After watching last nights WWE title match between John Cena and Shawn Michaels it re-established 2 thoughts in my mind, the first is that Shawn Michaels is without question the best all round peformer of all time and the second is that John Cena CAN wrestle.
I remember when John Cena was on SmackDown working as an up and coming heel and carrying matches as a heel mainly does in a match against the likes of Undertaker, Brock Lesnar and Eddie Guerrero and i thought to myself this young kid could very well be the next major star in WWE as he is good in the ring and on the mic the best thing since The Rock but then the inevitable happened, the great young heel become so over he had to be turned.
So Vince McMahon turned John Cena face going into Survivor Series 2003 and from there he feuded with established heels in Booker T and Big Show and his learning more or less stopped because he wasn't carrying matches like he was as a heel, then Cena become so over that he couldn't be kept away from the WWE title anymore even if he could have maybe done with another year of learning.
After winning the WWE title and becoming the most over face in WWE (think of his debut on Raw on the Highlight Reel, the crowd went nuts for him) he went to Raw and feuded with Chris Jericho, now this is where it started to go wrong for Cena as Vince had begun watering him down and restricting him from being and doing what got him so over in the first place.
Vince had Cena working against wrestlers like Jericho and Kurt Angle who were very over as heels but also so good in the ring that Cena couldn't compete on that level yet and while he always tried his best the fans could see that this wasn't the same Cena they had seen a few months before and turned against him saying he couldn't wrestle and some people even wishing him dead which is way over the top.
But after last night the "Cena can't wrestle" thing has to stop as he proved without a shadow of a doubt what he can do given the chance and when you think about it its not the first time either he has had a great non gimmick singles match, Cena/Jericho at SummerSlam 2005, Cena/Edge on Raw with Mick Foley at ref last year, Cena/Edge on Raw just before Royal Rumble, see what i mean and now you can add Cena/HBK to that.
Whether you like John Cena's character or not is down to you, everyone is entitled to an opinion but for anyone to still say he can't wrestle your out of your minds, it's Vince McMahon who doesn't let him show it every week because thats how Vince McMahon wants his character to be, a modern day Hulk Hogan, after last night John Cena just reconfirmed what i always believed but didn't get the chance to regularly see and that is that he can wrestle and very well at that and will be on top in WWE for years to come like it or not, post your thoughts and opinions