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I find these two careers to be very similar. Cena is a lock for the WWE HOF unless he burns his bridge with VKM at some point, which is highly unlikely.I think Sting will eventually get in as well, as soon as he is unaffiliated with TNA (assuming he would accept).
But let's talk Wrestling Observer HOF. Sting has never really come close, but does get barely enough votes to at least stay on the ballot. Let's examine.
We can debate his merits as a draw all day, but even Larry would concede he was never an elite, HOF caliber draw. He did pop the huge Starrcade 97 buyrate, and bumped Impact up a decent percentage when he returned to TNA. Those are his strongest credentials. His peak drawing period, oddly, was when he didn't wrestle for a year. The historians and old timers value drawing power over all else when they vote.
Sting is considered an average (at best) worker. I believe that's unfair, as I feel he is very underated in that regard. He has had more good matches than he gets credit for, but very few all time classics, if any (vs Flair at Clash I ?).
Intangibles include very good crowd reactions. Superstar level, in fact. But so does Matt Hardy. Lots of magazine covers, but most of them paid by WCW to help him get over, and none mainstream. Popular, but underwhelming merch sales. Probably precieved as a bigger star than he was, but still a significant figure of his era. Lots of World Titles, but mostly in an era where it means almost nothing. Long career at a high level.
John Cena:
Hard to judge as a draw. Works in an era where the brand name is the biggest draw, but is also undoubtably the face of that era. Still, while total revenue is up, ratings and buyrates are down from the prior era. What is his signature drawing match? Batista has the HHH feud/WM match, for example, that exceeded business and was a clear draw.
Cena is considered a below average worker by almost anyone who has watched him. He pulls a good match out of his ass by current standards of his company, but rarely anything worth viewing twice.
WWE pushes him as a mainstream star, but all of his movies are of the WWE Studio variety, and bomb badly. He's probably a slightly bigger mainstream name than Sting, but not enough to matter. He is an energetic guy and tireless PR man for the business. But does that matter? Tons of titles, but again, means nothing in his era. Best merchandice seller since Austin, maybe better.
Where do you stand?
But let's talk Wrestling Observer HOF. Sting has never really come close, but does get barely enough votes to at least stay on the ballot. Let's examine.
We can debate his merits as a draw all day, but even Larry would concede he was never an elite, HOF caliber draw. He did pop the huge Starrcade 97 buyrate, and bumped Impact up a decent percentage when he returned to TNA. Those are his strongest credentials. His peak drawing period, oddly, was when he didn't wrestle for a year. The historians and old timers value drawing power over all else when they vote.
Sting is considered an average (at best) worker. I believe that's unfair, as I feel he is very underated in that regard. He has had more good matches than he gets credit for, but very few all time classics, if any (vs Flair at Clash I ?).
Intangibles include very good crowd reactions. Superstar level, in fact. But so does Matt Hardy. Lots of magazine covers, but most of them paid by WCW to help him get over, and none mainstream. Popular, but underwhelming merch sales. Probably precieved as a bigger star than he was, but still a significant figure of his era. Lots of World Titles, but mostly in an era where it means almost nothing. Long career at a high level.
John Cena:
Hard to judge as a draw. Works in an era where the brand name is the biggest draw, but is also undoubtably the face of that era. Still, while total revenue is up, ratings and buyrates are down from the prior era. What is his signature drawing match? Batista has the HHH feud/WM match, for example, that exceeded business and was a clear draw.
Cena is considered a below average worker by almost anyone who has watched him. He pulls a good match out of his ass by current standards of his company, but rarely anything worth viewing twice.
WWE pushes him as a mainstream star, but all of his movies are of the WWE Studio variety, and bomb badly. He's probably a slightly bigger mainstream name than Sting, but not enough to matter. He is an energetic guy and tireless PR man for the business. But does that matter? Tons of titles, but again, means nothing in his era. Best merchandice seller since Austin, maybe better.
Where do you stand?
The Cena era came when I stopped watching wrestling pretty much.
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