‘WWE: The John Cena Experience’ DVD Review
Anybody who reads my WWE reviews know that I’m not a Cena fan. When I write them though one thing I do is to not let my opinion on him bias my view on the actual release, I will mention if his performance affected the match for me, but I will also point out if his performance was good (and many times it is). If anything, I just don’t like the way that WWE market him and constantly push him in our faces as the “Superman” of WWE. John Cena is not marketed for a fan like me, he is a wrestler that has been toned down for kids, and they love him. The company know how to use the Cena product and make money, so that is how things have to be. When looking at WWE: The John Cena Experience some would say this should be my worst nightmare, a whole documentary looking at the man himself, but really it’s not. If anything it should be interesting to see more about the man behind the character.
The UK re-release of WWE: The John Cena Experience is actually a budget version featuring only the first disc from the DVD release. This means that there are no matches only the documentary. The real problem with this is that the so-called “Experience” is not a documentary at all but more of a series of sections looking at what Cena is doing on some random day. We are to believe that a camera is following him everywhere and we see all he does behind the scenes, which is obviously not what we see. What we see in fact is a WWE version of what he does, and a very superficial one at that.
The problem with creating an “Experience” like that is it gets boring fast. If you want to see something looking at life behind the scenes of wrestlers go buy Beyond the Mat. WWE: The John Cena Experience could have worked if it was done correctly, but the problem is it feels paper-thin in terms of actual content for the most part, and just an advertisement for WWE, the product that is Cena and the other companies featured on the disc. We see John Cena having his head scanned for creating toys, we see him going to look at cars at a car show, starring in television shows, movies and even rapping! …how exciting. To take away the cynical tone though, the parts that feature him going to Iraq to perform for the troops and the segment looking at the Make a Wish charity are a lot more interesting and show the good that he and the WWE do.
If you come away from WWE: The John Cena Experience realising anything it is that John Cena is a nice guy and a very good advertisement for the WWE. For rabid wrestling fans who want nothing but in ring action then I doubt he’ll ever truly be accepted as the saviour of wrestling, but he is a hero to children and that makes WWE lots of money, especially with merchandising. WWE fans can yell that Cena sucks, they can boo when he wins, but Cena keeps the company in profit and that is important for the future of WWE.
WWE: The John Cena Experience is a release that is for fans of Cena only, and even then there is the fact that the matches have been removed from this release. There are elements showing Wrestlemania and Raw, giving a brief glimpse behind the scenes of the shows but even this feels like there is no real meat to it. Cena fans may be entertained, but for fans of actual wrestling WWE: The John Cena Experience offers little for them, other than the budget price.
WWE: The John Cena Experience is released on DVD on May 19th, courtesy of FremantleMedia
