Oh Bilal: Is Sasha Banks Following The John Cena Formula?

If you missed NXT this week, you missed Sasha Banks recording her first win against Alicia Fox. In watching her get the pin fall out of a scoop slam counter, I had a flashback to a young John Cena circa 2002.  Then it hit me! Like many things in WWE there is a formula to create stars. Ask JBL why he thinks Alberto Del Rio or ADR is such a success? JBL would tell you about his great fortune first and foremost. Not only does this copy and paste JBL’s own gimmick but it draws from the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase Senior from so many years ago.

Back to Sasha, despite being born in Fairfield, California, she is billed on NXT as being from Boston, Massachusetts. A mere 50 minutes from John Cena’s West Newbury, Massachusetts. Although in fairness at least Cena was born there. But more importantly the way both debuted is remarkably similar. Most of us recall John Cena’s debut match against Kurt Angle on Smackdown in 2002, where he put up a good fight in a losing effort. Something Sasha did in her loss to Paige in December and Tamina in January, before her win over Fox.

William Regal pointed out during this week and pretty much during every one of Bank’s matches, that she is related to Snoop Dogg. So unlike John Cena she will have some credibility if she ever does rap on WWE TV. While oddly enough it is Cena who slapped his opponent in his first televised match rather than Sasha.

The reason I bring all this up is because the biggest different today between the 35 year old Cena and the 21 year old Banks is how the fans react to them. Cena has become the franchise and gets arguably as much heat as pop from the fans, no one is indifferent to Cena. While Banks is miles away from that point, she is right now the underdog diva who’s ruthless aggression could push her up the ranks. Its that approach that we as fans can connect to. The struggle to succeed and make our way in the world. The cruel irony is that if Banks ever reaches the level of stardom that Cena has, we will likely resent her because she too will become the franchise. This dynamic is one WWE creative has failed of late to capitalize on. Look at The Rock vs CM Punk feud for the WWE Championship. CM Punk is the anti-hero, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin type rebel. Yet its The Rock who is portrayed as The Peoples Champion. Again polar opposites of where they started. Punk started as the independent wrestling sensation on ECW many fans got behind early on. Even prior to winning the WWE title he was cheered for his pipe bombs in spite of the WWE. As opposed to The Rock who struggled to win over the fans support early in his career because he tired so hard to win them over. Yet a few silly catch phrases and The Rock became the face WWE wants to sell endless merchandise. Realistically over the past few years CM Punk has given far more to the WWE Universe vs The Rock who took the better part of the decade off to make movies.

My hope is that fans are fans, not sheep to scripts. That things as simple as chanting “Feed Me More” can allow the fans to pick the next number 1 contenders for championships. In a world where fan reaction during live events and/or via social media becomes the standard, face to heel turns will become more organic, more real. Because the issue with the John Cena formula is that if it works and leads a superstar or diva to the top, it eventually turns sour and they become the very thing it set out to overturn.

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