flair or john cena ? ric flair. ric flair is the best ever.