John Cena lost himself within a character. Like all wrestlers, he was a shaman.

He was possessed by an archetype of the jungian hero who overcomes all odds and inspire the people to do the same. All wrestlers are shamans, and the succesful wrestlers are a vessel for an jungian archetype of the human consciousness and thus, are able to identify with people at a profound level because we all foster that archetype within our mind and wrestle with its thoughts. Examples of these mega-succesful wrestlers are CM Punk as the 'Outlaw', the one who wishes to rebel. John Cena was the 'Hero', the one we draw our resiliance from, the urge to overcome the odds. The same way we despise CM Punk when he fails to live up to the 'Outlaw' and is a hypocrit (the Outlaw follows rebellion to a fault), we despise Cena when he failed to live up to the 'Hero'. But that is the beauty of it. We only despise them because we had to love them in the first place.

Cena, more than any other wrestler, occupied his life doing 'Make a wish', being an ambassador to wrestling, and becoming this unreal superman. He was more archetype than man. Who even is John Cena? He

His entire farewell tour was a fascinating deconstruction of his own character. He embraced his shadow fully (the Hermit to the Hero), and gradually crawled out of the darkness as the fans went from booing to cheering. And in the end, he achieves not his return to Hero, but synthesis.

In the end Cena taps out. He is free from Super Cena. He is free from Make a Wish. He is free from being the first to arrive and the last to leave. He is free from expectation. You see as the archetype leaves his body, he tenses down, smiles to the camera. He is no longer a toy, he has embraced his shadow out of love for himself. A love that - we must admit - earned.

And taps free.

This is now wrestling's greatest storyline, but it will take forever until people understand. They are in grief.

Cena died, so Cena can live.

*****