What's left for John Cena?

At Wrestlemania 29, John Cena defeated The Rock in a rematch from last year, and in the process, won the WWE title, making him an 11-time WWE Champion and a 13-time World Champion overall. To say that the result of the match was expected would be a complete understatement, especially when you consider that The Rock is only a part-time wrestler and was only expected to be around for another month or so for a match with Brock Lesnar, before returning to filming movies.

Now that Cena is the champion once again, what is he going to do next? Unfortunately, there is not much more that can be done in regards to a feud that can still be considered fresh for Cena. The man has been on WWE television for 11 years now, and of those 11, he has been headlining for 8. Despite the fact that Cena is still under 40 years old, and thus still relatively young, as a main event star, he is 8 years old in TV years, which is a whole other story. When you consider that WWE has produced a minimum (key word here) of four hours of new television every week for each and everyone of those 8 years, that’s a hell of a lot of exposure. WWE television is different than other shows in that they provide new content each and every week, whereas most other shows run about 15-20 episodes in a season before taking a break. With the kind of time that WWE puts into television shows, it becomes harder and harder to make anything new.

And this is especially true with Cena. In his time with WWE, he has feuded with every major star on the roster, including the active roster today. Those he hasn’t feuded with are either too new to be put in that spot or simply haven’t been built up as a credible threat to a major championship yet. The rest he has already gone through and won the feuds, so what’s the point? Where does he go from here?

Although WWE is trying something somewhat new with Ryback (the two have only had one match, and it was a triple threat also involving CM Punk), it already seems like the result is a foregone conclusion. WWE doesn’t seem to know what they want to do with Ryback, especially since none of the plans for him have ever come to fruition. The only other real option for Cena that could be considered somewhat fresh is Mark Henry, who is still in the midst of his return push. Even then, I have little faith in a feud, as Henry has been on WWE TV even longer than Cena (17 years now), and doesn’t seem to have many years left, career-wise. While WWE might be willing to take another gamble on “The World’s Strongest Man”, it really depends on how well he can hold up physically, as he has had several injury problems over the years, the most recent of which nearly cost him his career.

I realize John Cena is not going away any time soon, thanks not only due to Vince McMahon’s unease in regards to trying things new, as well as Cena’s selfishness in not wanting to step aside for a bit to give someone else a chance to shine (even Punk took a backseat to him during his historic title reign). But unless something drastic is done with him in regards to a feud or a gimmick change, we are going to be subjected to yet another title reign that likely won’t be different than any other one Cena has had as a roster full of hungry guys chomping at the bit just get pushed to the side once more.