>>9537036This.
Cena earned respect that night. I don't care what anyone says. There was none of that happy goofy guy who gave the slaute and charged to the ring with a swelling of suport from the youngsters and female fans. No, that crowd wanted blood. Those two pay per views were emotional valve releases to the wrestling scene at that time. You can see it all over his face, how even though there was a very vocal portion of the audience that did not like the whole Super Cena with the Hulk Hogan, there was a portion that was and he had that to go on and feed off of. Man, it was not the case that evening. To have a crowd that hostile and vocal and angry and reactive, you had to be very careful as a performer to not upset the situation.
You hear it get tossed around a lot about how much it took for him to go out there, but that crowd literally looked like they wanted him dead. That sign "IF CENA WINS, WE RIOT" never really felt more like a legitmate threat from any crowd ever than it did at that event. It was somewhat scary.
I only wished Rob could have had a longer more legit run.