It ain’t easy wearing green these days for John Cena, who just can’t seem to catch a break since losing his Once in a Lifetime clash against The Rock at WrestleMania XXVIII. Ever since that night, Cena’s life has been a cyclical nightmare of beatdowns at hands of Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar didn’t step into the ring on Raw SuperShow in London, but Cena’s night didn’t get any better when he fell victim to the green mist of Lord Tensai in an Extreme Rules Match orchestrated by EVP of Talent Relations and Raw and SmackDown GM John Laurinaitis. Not only did he lose that match, but the mysterious spray blinded the Cenation Leader and he had to be helped to the locker room area by WWE officials.

All this considered, then, is this John Cena’s worst month ever?
The Cenation Leader has been through tough times before – his mantra is “Never Give Up,” after all, and one doesn’t adopt that code without having faced some adversity in life – but he’s never looked quite as much the underdog as he has against Lesnar these past few weeks. And he’s never quite looked as helpless as he was after Tensai robbed him of his sight on Raw SuperShow.

So, how did we get here?
Cena’s current woes can probably be traced back to the moment during WrestleMania when, with The Rock all but beaten, he attempted to administer The People’s Elbow instead of covering The Great One for the three-count. It was an uncommonly hubristic move on Cena’s part, and it cost him the match he’d sworn for months he could not lose.  The following night on Raw SuperShow, though clearly disappointed, Cena offered to swallow his pride and shake Rock’s hand. Instead, he got a surprise return by Brock Lesnar and an F-5.  And the rest, as they say, is history.

The strange thing is, Cena hasn’t lost any of his old fire. He defiantly slapped Lesnar across the face the next week on Raw SuperShow, held his own in the brawl that cleaned out the locker room, and made quick work of Laurinaitis’ associate, David Otunga, the same evening. And yet, he still fell to another F-5 at the end of the night. To top it off, Cena and Lesnar will meet again next week, for their official contract signing. Given the history of how those sit-downs tend to unravel, there's a strong chance physicality will rear its head yet again for the Cenation Leader.
There’s no denying that Cena has a target on his back, and not just the typical one from the boobirds who want to see him falter. Laurinaitis is out to replace him with Lesnar, to “legitimize” WWE and erase Cena from the picture entirely. Cena knows as much, as he always has whenever the deck is stacked against him. But perhaps this time it’s different. Maybe this time, even for a Superstar like Cena, “rising above” is easier said than done.