How Will You Rebound From John Cena Breaking Up With You? | Question Of The Day

03/18/2025 08:45 AM

Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!

It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. John Cena has “broken up” with all of us to get out of this “toxic relationship” that has made him feel bullied for 20+ years.

We saw the writing on the wall, and while absence makes the heart grow fonder, sometimes, emotions are just bubbling under the surface. And in the end, realizing that the passion just wasn’t like it used to be means it’s better for everyone to move on and be their true selves and learn from this experience.

Obviously, this was a funny way to get around a heel promo from his end. Frankly, I loved it, so I say we should have a little fun with the silliness of all of this and turn into the skid. Let’s approach this like a true relationship and see how we spiral out of a breakup situation.

My question for you today is “What is your reaction to John Cena dumping you, and how will you rebound from this relationship ending?”

Remember to answer with your response in the comments below.

As far as my answer…

I’m lucky to have been primarily in the driver’s seat for nearly all of my breakups in the past, or I was at least just as on board for a mutual ending of the relationship. Being dumped does suck in reality, but the one time I had that happen to me, I quickly got over it by doing what I would normally do in all the other situations where I was the one initiating: I would play the field and see what my other options were.

That doesn’t work for everyone, and certainly not in all situations. But in the context of pro wrestling, there are thankfully many different people to court. We move on and we do the equivalent of “sleeping around” for some ECW One Night Stand affairs and flirt with the other Superstars to eventually settle on our next partner we tag in.

Okay, I can’t seriously write a whole article with this kind of thing in mind and keep using that kind of language. But as ridiculous of a question as this is that I’m posing, it does actually bring up an interesting conundrum. For the people who are legitimately upset about not having a babyface John Cena that they can cheer, what do they do? How do they, as a fan, bounce back from this and in what direction do they go next?

From my perspective, I wasn’t heading into this year’s retirement tour thinking I would be rooting for Cena in every single match and would want to see him win everything. But I’m a guy who writes analysis about pro wrestling for a job, rather than someone who is more of an emotional response pure fan who shuts their brain off 100% and looks at things in a very kayfabe sense. And there are those people out there who will watch something like Cody Rhodes beating Roman Reigns last year at WrestleMania XL and instead of feeling what I felt, which was relief at the title reign coming to an end, happiness over a well-executed finale, intrigued at the potential for new storylines, and generally appreciative of the art of professional wrestling and the Superstars that produce that art, many people were legitimately just like “Hell yeah! Cody did it! I’m so happy! I knew he had that fight in him! He’s my hero and he put down that evil Roman Reigns!” in the sense that this might as well be “real to them, damn it.”

And what do those people do now?

I’ve seen several videos of kids (and some adults) in tears over Cena’s heel turn. There are people who will actually be genuinely upset over Cena as a bad guy and won’t know how to process that, because of the blurred lines between fiction and reality coupled with a malfunctioning suspension of disbelief perspective.

My hope is that they do what is intended of them, and they pivot into becoming even bigger fans of Cody Rhodes. Ultimately, that is the goal, as he is the person feuding with Cena. Cody’s the opposite end of the spectrum right now, who didn’t sell his soul. He should function as the safety net these fans fall back on, as they hope that he either rights the wrong of Cena’s heel turn by beating him and taking him out of the equation (Avengers beating Thanos style) or forces Cena to see the error of his ways and repent (Darth Vader redemption style).

There will be people who indeed do the wrestling equivalent of “playing the field” in that they start finding it easier to cheer some other babyfaces even more, like Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Damian Priest, Penta, whoever it might be. I’d assume the wrestling fan equivalent of being depressed and eating a pint of ice cream while sobbing and listening to moody music would be either refusing to watch the show or maybe tuning more in to AEW out of protest.

And then, there are people who beg that person to take them back. “I can change” and “I’m sorry” and whatnot. Love bombing. Funny enough, I do think from a psychological perspective, we’re going to see some fans do a version of that, where the more unhinged parasocial “stan” types will be hitting up the comments section on his Instagram like crazy and will try to play it off like they’re a “real fan” and whatnot. Watch out for those people…legitimately. They’re probably not in a great mental state for multiple things in their real lives.

To those people, I suggest they take some sage wisdom from a classic quote and think about how this is going to end later in 2025 with Cena eventually turning babyface again: “If you love something, set it free. If it returns, it’s yours. If not, it was never meant to be.” In the meantime, get some strange and have some fun!

What do you think? Drop your thoughts below!

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