Even in professional wrestling, the bad guys need superheroes to fight. Otherwise, it’s just pure destruction. That can only be fun for so long.
That’s the main reason why John Cena won’t turn heel right now. If Cena goes the baddie route, it’ll be for an extended amount of time. Cena isn’t Randy Orton. He can’t change faces at the drop of a hat. It has to be a cool and calculated move. It has to make sense and has to be believable. If not, it’ll ruin the company’s biggest star. That is a risk the WWE cannot afford to take. They won’t.
While factions the likes of The Four Horsemen and nWo had their big reigns of terror, there was always a legitimate baby face left to fight them. Once Cena makes the cross over to the dark side, who is left to fight him? Ryback? Maybe if he could sell. Brodus Clay? They’d have a dance off. Kofi Kingston? Maybe, if he could cut a decent promo. Hell, even Sheamus is a bit vanilla, pun intended. Every talented performer on the WWE roster that is capable of taking down Cena is either a convincing heel or lacks the charisma to be an effective face. Much like the problem TNA has right now, the WWE doesn’t have much roster diversity in what they can explore because they have people that can only fill certain spots on the roster.
Dolph Ziggler’s in-ring ability would make him a perfect adversary to Cena, but his personality is one that thrives in a heel environment. The same thing goes for CM Punk. While Punk is better suited at the anti-hero role that got him over two summers and a pipe bomb ago, the WWE would rather have him be the slimy bad guy. Until the WWE finds someone that kids will look up to the way they do Cena, the chances of seeing him going the Thug-anomics route is a slim one.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
Even in professional wrestling, the bad guys need superheroes to fight. Otherwise, it’s just pure destruction. That can only be fun for so long.
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