WWE preparing for John Cena to leave wrestling

Did you see they're selling John Cena sneakers now? You can sell anything to kids with his name on it. When he leaves/retires there is gonna be a huge merch hit no matter what happens.

Yeah... They aren't going to hit that kinda boom again. They best they can hope for is to have a few guys who can pull like CM Punk numbers on merch. Personally, I think Ambrose is going to end up being the star that comes out of the shield and I don't think Rollins will be far behind. Reigns is going to get shoved to the top and he is probably going to be pretty successful, but I see more long term well rounded success out of the other two. Ambrose can fill the Punk sized hole in the roster eventually and get that young adult/super nerd money. If dragon could come back and regain his momentum, he was on his way to being a pretty solid merch seller. Put the merch machine behind those two and Rollins (and Reigns) and I think you could see them do a sort of merch-by committee approach to make up for the Cena void.

Ohh and lets not for get the sort of looming crop of guys that could bust onto scene. KENTA is going to be huge in Japan (pun intended) for merch. Zayne is well on his way to being a super over star at the next level I think. If they give Kevin Steen a real shot, my money is on him producing and becoming someone people want to support.


Again.... all this is really to say, they wont REPLACE Cena. They will have to rely on a completely different strategy to get that money.

there's certain wrestlers who will sell tonnes of merch no matter where they are on the card, you just need another set of Plucky, young babyface fun/comedy midcarders e.g. Kofi, Zack Ryder, Too Cool,Shark Boy, or higher up the card guys like Jeff Hardy and RVD when they were super over. Characters sell merch, build characters.

While he won't reach Cena levels of merch sales, I think Bryan has all the ability to sell a ton of it. He's got a great connection with fans that is something far different than most WWE names. The whole connection with the "every-man" is something they can really play on if it's pushed. Bryan is exciting, fun, great at everything he does, I think if they just stay dedicated to him, he can at least reach Punk levels of merch movement.

That said, guys like Rollins, Ambrose, Cesaro, Reigns and the Wyatts can be really good for the company so long as the WWE shows them proper attention. I also think there's a sleeping gold mine within Sami Zayn, so here's to hoping he's given every opportunity to go the diatance.

TeeBeeKay wrote:But the thing about Cena's shirts, sure we might think they're ugly but kids love them, they get new colors every few months and it's awesome, I'm not saying Reigns won't sell shirts because he 100% will, and i'm sure they'll sell a ton of wrist guards so kids can do the thing he does before the superman punch, but I just don't see him being able to replace Cena's merch numbers unless they overhaul his look and character to make it more marketable

This is one of the main problems with Reigns currently. He's been stuck in the Marty Jannetty phase ever since The Shield broke up. By that I mean he still wears the same gear (with a few minor alterations), uses the same music (slightly remixed), and even still enters the arena through the crowd.

Now, obviously WWE is doing their best to ensure that he becomes the Shawn Michaels of the group (although I supposed Edge would be a better example for a trio). But in order to fully succeed as a major player, Reigns is going to need to establish his own identity, and not live off the memories of The Shield.