117. John Cena vs Bray Wyatt (WWE WrestleMania XXX)

Bray Wyatt has returned to the WWE! On last week’s Friday Night Smackdown, he made his first TV appearance with a heartfelt and emotional promo. In my last review, I looked back to Bray Wyatt”s incarnation as ‘The Fiend’ and his surreal, innovative and mesmerising ‘Firefly Funhouse’ match at WrestleMania 36 (click here for my review). That was born out of their WrestleMania 30 clash, a regular singles bout. I didn’t think much of it upon first watching it, and haven’t returned to it since. A re-watch proved that it wasn’t worth a re-watch…

Wyatt and Cena had feuded since early 2014, beginning with Wyatt (and his Wyatt Family) causing Cena to lose a WWE Championship match against Randy Orton (must have been the hundredth match between the two?!?!). In the sinister Wyatt’s words, Cena was a “child of solitude’, a bundle of hatred hidden behind a plastic smile. The fan-friendly Cena, resistant to boos and crowd hatred, was just a facade. Wyatt wanted the real, evil Cena to be unleashed…and Wyatt was the conduit that would unleash that side of Cena.

A Cena heel turn was unimaginable, even jf only from a merchandise perspective. Good guy Cena made (WWE and himself) bucketloads of money in merchandise. The powers that be would not sacrifice the dollars for a Cena heel turn. Yes, the adult fans may have booed him without surcease, but the kids and the females loved (or at least liked) him. Even if this feud didn’t turn Cena into a heel, there was potential for a more nuanced character. John had portrayed the same happy-go-lucky, smiling, super-strong babyface for a decade. It was time for a change…

The story of the match was Wyatt riling Cena up, trying to anger John to a point where he snapped. And that’s one of the problems of the bout: Wyatt doesn’t do nearly enough to make it seem like he is pushing Cena over the edge. There are spots of interference from the other members of the Wyatt family, and later on stairs and a chair come in to play. Wyatt attempts tp male Cena breaks the rules by using a foreign object.  But, unlile the typical great Bray heel work, his heel work here does not befit the bout. This is the same Cena match we’d seen hundreds of times before.

(On the subject on Cena being pushed over the edge, we’d seen him use weapon-related violence in plenty of matches beforehand. It never compromised his character then…why would it in this match?? It may be a straight singles match, but why would a chair shot from Cena turn him heel?)

And yes, there’s enjoyment to be had in the formulaic Cena match. On a Raw, or even a B-level PPV, this would have been adequate. But at WrestleMania? I expected more from both competitors. They seem hesitant to push this bout to the next level. It also ends with a whimper, no bang in sight.

Amongst everything else that happened on the card (Bryan’s journey to the WWE championship, Undertaker’s Streak being broken by Brock Lesnar), it’s fair to say that anything else is pretty much forgotten. This bout, while no disaster, is one of the more forgettable WrestleMania bouts for Cena. Even his dire WWE Championship match against JBL at least has Cena’s first title victory to remember it by. And this feud continued…but did it improve in the ring? I shall find out…

Hammy’s Rating: *** (out of 5)

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