John Cena Vs. Rusev: I Quit Match

If Rusev had regained the United States title from John Cena, that would have been an obvious reason to continue the feud between the two. That did not happen. And yet, the feud continues. They will have an I Quit match at Payback.

The spacing between PPVs is obviously an issue, but I do not like that this feud is still continuing. This will be the 4th PPV encounter between these two. Rusev won the first. Cena won the last two. John Cena is in an interesting position right now. He is holding a midcard title. You can set up a feud for him in the midcard. He also has the main-event credibility of being the centerpiece of the company for a decade. You can place him in the main-event scene again, even if he is holding a midcard title. You have him doing this open challenge. Even if you can't come up with a proper feud for him for a while, which is unlikely, just having him defend the title is good enough. So many possibilities. I would say continuing the feud with Rusev is at the bottom of the list. Cena does not need to be involved in the story between Rusev and Lana.

Cena has never lost an I Quit match. That should spell automatic doom for Rusev. I said there was a story between Rusev and Lana. Looks like they are breaking up. Will Rusev threaten to hurt Lana if Cena does not quit? That is pretty much the only way Cena will give up. I have seen fans bring up the possibility of a swerve. Rusev and Lana continue their issues. Rusev threatens to hurt Lana at Payback. Cena quits. Then Lana reveals it was all a trick to get back the title.

I do not like the idea of a fake turn for one reason. That was the kind of thing you had just last month between Miz, Sandow, and Summer Rae. That feud obviously was not as major as what you have with Rusev and Cena, but they already told this same kind of story. It is way too soon to do it again. People criticize the writers for so many things. Isn't rehashing a storyline so soon worthy of criticism? Do something different.

This probably will be the end of Rusev and Lana. You see the storyline going on. You hear reports that the WWE wants to give her a big push. Some fans have brought up what is going on with Rusev/Lana is similar to Marc Mero/Sable almost two decades ago. Sable went on to be pushed as the centerpiece of the diva division shortly after. What will happen with Lana? If she doesn't start wrestling, this "big push" won't be to develop her as the centerpiece. That void will still be in the diva division. Even though fans like her and she plays her role well, simple pushing her in a periphery role will not do much to make the diva division efficient again.