Turning Around John Cena and the ECW Brand

Okay guys, I know what I'm about to write might make some of you roll your eyes.  What I want to write about is something I wouldn't expect to happen in a million years.  But I would love to hear what you guys think about it, were WWE willing to go through with it.

John Cena, our current WWE champion, on Raw.  Fought Randy Orton on PPV five times in a row (at least).  About to fight Shawn Michaels and Triple H - guys he's fought many times before.  He's already squashed The Miz, who I think should be the next top heel after Legacy.  Jack Swagger is about the only other person he could feud with, and WWE hasn't done the best job with Swagger either and personally I don't want to see him job to Cena.

So what can be done with John Cena going forward?  He is of course one of the top faces in the company, if not the top face.  But things are getting stale.  We saw the same thing happen with Hulk Hogan in the early 90s.  Kids still loved him, but when the rest of the world is getting tired of something, kids eventually pick up on it.

Turn him heel.  That's what so many people are saying.  It would freshen his character up and if you ask me, it would be a great move for WWE if they thought long-term.  However, that's not what I'm here to say.  He sells merchandise, and in these economic times, that is pretty important for WWE and you can't blame them for that.  Because we all want WWE to thrive.

What I'm here to suggest is something completely different.  And it is something that could not only revitalize John Cena, but the ECW brand.

This is purely fantasy booking, so you can stop reading if you're not into that.

Whether it's at Survivor Series losing to either HHH or HBK, or at the TLC Tables Ladders and Chairs PPV in December, John Cena loses the WWE title.  He wants a rematch for his title.  Someone, from either a guest General Manager (who would be a heel for the night), to Vince McMahon, to Randy Orton and/or Legacy, to a heel HHH, or whoever, says that John Cena must face someone and win in order to get his rematch.  They would repeat a stipulation we're familiar with though - winning would get him a rematch and a chance to regain the WWE title, but losing would mean he would lose his contract with the Raw brand. 

So we get to his big match.  He is on the verge of victory - the crowd is going crazy.  Out comes the person who set up the stipulations on his match.  For sake of argument, let's say it was Vince McMahon.  John Cena smiles at seeing Vince, because he knows if Vince interferes, he'll win the match by disqualification which would earn him his championship rematch.  Cena eggs Vince on to come in the ring and hit him.  Vince looks furious, like he really wants to get in there and go toe-to-toe with Cena.  Cena throws his opponent over the top rope near Vince, with the intent to have his opponent land on Vince.  Vince dodges and laughs at Cena.  Applauds the effort, if you will. 

But then Vince starts waving to Cena and saying "Goodbye!"  Cena looks confused, crowd doesn't know if Vince is crazy or what.  Vince helps Cena's opponent up and appears to give him a bit of a pep talk, even gesturing towards Cena as if he's telling the guy he has to suck it up and get the win.  He starts to head back in the ring, when Vince stops him.  Guy turns around, and Vince nails him with a solid right hand, knocking him to the ground.

Referee rings the bell.  Cena doesn't know what's going on, crowd has no idea.  Then it's announced that John Cena has been disqualified and has lost the match.

So that's that.  John Cena, with a tear in his eye, tells the audience the next night on Raw that he is a man of his word, and even though Vince pulled a fast one on him and things weren't done fairly, he is now a free agent.

On commentary later in the night it's mentioned that John Cena will be appearing on Smackdown later in the week - apparently to sign a contract to become the newest member of the Smackdown brand.

(so at this point, we've gotten past a PPV where John Cena was involved in a major non-title match that would be a pretty big draw, we've gotten to the Raw the night after which fans would all want to tune in to see because of the situation occurring at the PPV, and now the following Smackdown is hyped extremely well with the prospect of Cena signing a contract with the brand - all things that WWE's buyrates and ratings would likely benefit from)

We get to Smackdown.  Teddy Long is in the ring, perhaps with the mat covered with that "red carpet" look that always signifies a huge event.  He's got a contract in hand and he calls to the ring "wrestling's biggest free agent" John Cena.  John Cena comes out to a huge ovation (assuredly so since he hasn't been on Smackdown in a long time).  He's in the ring and Teddy Long says that he's got a contract in hand that, if John Cena signs, would bring John Cena to the Smackdown brand for 5 years.

Teddy Long asks John Cena if he will accept the offer to come to Smackdown and if so, to sign the contract.  John Cena gets on the mic and talks about how he became a star on Smackdown and then became a larger-than-life superstar on Raw.  He's been thinking about what he wanted to do after losing his contract with Raw.  How at this point in his career, he's done it all, he's beaten the greatest, he's lost to the greatest, he's lived his dream and he's done it all and kept his health.  He says that he was considering hanging up his boots now so that he never has to worry about injuries again.  Of course, he's totally playing the crowd here, because then he does his typical Cena turn-around promo and says how he wouldn't be anything without all of his fans, and living a life where he could no longer entertain all his great fans isn't a life he plans on living until he has gotten old (he could make a funny shoot comment by saying that would be "10 years younger than Triple H and Shawn Michaels are").

So he gets the pen from Teddy Long.  He puts the contract down and gives it a quick read-through.  And then...

"NO CHANCE!"

Vince McMahon appears, either live or on the TitanTron.  Few possibilities here:  Vince can tell Teddy that Smackdown just doesn't have the money to sign John Cena to a contract.  Or he can threaten Teddy Long's job.  Plenty of possibilities here, but the end result would be that Teddy Long would reluctantly take the contract off the table, and rip it to pieces.

But Vince would have some good news for John Cena.  He'll tell Cena that all is not lost.  There is one place that he's lent some of his money to, and they would love to welcome Cena to the fold.  That place would be ECW.  Vince has decided ECW has done so well that he wanted to increase their budget and make some impressive updates to the brand.  First, he suggested that since John Cena was a free agent, ECW should pick him up and have him on their roster.  Second, he suggested that the ECW world title carry with it a unique bonus for its holder - the ECW champion would have the ability to challenge either the WWE or World Heavyweight Champion (the ECW champion would have the choice) at the Extreme Rules PPV every year from this point forward.  Third, all matches involving a member of the ECW roster would always be held under extreme rules from this point forward.

(my second and third updates to ECW aren't redundant in any way - the Extreme Rules PPV is a PPV where ALL matches on the show are held under extreme rules, regardless of brand)

Why would Vince do so much for ECW?  Well, it can be explained that ECW wouldn't have been able to afford signing Cena to a contract.  ECW did not want to be indebted to Vince by purely being lent the money to sign Cena.  The GM of ECW would only accept the loan from Vince if a few conditions could be met - conditions the ECW GM would think would increase the profits for ECW allowing the loan to be paid back much more quickly.  As Vince's ultimate goal is to get Cena off of both Raw and Smackdown, he was willing to do these things so ECW would accept the loan and use it to sign Cena.

And since it's not like Cena jumping to another company like TNA or ROH is even something possible in the world of WWE, Cena would have to take the deal with ECW since his passion is wrestling.

Then the fun begins.  John Cena is on ECW.  While fans of the new ECW are probably fans of John Cena, historically the ECW fan is the type of fan who HATES John Cena more than anything.  All of the wrestlers on ECW would then express their dislike for Cena being on their show.  They'd say he's there to steal the spotlight from the true ECW roster - guys who work harder and in much tougher matches than anyone from the other two "cushy" brands.  His first promo would be his typical promo of today - and WWE should pump boos over the speakers, so even if the fans in the arena ARE cheering him, on TV it should sound like the ECW fans don't accept him.  So Cena will start to feel dejected. 

Then, with the new change to ECW where all matches are extreme rules, you have Cena actually go on a losing spree.  Like he can't get his groove in ECW where anything goes - have other members of the ECW roster come out and attack him leading to his losses if WWE isn't willing to simply have him lose to someone who the commentators could say is just more proficient with weapons. 

We'd be getting closer to the Extreme Rules PPV at this point.  Maybe 2 months away.

And here's where the turn-around comes.  Again, Cena's always been a complete face this whole way through.  The ECW roster and fans might express their dislike for him, but when he's on PPV with fans from all brands, they're still majorly behind him. 

So he's kept his spirits up through all the losses.  And then something comes to him.  He says that he thought ECW was rejecting him, but all along it was him rejecting ECW.  It's been his fault, and now he knows what to do.  This would be a promo on ECW the Tuesday night before the PPV.  In fact, let's say that PPV is WrestleMania 26.  (which is 2 months before Extreme Rules)  He's got a match with the ECW Champion.  (let's say it's still Christian - because even without a title I'd say John Cena vs Christian is more than worthy as an upper-card WrestleMania match)

It's time for John Cena's entrance.  He hasn't been seen at all on the WrestleMania PPV so far.  Commentators and interviews would keep mentioning how there hasn't been any word on where John Cena is.  Speculation that the ECW champ or members of the ECW rosters had laid him out or locked him up somewhere.  Cena's music hits.  No one's coming out.  The music stops playing.  Crowd is booing, ECW champ is holding up his title as if he's pretty much won the match by forfeit.  Then the lights go out.  Pyro hits, and Cena's old theme, "Basic Thuganomics", starts playing.  Cena appears in his old outfit, no salute, acting like he did when he was a heel back in the day.  Grabs the mic, cuts a rap like he used to, and then rushes to the ring.  Uses his chain wrapped around his fist to pound the ECW champ over and over again.  Hits the F-U (Attitude Adjustment).  Does his pose and hits the Five Knuckle Shuffle, with the chain still wrapped around his fist.  (so hey, it would really hurt in that case!)  Pins the champ, 1-2-3.  Pretty much a squash match, but he should be really vicious with the chain so by taking advantage of the extreme rules faster and better than the ECW champ, it's not like the ECW champ would come off looking that bad.

Now you'd have had Cena come a long way over the span of a few months.  What he had become ended up not being hard enough of a character to succeed somewhere where he didn't have backup from anyone on the roster, and mainly, from the fans.  He would come to realize he had lost the edge that brought him to the top in the first place, and learn to embrace it again.

So following WrestleMania, he would be defending once more to a member of the ECW roster at Backlash, and since he had conquered the extreme rules, some type of stipulation would be on the match to stack the odds against him yet again.  He would win, showing that with the edginess back to him, he is stronger than ever.

And so the Extreme Rules PPV comes up, and Vince's promise to ECW in order to get them to take Cena would come back to bite him in the ass.  Cena would have his choice at facing either the WWE or World Heavyweight champion - adding the kind of drama we get when the winner of the Rumble has to make his choice. 

Whatever the choice would be, John Cena would of course win the title.  So would John Cena remain a member of the ECW brand, but carry another brand's title?  I'd think that's how they should state the rules would decide - but this would cause concern for Vince.  He doesn't want the WWE or World Heavyweight title stuck on the ECW brand.  Any time Cena would defend that title, as a member of the ECW roster, the match would automatically be fought under extreme rules.  And by this point, Cena would likely have earned the respect of some if not all of the ECW roster - who could interfere on Cena's behalf during any title defense, securing that the title stays on ECW. 

Vince would have to find a way to get Cena back on the other brand. 

And that's how John Cena would return to Raw (or go to Smackdown).  We'd end up with him back where WWE wants him, but the possible way they could take him over the next few months that I just described could bring his character up even higher!

And of course then they'd do John Cena vs Vince McMahon, possibly at SummerSlam 2010.

What do you guys think of all that?  I know it was long, and unlikely, but I hope you enjoyed reading it!