#5 Only John Cena can do the Yay/Boo thing
This entry is based on the recently reported ‘house show rules’ document that’s been circulating over the past few days.
Apparently, the only person allowed to do the ‘yay/boo punch exchange’ is John Cena. Nobody else can do this move, even though Cena isn’t even on the roster full-time now. So what the agents are telling the wrestlers is that no one can be more popular than John Cena.
This is a ridiculous rule that defies all logic. It’s one thing to ban piledrivers or to prevent another wrestler from using the same finisher as another.
It’s another matter entirely when no one can do a generic spot that involves the crowd. Fans love to get involved in matches in any way they can, and they do this mostly by cheering and booing at certain points.
We’ve seen this spot done several times with different wrestlers, most notably anyone wrestling against Roman Reigns and even in matches between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. Fans getting involved in this way is a direct indication of the fans’ opinion of the match they’re watching.
So by restricting the spot to only John Cena, WWE’s basically telling their wrestlers, ‘we don’t trust you to be spontaneous in your matches. Only Cena can be trusted to involve the fans in his matches.’
This is a terrible mentality that prevents the younger wrestlers from not just getting over with the audiences but also makes it harder for them to prove that they can be draws.
As long as the company prevents anyone else from reaching Cena’s level of popularity by implementing ridiculous restrictions like this one, they’ll be forever dependent on the stars of yesteryears, in order to stay popular and profitable.