Last night, at No Way Out, the nearly year-long endeavor of turning John Cena into an accepted fan favorite may have finally produced a definitive result.
Cena's victory over Big Show in a steel cage match at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ not only notched yet another non-title main event victory for Cena, but led to John Laurinaitis's storyline firing.
While he has been the face of the WWE for the past seven years, Cena has not been widely accepted by a significant portion of the company's large fan base. Appealing mainly to women and children, Cena did not find favor with many of the wrestling purists that have mournfully watched the leader in sports entertainment shy away from the industry's roots. Despite debuting with the company as a technical wrestler with surprising acrobatics and agility for a performer of his size, Cena's matches had grown mechanical and predictable throughout the majority of his seemingly endless title reigns.
Last night, while the WWE Title was grappled over by two iconic pure wrestlers (CM Punk and Daniel Bryan), Cena took down the company's top heel. Alongside a now face Vince McMahon, Cena earned a victory that resulted in Laurinaitis's storyline stripping of authority.
Cena's ongoing feud with the man that was the "GM" of both Raw and Smackdown, has been the final push that the superstar needed to get over with fans. He has enjoyed an entire arena's worth of support during recent promos. While it is still unclear when Cena will be reinserted into the title picture, when he does return he will no longer be an unofficial heel.
