Personally, I don't think Ziggler can hold the championship for long as a face. He's heel material, keeping the belt by getting DQd, dirty tactics, etc.
i disagree just based off the summer. He was showing a lot of face mannerisms and getting HUGE pops. yet WWE continued saddling him with Vickie and the momentum died down after he kept getting a brogue kick from Sheamus every ****ing week.
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They don't hang Conference Championship Banners from the rafters here. - Carey Price
I ask this because of the breakdown... read this breakdown, and make up your own mind. Is John Cena's drawing power dead with consecutive weeks of lackluster segment numbers?
Quote:
Raw did a 2.67 rating.
- Dolph Ziggler, Sheamus and Big Show opened to a 2.78 quarter.
- Vince McMahon/Vickie Guerrero segment, plus R-Truth vs. Wade Barrett and AJ Lee backstage lost 41,000 viewers.
- Rhodes Scholars vs. PTP vs. Usos vs. Epico/Primo lost 262,000 viewers.
- Eve Torres vs. Alicia Fox and CM Punk/Paul Heyman segment gained 223,000 viewers.
- Dolph Ziggler vs. Sheamus gained 201,000 viewers at 9 PM for a 2.87 quarter.
- The backstage video promo replayed from Smackdown of The Shield lost 354,000 viewers.
- Zack Ryder vs. Alberto Del Rio gained 114,000 viewers.
- Vickie Guerrero vs. AJ Lee in the 10 PM time slot gained 115,000 viewers to a 2.78 quarter.
- Antonio Cesaro vs. Kofi Kingston lost 546,000 viewers and did a show-low 2.39 quarter.
- MizTV with The Miz, Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow gained 169,000 viewers.
- John Cena vs. Big Show gained 11,000 viewers to a 2.52 quarter rating. This would be among the lowest drawing main events in the last 15 years.
- The RAW overrun with The Shield, Cena, Show, Sheamus, Ziggler, Bryan, Kane and Ryback all brawling gained 627,000 viewers to a 2.96 overrun.
Is Cena's drawing power dying/dead? Does he need a serious character change?
I ask this because of the breakdown... read this breakdown, and make up your own mind. Is John Cena's drawing power dead with consecutive weeks of lackluster segment numbers?
Is Cena's drawing power dying/dead? Does he need a serious character change?
Nope...it's all Punk's fault...somehow he'll get the blame.
Possibly because we've seen John Cena vs Big Show at least 100 times since 2002.
or Cena's had the same, played out, boring character for more than 7 years and even casuals are starting to get sick of it. it's not just his match with Big Show, look at the last few breakdowns, his numbers have been lackluster and not what a number one guy in the company should be drawing.
Cena is not losing drawing power. He's one of the few reasons a lot of people tune in. I think Creative is losing drawing power. Every viewer is tuned in to know exactly what is going to happen by each segment/hour. It's so dull right now in general. Wrestling and edgy programming go hand in hand. A watered down predictable program won't get us anywhere.
But we've had this rant/discussion 1000000000000 times before. It is what it is. The show is so predictable. You see just how incredible ratings are when stuff like Nexus happens. Then creative blows it apart with piss-poor programming.
Creative is **** and it's the reason for low ratings, but when you're number one draw in the company, the FACE of the company, John Cena does about a month straight of ****** segments, you have to start to wonder. Let's not forget that John Cena vs. Big Show gained 1,000,000+ viewers back in the summer, and now they're at 11,000.
Creative IS ****, but I think casuals are starting to get sick of John Cena. More and more, I see more children with Ryback t-shirts in the crowd.
I just don't think you can turn him heel with who he is outside the ring. Plus heel isn't really a character. I meant like, what does he do? Like Punk wears those plain hooded sweatshirts, insults everyone, demands respect, calls himself best in the world, etc. He doesn't need to be like Miz, changing between face and heel while keeping his character the same pretty much.
Last edited by RussianRocket10: 12-13-2012 at 04:38 PM.
I just don't think you can turn him heel with who he is outside the ring. Plus heel isn't really a character. I meant like, what does he do? Like Punk wears those plain hooded sweatshirts, insults everyone, demands respect, calls himself best in the world, etc. He doesn't need to be like Miz, changing between face and heel while keeping his character the same pretty much.
Cena can pull off many of those same things that define a heel. There's no reason he couldn't be a heel in the mold of what HHH was. The problem with him turning heel isn't whether he can pull off a character. He easily could. It's who would be the face to step up to his level and make legitimate main event level storylines go? They don't have anyone legitimate at this point. All their faces past John Cena either suck or aren't really faces at all. Miz, Sheamus, and Ryback suck as faces. Daniel Bryan is not really a face. The only face that could pull it off is The Rock right now but he doesn't have the schedule to really help with that. Cena will stay a face until someone polishes up as a face to challenge him a la Ultimate Warrior/Hogan or Rock/Austin.
As for Dolph Ziggler, I think he's going to have the Daniel Bryan WHC reign. Luck out and be illegitimate as a champion and get squashed at WrestleMania.
I really hope that the WWE has some real plans for improving their roster. The Shield is a good trio that can run through WrestleMania at least. And as great as I think Ambrose can be, I think he should stay in that faction for a long time. I wouldn't break him off until next year's WrestleMania at the earliest. They need to establish another stable/faction to feud with them and not some makeshift partnership between three established guys.
Let's be honest. The main event of RAW was Dolph Ziggler vs. Sheamus. Sheamus is a great face and Ziggler is a great heel and both are great in the ring. WWE Creative would be smart to have Ziggler go over Cena and then win the WHC. I don't think that will happen, but if it does it'll be huge.
If these are the ratings WITH Punk and Cena, could you imagine the ratings without them?
Also I agree with Pinkfloyd RE: turning Cena heel. It's something that can be done, but only if there's a face that is at least equal to Cena's drawing power. I can't imagine Cena turning heel in a feud with Sheamus or Ryback, for example. Maybe in the future, but definitely not right now. I mean, this is why the Creative change in Punk's character was so frustrating, as he was the perfect counterpart for Cena, like Austin was the great counterpart for the Rock.
I remember reading from many that this was one of the best matches they've seen in a while. Now I can finally see it! (It took place at an NXT house show a while back).
