John Cena comes home at Survivor Series 2008

y By Garth McLennan

return. Gregory Helms is just now coming back from a broken neck that kept him sidelined
for over 14 months.

Look at John Cena. Just a year ago, he had nearly ripped his pectoral muscle clean off
the bone after executing a hip toss, which is a normal, simple wrestling move. When you
consider the intense workload these guys go through, it’s pretty tough not to have admiration
for them. All three of WWE’s shows—RAW, Smackdown and ECW—air 52 episodes per
year with no break. On top of that, the stars usually make guest appearances on the other two
shows. WWE puts on 14 PPV events each year, and all of the top stars perform at every one
of them. On top of that, WWE tours around the world putting on house shows, non-televised
events ordinarily held at smaller venues. WWE holds about 200 of these every year. So when
you also add in the extensive travel time, frequent time zone changes, autograph signings
everywhere from malls to arena, non-stop attention from fans and basically no time at home,
you have to admit that most of these wrestlers are pretty amazing individuals.

While the matches do have a pre-determined winner, the moves themselves still hurt.
Like it or not, there really aren’t too many ways to land squarely on your back and not
hurt yourselves. For even the most basic manoeuvres they have to have perfect timing and
precision in order to protect both themselves and their partner in the ring.

John Cena is the perfect person to lead the WWE. Aside from being their world

 

champion on their flagship show, RAW, Cena is an incredible person. He regularly makes
P cgaices wrestling is alive and well, and the most famous wresting promotion, WWE, —_ appearances in many different forms of media. For example, he has appeared on Punk’d, The
Just put on a tremendous performance with one of the premier showcase events, Survivor Best Damn Sports Show Period, MadTV, Deal or no Deal, The Teen Choice awards, Jimmy
Series, in Boston, Massachusetts. Kimmel Live and more. He has numerous endorsement deals and recently put out his own

Survivor Series has always been one of WWE’s top events of the year, and this time was _ biographical DVD.
no different. It was headlined by the return of the promotion’s number Cena oozes charisma when he speaks and that’s plain to see whenever he gets on the
one star, John Cena, who was born and raised in West Newbury, microphone. In 2005, he released his own rap album, You Can’t See Me, and in 2006,
Massachusetts. West Newbury is a suburb of Boston, so when he starred in his own movie, action film The Marine. He has been built as a perfect role

  
  
 
  
   
 
  
  
  
  
  
 
       
   
 
 
  
 
  

Cena came out for the main event of the evening, the roof came : model for kids. His slogan is “Hustle, Loyalty, Respect,” and he regularly talks about
off the TD Banknorth Garden, which is the regular home of the ; the importance of hard work and never giving up. When you look at him as a person,
Boston Bruins. \ it isn’t hard to see that it isn’t an act at all; that’s the real John Cena.

In August, Cena broke his neck during a match at
Summerslam, another big WWE event. Shortly after that, however,
WWE began running promos and vignettes of Cena’s career, with
his return date set for Survivor Series. He didn’t disappoint.

Cena squared off against Canadian Chris Jericho for WWE’s
world heavyweight championship and it was easily the highlight
of the night, with Cena winning off his signature
move, the FU (a fireman’s carry that ends with the
opponent dropped to the mat).

The main event certainly wasn’t
the only positive match. The WWE
Championship match featured defending
champion Triple H against challengers
Vladimir Kozlov and Jeff Hardy.

However, the biggest shocker of the
entire event came with the return of
Edge, who had been out of action since
August.

Survivor Series features their own
traditional type of five-on-five elimination
match, and this year there were two of them.
The first had Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio,
The Great Khali and Cryme Tyme competing
against JBL, MVP, John Morrison, The Miz and
Kane. Michael’s side came out on top.

The second elimination match saw Randy
Orton, Cody Rhodes, Shelton Benjamin, Mark Henry and
William Regal defeat Batista, CM Punk, Kofi Kingston,
Matt Hardy and R-Truth.

While professional wresting is indeed scripted entertainment, it
is completely false to call it fake. Professional wrestlers are highly
trained athletes that put their bodies and careers in jeopardy every
time they step into the ring. It is a much harder sport than any
other. If you need proof of that, just take a look at some of the
basic wresting injuries and contrast them with regular injuries
from other sports.

For example, in Vancouver right now, Roberto Luongo
strained his groin and has been labelled week-to-week for his

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; Cena is also known for his remarkable charitable contributions. Along with
the rest of WWE, he travels to Iraq and Afghanistan every Christmas for their annual
“Tribute to the Troops” special. In February of this year, Cena was honored by the
ee Make-A-Wish Foundation for granting over 100
wishes in just four years. The only people in
history who have granted more wishes
to sick kids are Kobe Bryant of the
L.A. Lakers and NASCAR star
Jeff Gordon. Cena is routinely one
of the most requested celebrities
for Make-A-Wish and never turns
them down. In March, for this
year’s Wrestlemania 24, Cena and
the rest of WWE succeeded in
granting 50 wishes to terminally
ill children at the same time.
“One hundred wishes is
a lot. We typically don’t see
that many celebrities grant
that many wishes. It speaks to
the popularity of WWE and
the popularity of John Cena,”
said Make-A-Wish CEO David
Williams of Cena’s 100 wishes.
“When a milestone such as this is
reached, we feel that it is important
acknowledge the person that’s doing

    
   
  

to
its”

Lillian Garcia, who is RAW’s ring announcer, also
participates actively with Make-A-Wish Foundation and
had similar sentiments to say at the conference.

“The kids’ faces light up when they see John, but
John’s face lights up, too. It’s completely amazing. I can
tell this means a lot to him. With his schedule being so

crazy and to meet so many kids in such a short time
span speaks volumes about John as a person,” he said.
While Cena is clearly among the best and
brightest that WWE has, he certainly isn’t the only

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