That shift was monumental. The Attitude Era took liberties with raunchiness, blood, swearing, and antiheroes like Stone Cold Steve Austin and now, that excess was gone. In its place came a more family-friendly storytelling, partnership-focused vision from the top of the company. This brought in collaborations with entities like Mattel and Post Consumer Brands. Sponsorships and a sudden uptick in mainstream appeal triggered one of the loudest fan rebellions in wrestling history. Die-hards rejected the tamer product typified by Cena, and crowds responded in person. They threw his shirts back at him, brought signs with them that said things like, “If Cena Wins, We Riot.” They cheered the bad guys, hijacked his promos, and filled arenas with chants like, “You can’t wrestle.” Fans directed their frustration at the man they believed was the herald of this new direction.
Anti-Cena sentiment wasn’t fringe. It was common and he took the brunt of every grievance that had been building between the audience and the business. The people wanted rebellion and they got respectability instead. Below the surface, this was a chaotic time, but Cena was still there, standing as a constant through it all.
Very few people in modern entertainment can say they worked seven days a week. Cena did. For more than a decade, he lived a punishing schedule that saw him wrestle more than 250 nights a year, travel internationally, appear at live events, headline television and pay-per-views, and still manage early morning talk shows and late-night interviews. On top of that, he became the most requested celebrity for Make-A-Wish, granting more than 650 wishes and setting a record no one has come close to. His life was relentless, structured almost entirely around WWE’s demands, and yet he carried that responsibility without faltering. He never once complained. He always showed up. He worked through injuries and gave his best day in and day out.
His presence was not only cultural, but financial. In 2018, Cena was working part-time and only second to Roman Reigns in sales. He headlined more pay-per-views than anyone else in company history and was a ratings stabilizer when Monday Night Raw was averaging around 3.5 million weekly viewers. During that run, WWE’s annual revenue climbed from roughly $485 million in 2007 to $729 million in 2016, with live event gates and merchandise sales strongly tied to Cena’s drawing power.
Streaming numbers proved his drawing power too. Cena’s 2021 return to face Roman Reigns in the main event of SummerSlam drove the occasion to become the most-watched SummerSlam in WWE history on Peacock at the time. His 2023 SmackDown comeback in September led to one of the brand’s largest viewership surges of that year. Cena’s presence produced measurable business lifts.
Fans, however, didn’t appreciate how those numbers translated into their experience and often did not care to see the superhero either. What was happening on camera wasn’t the shock and awe or the edge that they demanded. At that very moment, antiheroes were dominating pop culture and Cena’s squeaky-clean persona was unwelcome. Events rang with chants of “Cena sucks.” He faced continuous criticism of his wrestling ability and his infamous “Five Moves of Doom” and promos that sounded almost too good. He never bent. He walked into the fire every night, in the midst of a brutal and grueling schedule that preceded his appearances and waited for him afterwards. He became Superman made flesh onscreen and off of it too, when the world thought they wanted him to change and be something different.
