For years, John Cena told us he couldn’t see us on WWE television even though we could.

Now that we actually can’t see Cena on WWE television every week, I miss him.

Growing up watching wrestling, hating Cena was the cool thing to do. Cena, who was booked as an unstoppable superhero, always came in and saved the day against the villain, angering the teenage audience that wanted to see the cool bad guy win. When Cena would go up against a great heel for most of his prime years in WWE, Cena would almost always win and “bury” his opponent, his opponent losing all his momentum after feuding with Cena and almost never reaching main-event level status again.

However, beginning in the summer of 2016, Cena’s character changed. He was no longer “Super Cena.” He wasn’t in the main event picture. Instead, he was putting on absolutely fantastic matches in the mid-card with the likes of A.J. Styles, Rusev, Baron Corbin, Shinsuke Nakamura and Roman Reigns, and he was slowly disappearing from the company.

From 2015-2020 Cena’s amount of matches have dropped significantly each year (these numbers include non-televised matches and tag team matches. All data comes from http://www.profightdb.com/wrestlers/john-cena-350.html)

2015:

• Total matches: 138
• Wins: 126
• Losses: 12
• Televised matches: 29-10
• Non-televised matches: 87-2

2016: 

• Total matches: 47
• Wins: 27
• Losses: 20
• Televised matches: 15-6
• Non-televised matches: 12-14

2017:

• Total matches: 59
• Wins: 44
• Losses: 15
• Televised matches: 15-6
• Non-televised matches: 29-9

2018:

• Total matches: 18
• Wins: 11
• Losses: 7
• Televised matches: 8-6
• Non-televised matches: 3-1

2019:

• Total matches: 2
• Wins: 1
• Losses: 1
• Televised matches: 1-1
• Non-televised matches: 0-0

2020:

• Total matches: 1
• Wins: 0
• Losses: 1
• Television matches: 1
• Non-televised matches: 0

In the last two years (2018-2020), Cena has wrestled a combined 14 matches and 10 of those matches were on television, meaning seeing Cena has now become a rare occurrence. Cena’s last year as a full-time WWE Superstar was 2015. Since 2019, Cena has only wrestled in three matches, all on television. For comparison’s sake, legends such as Triple H, Edge, Goldberg, Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker have wrestled more times between 2019 and 2020 than Cena.

As the days go on and Cena still hasn’t returned to the ring, Cena feels more and more in the past, and it is no coincidence that since Cena has disappeared from WWE television, ratings have plummeted.

As great as Roman Reigns has been since coming back at SummerSlam, and as much as WWE wants him to be the new face of the company, he just doesn’t have the “it” factor Cena does. For 18 years, Cena has found a way to captivate an audience. Whether you loved or hated him, there’s a reason he’s nicknamed “The Franchise.”

Indeed, Cena has been THE guy for WWE over the last two decades, and WWE’s product has significantly suffered without him as he has transitioned to a career in Hollywood. 

You never know what you have until it’s gone. For years, I wished Cena would go away from WWE and never come back.

Now, I can’t wait for him to return.

Brandon Lewis is a columnist. Email him at [email protected].  

SUPPORT STUDENT MEDIA 

Hi, I’m Lauren Sasala, a senior journalism student from Toledo. I’m also the editor in chief of The Kent Stater and KentWired this semester. My staff and I are committed to bringing you the most important news about Kent State and the Kent community. We are full-time students and hard-working journalists. While we get support from the student media fee and earned revenue such as advertising, both of those continue to decline. Your generous gift of any amount will help enhance our student experience as we grow into working professionals. Please go here to donate.