John Cena Doubles Down On His Belief That WWE Has No Top Star To Replace Him

WWE star John Cena spent roughly a decade as of the face of the company, and his latest comments suggest he doesn’t think he’ll ever be replaced in that role.

During a recent appearance on Corey Graves’ After the Bell podcast (h/t WrestleTalk), the 16-time world champion praised WWE’s current crop of talent but also said that the company doesn’t “have one person you go to see” anymore:

“SmackDown, Raw, NXT, you don’t have one person you go to see. If you go to a show, you go to see eight or nine people. I don’t think there’s ever been more potential under one roof than right now. The Attitude Era was the era of universal popularity. The opening match had a definable storyline into the main event and everyone in-between had some sort of narrative. Now, we have a few loosely crafted narratives and some big storylines and a lot of matches for the sake of action. But I also believe that’s on the performers to make something out of that…I do think there’s never been more athletic talent under one roof than right now.”

Cena’s statement echoes similar comments he made during a Q&A session at BookCon ‘19 (h/t Pro Wrestling Sheet) when he said that he doesn’t believe WWE will have just one top star in the years to come:

“For the longest time, if you considered WWE a band, there’s been one front person of the band. I think that dynamic is changing. It is because the audience is too diverse…I don’t think there’s a universal figure that will lead the company forward. I think as the company grows, and especially expands globally, you’re gonna have like a ‘Super Friends’ of the WWE. Which is like people who are essentially fighting for equal share of popularity. I think the band, essentially, will have ten lead singers of every different race, creed, color, sex, ethnicity.”

Pro Wrestling Sheet noted that Cena said he “was essentially the last person who will be considered as the face of WWE.” The company has, of course, infamously tried to establish a new “face of WWE” in the absence of Cena, whose match against Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 36 was his first bout in well over a year. The obvious candidate to replace Cena has been Roman Reigns, who has certainly done a tremendous job of being a public representative for the company but has always been—and likely will always be—compared to “The Champ” in what is clearly a losing battle.

A 2017 analysis conducted by Fightful’s Brandon Thurston demonstrated that Reigns didn’t really compare to Cena as a draw, which is less of an indictment on Reigns’ drawing ability and more so a result of the way WWE books its products to focus on a core group of superstars as opposed to just one face of the company. Wildly popular stars like Kofi Kingston and Seth Rollins struggled to draw as world champions, and WWE’s Key Performance Indicators—which show significant drops in the WWE Network subscriber count, TV ratings, live event attendance, etc. in recent years —lend credence to the widespread belief that there isn’t a star in WWE who truly moves the needle these days. Not Brock Lesnar. Not Ronda Rousey. Not The Undertaker. Not even Cena himself.

While Reigns is the closest thing to the “face of WWE” that the company has had since Cena, there has typically been a rotation of stars who switch in and out of that spot. Just over the past few years, a handful of performers have risen to the top spot as WWE’s No. 1 merchandise seller, which is probably the biggest indicator of a star’s popularity at a time when none of them really are really selling tickets at a measurable level. Names like Rusev and Elias, Becky Lynch, Wyatt and Reigns have all been at the pinnacle of WWE’s merchandising empire at some point recently which just goes to show you how much things have changed from the days when “Stone Cold” Steve Austin sold a whopping 12 million t-shirts in a single calendar year.

For better or for worse, WWE, quite simply, doesn’t have that one true mega-star anymore, the once-in-a-generation type of attraction in the same mold as stars like Austin, The Rock, Hulk Hogan and even Cena. That has been done by design to make every superstar in WWE completely expendable: If one star leaves, no matter how big of a star he or she is, it’s just the “next man up.” The unfortunate side effect of that strategy is that it makes today’s generation of main eventers pale in comparison to the stars of yesteryear. WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash said in 2018 that “no one cares about the young guys,” specifically mentioning names like Reigns, Seth Rollins and Finn Balor.

Saying fans don’t care about these stars is an obvious over-exaggeration, but that’s a statement worth considering: Do today’s stars have the same type of connection with WWE fans that Hogan, Austin, The Rock, etc. did? One could argue that there isn’t a current WWE star—whether part-time or full-time—who can dramatically impact the business the way that stars like Cena did before them. In other words, Cena is right when he says that WWE won’t have just one male or female superstar it builds around for years or decades. It’s not that WWE is unable to do that, either. It’s that the company has simply changed its philosophy.

WWE’s drill-and-practice style of promos, its lack of flexibility for its storylines and its repetitive approach to storytelling have several limited its ability to create new household stars, which is a problem that Vince McMahon has created himself but likely has no issues with.

As Cena implies, WWE won’t be laser focused on just one name, which means it won’t be left unsure what to do if and when that star leaves.