Not to say that neither of these guys got over on there own, I mean Cena certainly did up to winning his first title.

But it's fair to say that a large number of fans grew bored of both during their long periods of dominance atop the card.

I'd argue reigns is worse because at least when Cena was the champion, the secondary world title still felt somewhat important, whereas for reigns they have relegated the secondary world title to basically intercontinental level.

I think with reigns it's so bad that they have actually intentionally made him part time because fans know his routine wouldn't work if they had him out there at every ppv and 2 or 3 raws a month winning by cheating every time, so they have to limit his appearances to try and offset the fan boredom with him.

i would say reigns since they already planned to have reigns as the face of the wwe while cena got over so much that they had to do it

cena's thuganomic gimmick from 2003 to 2005 gave him that push to stardom then wwe had to shove it down everyone's eyes

they saw reign as the guy they wanted to make a star

u can see the difference between 2014 royal rumble when it was reign vs batista in the end vs 2015 rumble where they didnt want reigns to win cause fan knew where it was going

Super Cody, minus the title, is far worse than Super Cena

Cody is running around taking down three at a time with a damaged ankle and he's doing run in saves on Smackdown when LA Knight, who is feuding with the Bloodline, gets jumped.

the question of who was the more "artificial star" is a matter of opinion. Every fan will have their own opinion. But the fact remains that both wrestlers were promoted by WWE as top stars and both were successful in doing so.

Reigns.

Reigns was selected before he proved anything. He never worked his way to the top spot. It was just saved for him.
Reigns was given opportunity to fail time and time again. On the biggest stages. He got booed out of the building in the main event of Wrestlemania! Nobody wanted him. Yet he still kept getting the top spots for years. Eventually they found what works for him. but it took failing for like 10 years. No one else was allowed to fail that much at such a high level.

Cena became popular organically.
Then he got over-pushed, but only half the fans turned on him.

The difference between them is Cena is a great talker. He can go in there by himself and entertain the entire building. Reigns does not have that. People say Reigns is charismatic, and he is, but he needs someone to bounce off. Like if you needed to fill for time, you can send Cena out there with nothing planned and he will make magic. Same scenario, you send Reigns out there with nothing, he will fall flat. That's not a really a criticism of Reigns, but just how special Cena was.

cena got over organically. it was just that once he got to the top, they kept force feeding him down everyone's throats

This. Roman still isn't over. Take away Heyman and Bloodline and see what happens. He will fail because ignoring X-Pac go away heat will no longer be an option. The last time Roman was on his own, they ran out of ideas.

Cody should be in polka dots…

Cena had a lot to do with manifesting his own career, this is documented, he spoke at a young age about becoming the champ & he invented the prototype persona. He sought out training & he made a number of moves correctly which ultimately resulted in John getting a major push from the McMahons, which he already knew the importance of.

Rhodes was on a grind, remember his debut? He's been on a long journey to even be considered for contention. I could try to explain that, but there's no blame anywhere. It's all about development & impact & people have different paths & the business is meant to be that way, & what Cody did was brilliant. He recognized this system for what it is & played his role & what more can you really ask for other than a good in-ring performance?

Reigns right, everyone says he got all the help. He had Dusty. He had McMahon. You name it, Heyman. They were all at his disposal. I'm not attempting to insult anyone but also remember, Reigns wouldn't be there either if he hadn't met their standards. He moved through a pre-built system & that system knew he didn't know what John knew coming in but he had his own personal strengths which is why he's where he is right now.

Cena got over on his own originally. his original thug gimmick that rapped , with bull bucanon (B2) yelling 'Booyaah' was OVER. He was hilarious and was a break out star that year. he had his own CD that came out and was supported by fans back then.

THEN he did the marine movie came back as a corporate good guy that toned down the raps and turned up the 'never give up patriot ' guy . that guy was the one people got tired of

Reigns was manufactured from the moment he became a singles guy

Cena actually has talent.

i stopped watching before they started pushing cena to the moon when they fired scoot hall . i would say cena was pushed far more they still use that stupid cena ybaa do music on the smackdown commercials