When Elias came inside the ring with a guitar in his hands, fans anticipated an interference. The speculation was more for The Undertaker considering a WrestleMania without The Deadman is never the same. Fans are used to seeing 'Taker walk out at the biggest stage of all and enthral the audience by his mere presence.
The other superstar fans were expecting to interfere was The Rock, simply because he is the most electrifying man in the history of sports entertainment and who doesn't want to see The Rock at WrestleMania? What turned out wasn't something that was not expected but certainly left the entire WWE Universe in shock.
John Cena returned with his Doctor of Thuganomics gimmick and had his own WrestleMania moment. Cena returned in his 14-year-old gimmick from back in 2002. It was a great segment that gave way to nostalgia.
Cena's return as Doctor of Thuganomics is certainly great but comes with a lot of expectations and possibilities (even though it was a one-time thing). The catch here is, most of them don't align well with the WWE storylines. Without further ado, here are 3 reasons why the gimmick might not work well with the WWE Universe if it becomes permanent:
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#3 The PG Era
There was a heated exchange of words between Elias and John Cena. The former had the upper hand in everything that happened inside that ring. Cena was back in a gimmick everybody had loved. There was nostalgia. Cena gave justice to the character by not ruining things, and there was savagery that can only be expected from the Doctor of Thuganomics. John Cena also reffered to his finisher as the FU and not AA.
WWE dropped FU and STFU after jumping into the PG Era but seems like WWE has just given up on what they say and show these days. There are wrestlers breaking kayfabe, having Twitter brawls, going personal and now John Cena's return in his Doctor of Thuganomics gimmick adds to the recent trend that WWE has adopted.
Cena's return calls for celebration for WWE fans. But it will be interesting to see how he manages to carry his gimmick from an era that is so different from today. At least for the WWE. The WWE Universe will expect the same Doctor of Thuganomics who was all but savagery, and the PG Era might act as a limitation to the character. Yes, the gimmick is in the wrong era.
#2 Storylines
John Cena is a wrestler who has creative freedom for his character because of where he has reached as a professional wrestler. The 16-time World Champion hasn't been inside the ring for quite some time now and only makes sporadic appearances. John Cena's Hollywood career is skyrocketing but one can't just keep him away from wrestling.
Here is where the real problem arises. Cena is at a position where he is too experienced to get into a feud with just anybody and his contemporaries are either retired or have left wrestling for good. If he is made to go against Elias in another storyline, certainly it won't help the big return in any way.
WWE will have to decide on a perfect storyline for John Cena to keep the gimmick alive for the WWE Universe. I can only think of "Broken" Matt Hardy and how it went down in such a short period of time. WWE should think of a match involving Velveteen and John Cena. It will be fun.
#1 The gimmick becomes tiresome
It doesn't look like John Cena will have a lot of time to spend inside the ring and in the locker room due to his Hollywood commitments. Cena has more or less officially joined the ranks of Brock Lesnar and The Rock after serving the company for such a long time as a regular wrestler featuring on almost all the major pay-per-views. If Cena's return becomes too apparent and fails to garner any attention, there is a huge problem ahead.
The fact that we have seen The Champ for all these years makes the expectations from him a little too high. We love to see John Cena at the top and being involved in good promos and great matches. We haven't seen something similar ever since he had a feud with AJ Styles.
Just how the WWE Universe has gotten enough of Randy Orton and got carried away into booing Batista on his first return, I fear John Cena will meet the same fate. As much as the WWE Universe wants to see some old faces, they are also interested in what new these veterans bring to the ring. If the initial few reactions are against John Cena, there could be a big loss ahead for the iconic gimmick.