Here’s another WWE attempt at shoehorning itself into some place where it doesn’t belong. For Foot Locker’s “Week of Greatness” promotion they released a bunch of commercials with different athletes. The funniest being the Manny Pacquiao promo. Granted, the commercial does poke fun at the very tired fact that wrestling isn’t real. And it does feature the WWE’s official sneaker spokesperson, John Cena. Unless this was another sponsor CM Punk had gotten all on his own and was then taken away from him. In any case, it puts the WWE in a mainstream commercial and makes it somewhat relevant again to the casual viewer.
Two sporty-looking dudes are hanging out having drinks that surprisingly don’t end in “ade”, discussing the upcoming “Week of Greatness”. After one comments how he can’t believe it’s real, it triggers a Beetlejuice reaction in which John Cena materializes out of thin red air. John Cena points out that you don’t have to believe something is real in order to enjoy it (wink, wink – nudge, nudge). The black guy obviously points out that awesome sneakers being sold at Foot Locker is, in fact, a real thing. Cena concedes, but offers that even if it wasn’t real and it still made you happy then that’s totally okay. Which is not okay and doesn’t make sense when you apply that train of thought to actual sneakers being sold at Foot Locker.
Still, the black dude sees where John is coming from and is like, “Yeah, okay, you mean like wrestling?” Which makes John Cena snap to the point where you think he’s going to overcome these odds by Attitude Adjusting the guy onto the table. As much as Cena is overreacting, it kind of makes me wish he’d put this much emotional effort into some of his promos and not just make jokes that destroy other wrestlers’ gimmicks.
Maybe Cena was really mad because the guy called it wrestling and not sports entertainment. Then John could’ve been like, “Yes, exactly like sports entertainment.” Maybe wrestling is still real to him. Cena then gives him the “you can’t see me” hand gesture and angrily walks away. Instead of teleporting like he did earlier.
This commercial would’ve been more timely if this was shot when Cena was actually incorporating his shoes into his gimmick. Like, with the whole Reebok Pumps thing he did a while back. Sadly, the only John Cena sneaker tie-in that would’ve made sense for this commercial was if Foot Locker was selling the John Cena “Never Give Up” sneakers that just happen to be K-Mart exclusives only.
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