Spotlight

How Much John Cena Is Worth To WWE

Richard Gray January 11, 2012 WWE News 27 Comments

- The following is from the Twitter account of ESPN’s Michele Steele:

WWE says Cena was a $106 million retail brand in 2010

— Michele Steele (@MicheleSteele) January 10, 2012

Thanks to Wrestling News World reader Dave for sending this in.

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About The Author

Richard Gray

Richard Gray is the owner and editor of WrestlingNewsWorld.com. Covering the professional wrestling business since 1999, Richard holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from West Virginia University. He is also the owner of Gray Internet Technologies, LLC. and should be contacted with all business matters. You can friend him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter. Email him directly at [email protected].

bcrescen

And THAT is why Cena will not turn heel. Richard, you should just post this tweet every time someone asks you about a possible Cena heel turn.
- Zach
  
  That may be why he is untouchable, but all these children that have come to love Cena are eventually going to get older. And once that happens, they will see how stale he is. And due to having no ongoing development in his character, there are not going to be slews of new child fans to replace them when that time comes.
  - Frenchfry
    
    Thats a load of BS, the kids who love John Cena now will always love John Cena, just like how myself and most others will always love the Rock
    - Zach
      
      The Rock was not wasted during his time! No matter what they gave him, he made it work. Cena is plain boring with nothing new ever. The Rocked turned several times, yet remained a star in the eyes of fans and management both. Cena is the same stale charater he was 3 years ago. And kids do grow up, and they WILL get bored with it. Unless a change is made.
    - Zach
      
      And oh, there weren’t “Rocky sucks vs Rocky rules” chants in his days. The Rock was a once in a lifetime star unlike Cena.
      - Zach
        
        And i am not saying Cena isnt something special for wwe, it is just that he is a simple superman type character, whereas The Rock was able to be beat.
    - Junior
      
      That’s so true. You grow up and no matter if your favorite wrestler is babyface or heel u will always cheer him on….
    - TEAM BRING IT808
      
      Yup this is so true
  - @RatedMKD
    
    Those children who love Cena will get older, yes, but new fans will come along. I disagree with you saying "there are not going to be slews of new child fans to replace them", considering a notable portion of his current fanbase don't look old enough to have been born when he won his first WWE Championship.
    - Zach
      
      It will be several years before those kids grow out of him, but what exactly will the current 3-5 year olds see in him in 4 years? The kids who like him now probably started loving him right at the same time we were beginning to get annoyed with it. There was still somethibg to see in him. But now, it is the same storyline, different heel.
      - @RatedMKD
        
        I'm not talking about the current 3-5 year olds necessarily. What about the kids who have just been born? What about the kids whose parents haven't even met yet?
        
        One of my best friends is 24 years old. He was big into wrestling during the Attitude Era, but stopped watching it years ago. He heard that The Rock had come back, so he checked it out. He's now a huge, passionate WWE fan once again. He admits that if he'd been watching throughout Cena's entire career, like my brother and I, he'd probably be sick of the man too. But as stale as Cena is, he's still new to my 24 year old friend, so Cena is one of his favourites (number 3 behind Ziggler and Rhodes – he's not a total lost cause!). My point is, if a man in his mid-20s can get into WWE and be interested in the same old Cena character we've long been sick of, children who aren't even around yet will potentially do the same thing in five or six years' time. That's a dreadful prospect, but it just goes to show that fans getting older won't necessarily harm merchandise sales in any way.
- ceedot
  
  so you're saying that he'll suddenly go to $0 if he turns heel? lol, ok.
Dave L

I just watched WM XX Cena Vs Big Show and the crowd was Cheering Cena, then I watched WM 22 Cena Vs HHH, and There was a limited amount of Cena Vs Cena Sucks chants, granted these chants are now about 50/50 but after watching how long these have been going on, I agree with WWE keep Cena Face for at least a few more years if theres money to be made people who love cena will buy his merch, IMO people who hate cena wont.
outkazt09

Seems legit
Richard

Because if you turn him it will hurt his merchandise sales? Didn't hurt the nWo too much.
Brandon

Supposing that figure is accurate, and not WWE attempting to elevate the marketability of their superstars, we should consider that it is from 2010. Undoubtedly, many things changed throughout 2011 in the WWE. For example, CM Punk obtained a greater degree of prominence, which led to a significant increase in Punk's merchandise sales. I haven't seen the numbers, so this is speculative, but we could assume that this impacted Cena's 2011 sales, and thus his sales dominance in 2010 might not reflect the current figures of 2011 or 2012.
Patrick_Peralta

If it ain't broke why Fix it.
- kbunyon
  
  But it is broke.
  - Patrick_Peralta
    
    Not to me he's not…………………Plus He is making money for WWE and to Vince that is all that matters.
    - HPK
      
      That is the whole problem with Vince and WWE…He's lost sight of true reason for what kind of business his company really is !!!
Jack

That doesn't even include the ticket sales and ad revenue that can be attributed to him
Bruno

He is stale,he is boring but he is the face of the company and draws more attention than any other superstars. If you don’t like cena, don’t watch wwe because the wwe is John cena. Forget about this stupid obsession with punk as he will never be as entertaining as cena once was.
Mark

…and yet, the amount of people who have stopped watching the WWE and stopped buying any type of merchandise or products because of John Cena is not calculated into this figure.

Also, if he does turn heel, the people that love John Cena now will blindly follow whoever the WWE decides to shove down their throats, just like they did with Cena before.
Dan

I just visited Hamles toy shop in London. We all know it’s where the kids can visit all their dreams.
On the wwe section it was near enough full to the shelf of merchandise. Wwe belts and action figures. You know the only superstar that was being sold……John Cena.
This tells me that everybody sold out which i doubt, or that he is the only one on offer. This is not the first time I have seen this in toy shops in the UK. He is forced upon the children here as an action here like all your favourite marvel and dc heroes.
And please nobody correct me on grammar.I’m 23, on my iPhone and travelling in a vehicle.
- sean
  
  Im from Ireland my little brothers favourite is John Cena its nearly impossible to get him as he is nearly always gone and that is in just about every shop I go to.
emilio

I bet if brock lesnar came back everyone would forget about johns lame ass .. And I much prefer to watch cm punk anyday over john
- Ian
  
  lmao How do you feel now?