Wisely Used Time Off: The Difference Between John Cena and Randy Orton

I submit that fellow TWD founder, Jason Le Blanc, is not 100 percent correct in his assessment that John Cena and Tim Tebow are almost one in the same. Granted, they both get media adulation that borders on unfathomably annoying, both have their own nation, and both probably spend a significant portion of their free time circumcising young children (even if Cena’s is more of an intellectual circumcision). However, there’s one key spot where the separate. Both of them have skill sets that are fairly limited on any sort of professional level, but the difference is that Tebow–for all his skill set short comings–still manages to make everyone associated with him look a whole hell of a lot better than they really are.

John Cena does not. Randy Orton, however, does.

Cena and Orton are both veterans of WWE at this point, and both are usually at the epicenter of the discussion when the complete lack of new stars comes up, usually with both getting some fairly disparaging remarks. In fact, I’m usually the one doing it–particularly against Orton–with a litany of complaints that include: having a cripplingly small in-ring skill set, being an ego maniacal spotlight hog, cutting promos with all the poise and candor of a stroke victim. That last one is verbatim from several different writings of mine regarding Orton over the years.

Given what I’ve said so far, and given my penchant for not wanting John Cena anywhere near my TV, computer, radio, or magazines, what I’m going to say next might surprise you: I have no inherent problem with Randy Orton stepping aside from the WWE title for a bit and letting Cena step back in, unopposed.

Hell, it would almost be inappropriate for me to *not* suggest that. Let’s face it, until his recent mini-feud with Orton, the last time Cena was legitimately in any sort of a title chase was at Survivor Series…of 2008. After that, the title scene was more or less dominated by Randy Orton and Triple-H, with Cena taking time to get involved with Edge, Big Show, Miz, Legacy, and finally Randy, culminating with him coming back from getting blown up at Bragging Rights, and his then opponent Chris Jericho feuding with Legends, Rey Mysterio, and various tag teams.

The point is that, much like life in general, turnabout is totally fair play in the world of pro wrestling booking, and after spending the better percentage of 2009 embroiled in some often intense feuds for the WWE title, it’s more than reasonable to expect Orton to step graciously aside for a bit and let some of the other kids frolic in the sun.

But what’s this all getting at?

Over the past 18 months or thereabouts, the cry for new stars to be born within “The E” has reached an absolute fever pitch, with the focus being on stars who are deemed to have stayed around too long, namely: Triple-H, John Cena, and Randy Orton.

Hunter is almost irrelevant to this writing, but for the sake of fairness, I’ll disclose that he grades out somewhere in the middle of the pack. No, Trips hasn’t had that much of a problem putting guys over in recent past, but the past 18 months have hardly been the case. Even if he had done something overwhelmingly redeeming in that field over this period of time, he’s got a hefty amount of control over his booking and given that the only way to describe what’s happened to Legacy in regards to the reunited DX post HIAC happens to be “clusterfuck,” Hunter ends up remaining fairly neutral.

All this being established, and I’m sure fresh in your minds, we can get to the meat of the problem.

Randy Orton actually grades out pretty well…and even continues to do so if we want to extrapolate back further than 18 months. While everyone who has any sort of a developed cerebral cortex agrees Legacy’s ascent could have been “better,” it’s hard–neigh on impossible–to deny that they got and are still getting a serious rub from Orton. In fact, I challenge someone to make a coherent, logical, argument to the contrary (that being Orton has in some way been detrimental to Legacy). Please use empirical evidence, as well as facts and figures. I won’t hold my breath.

During that time, Orton also spent a good part of the spring, summer, and early autumn giving a whole lot of credibility back to the decimated WWE championship. Granted, it’s still not on the same level that it was 10 years ago, but to put it in a more down home style: “Randy done good.”

In addition to that, Orton showed a willingness to work with the then returning Mr. Kennedy (before Kennedy tried to decapitate him with a horrendously placed suplex that nearly used the ropes as a guillotine on Randy) and is now showing an equal willingness to put a fair amount of effort into a feud with Kofi Kingston. Ladies and gentlemen, barring a meltdown of epic proportions, a star will be born there.

The point there is two fold. First, Orton showed–for the first time in his career–that he can work with a variety of talents and levels of talent over the course of months February through October and now into November. More importantly, it seems to show an unending willingness to give equally unending rubs to other, younger, wrestlers either through association with or against him.

I just can’t say the same about John Cena.

During that same time, Cena has done nothing to give anyone any kind of credibility. Essentially forced off RAW, Cena went to SmackDown for a brief time leading into Wrestlemania XXV where he made Big Show and Edge look to be WWE’s answer to King of the Hill’s Bill Dautrieve and Dale Gribble respectively.

Edge was lucky enough to stay on SmackDown, but the hits just kept coming for the big man, who saw Cena completely shit all over the premise of a domineering giant in the business far more than Great Khali ever could have done. Go ahead and try to prove me wrong there, but all I have to do is say “Big Show put Cena through a searchlight and he wasn’t even phased.”

Oh, by the way, up to and including “The Bash,” Cena almost singlehandedly destroyed the credibility of Miz. Miz never got a clean win–hell, I’d be surprised if he even got a clean two count–over Cena, and was eventually so decimated that he had to engage in a “contract on a pole match” against Eugene…who looked grossly out of shape mind you.

I’ll venture to say that Miz vs. Cena could have been one of the best feuds in WWE history, and the longer we can look back on it, the more we’ll say “that is one of the greatest feuds that never was.”

What’s most galling is that Cena could have extended that–or at least made Miz look better–if he had really wanted to do so. Cena is the absolute face of the company and the person in that position has always had a fair amount of booking power going back to the ancient Bob Backlund.

What’s more is that Cena even seems to still want to take credibility from established then current title holders. Case in point, Cena’s match at Bragging Rights. Cena marks can slice it any way they want, but Orton took a serious hit during that match. Let’s leave the asinine fact that Orton tapped out to give Cena a deciding pin with 5 whole seconds to go in the match, and focus on this: Orton was unable to get multiple pins on Cena despite having electrocuted him and having blown him up. That’s right: Blown up. As in “Cena’s ass done got dragged to that there firework opening and had his ass lit up.”

What I just did with those scenarios is called a “fatality” and if you don’t know what that is, get yourself a copy of Mortal Kombat and go nuts.

Randy *could* still drop the ball, and Cena *could* still make a star, but neither is going to happen any time soon.

The next time you wonder why new stars aren’t being made, look less at The Legend Killer, and more at The Marine.

Cena didn’t use his time off from the WWE title chase wisely. Randy looks to be doing so, and that’s the difference.

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Ray Bogusz is the editor of TWD. All opinions are his unless otherwise explicitly stated. Email him at: rbogusz@thewrestlingdaily.com