Beat Up John Cena: How Defeating the WWE Icon Has Historically Altered Careers

John Cena is not a man who loses very often.

Per the Internet Wrestling Database, he has an all-time winning percentage of 77 percent in WWE. A long list of legends account for many of those victories including Triple H, Batista, The Rock, Randy Orton and The Undertaker.

The sliver of his near-1,500 matches where he didn't have his hand raised can't be overstated, though. Several of those losses arguably meant more than a majority of his wins.

That's a testament to the icon Cena is. He's basically bulletproof at this point in that no defeat will ever considerably damage his iron-clad credibility; he's a made man and has been for almost two decades.

This year's Showcase Mode in the newly released WWE 2K23 sees players relive some of the 16-time world champion's most memorable battles from over the years as his greatest rivals. In every instance, you are required to win against him exactly as it happened in reality.

It's a unique take on a franchise player who fans have frequently criticized for having a history of burying talent. As illustrated in Showcase Mode, that simply isn't an accurate representation of who Cena is as a performer.

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Part 1: The Super Cena Narrative

Ironically, Cena's very first match in WWE on the June 27, 2002 edition of SmackDown ended in a loss for the then-brash newcomer.

He faced Kurt Angle in a losing effort but left a lasting impression on the audience by boldly claiming he possessed "ruthless aggression" before slapping the Olympic gold medalist across the face.

Fittingly, this is one of the first playable matches in WWE 2K23's Showcase Mode.

"I knew John was special the first time I wrestled him," Angle told B/R. "From his very first match, you knew he was going to be a huge star, but I would say that John really started growing as a wrestler and improving and getting over when he started doing the rapper gimmick. He got into a flow and a rhythm. Before that, he was The Prototype, which wasn't really that catchy. After a while, he became one of the best workers in the business and one of the most popular characters."

A majority of today's top talent has emerged victorious in their WWE TV debut, but not Cena. He has openly admitted in various promos, interviews and documentaries that, despite a standout performance against Angle, he was on the company's chopping block for a substantial stretch of time after that.

However, he gained more from the loss than he would have from the win, which would become a continuous trend throughout his run on top.

He and Angle went on to rekindle their rivalry over the WWE Championship in 2005, this time with the roles reversed and The Olympian being the one in chase mode. Cena managed to avenge that first loss by beating him in multiple high-profile pay-per-view matches that year.

"All of them were great, but the ones that really stuck out were the ones in 2005," Angle said. "John got the better of me in those, but he was a much better wrestler at that particular time. He started to mature and get a lot better, and we ended up having some amazing matches."

From that point forward, Cena was booked to steamroll through virtually all of his competition. But, combined with his lack of character development, that led to fans turning on him quite quickly.

No one was safe from "Super Cena" in the eyes of the fans, and yet his ability to elevate everyone he shared the squared circle with was consistently overlooked.

It was during this period that he did the honors for the likes of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Randy Orton, JBL and Batista, though all of those individuals were already established.

It wasn't until 2010 that Cena started working with younger talent, with his win over The Nexus at SummerSlam that year being what most people point to as proof of him being a career-killer.

Aside from a few occasional examples such as Bray Wyatt and Rusev, the Cena character wasn't responsible for the demise of many promising rookies beyond that one unfortunate instance.

CM Punk bested Cena on back-to-back PPVs in 2011. The Rock beat him clean at WrestleMania 28. Even Dolph Ziggler holds a PPV main event victory over Cena from Tables, Ladders & Chairs in 2012.

Cena told Dan Gelston of Associated Press that he does what he's told by WWE and attempts to do it to the best of his abilities, essentially implying he doesn't have considerable say in the stories told and how they play out.

Despite the belief among certain fans that he would use his backstage pull nefariously at the peak of his popularity, he lost when it mattered most to those who needed it most.

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Part 2: Their Time is Now

Perhaps the earliest example of Cena helping to take a talent to the next level through a loss is Edge.

The Rated-R Superstar joined the main roster years before Cena did but struggled to find real singles success until their feud in early 2006.

They were the perfect foils for each other at the time, and Edge's multiple WWE Championship wins over Cena cemented his status as a main event player.

The same can be said for Rob Van Dam, if only for a month in the summer of 2006. RVD pinning Cena to capture his first and only world title was the biggest accomplishment of his WWE career.

Again, each of these battles can be relived and revisited through the immensely immersive Showcase Mode in WWE 2K23.

Cena becoming increasingly more difficult to defeat as his career progresses is what makes the mode so realistic. It also makes every subsequent win over him even more impressive.

For as frustrating as it was for some of the older demographic, his aura of invincibility back then was a major part of his appeal to kids. He was a larger-than-life superhero who could overcome any obstacle, at least until he ran into the roadblock that is AJ Styles.

Cena vs. Styles was a dream match for many because of The Phenomenal One's background as the face of WWE's rival promotion, TNA, but the fantasy warfare aspect of their encounter would have been irrelevant if he couldn't hang with The Champ.

Not only could he hang, but Styles also defeated Cena in clean fashion on back-to-back PPVs. That put him in the upper echelon of the card right away and in contention for the WWE Championship.

"I had a lot of great matches before that, but I was about to reach the pinnacle, about to reach that level where people said, 'Wow, he's different,'" Styles told B/R. "It wasn't exactly the match. It was before the match when I stepped in the ring with him. That was the moment when people realized I was different."

Styles remarked that the biggest lesson he learned from Cena was to never give up, at least in terms of what was being thrown at him in the ring by a high-caliber opponent such as The Cenation Leader.

"You learn pretty quickly from being in the ring with John that he's in charge," Styles added. "I learned pretty quickly I couldn't go toe-to-toe on the mic with him, that just wasn't going to happen. I don't think anybody is capable of that.

"I thought I had him in the ring, but I learned he could get after it. He doesn't get tired, which is pretty amazing because he's got a lot of muscle on that body of his."

It would have been easy for Cena to destroy any momentum Styles had when their feud first kicked off. He could have won their rematch at SummerSlam and moved onto the title picture, but for a second straight time, he put The Phenomenal One over clean.

It was a milestone moment for Styles that he looks back at fondly now, and he is eternally grateful for Cena putting him over on two significant stages.

"John told me not only did he know me but he looked up information on me before we ever started getting on the microphone together," Styles said. "He knew what I was all about, but still, he's a special person. He's the person you want to get in the ring with. He's got respect for me, I've got respect for him and that's why we had unbelievable matches."

Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins are among those Cena has worked with in recent years and has ultimately elevated in one way or another, but will Austin Theory be the next name to join that elite class?

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Part 3: A Successful Theory

The only thing missing from the Cena Showcase in 2K23 (because it's impossible to predict) is what lies ahead of him. Currently, it's a United States Championship clash with Theory at WrestleMania 39.

After the verbal burial Cena bestowed upon Theory on Raw two weeks ago, the big question is whether the follow-up will be strong enough to make it all worthwhile.

The veteran's track record speaks for itself, but Theory has yet to show anything that would prove he's ready for such a spotlight.

If nothing else, this 'Mania match with Cena will give the 25-year-old his biggest platform and opportunity yet. The Grandest Stage of Them All is where careers are made and broken, so a stellar showing against The Champ can go a a long way in establishing him as a serious threat.

Being the United States champion definitely gives Theory a slight edge, but the fact that their feud so far has been about anything but the belt doesn't help. Rather, Cena is anxious to beat respect into the self-professed prodigy and stop his stock from growing.

Theory has every bit as much potential as a majority of Cena's past opponents, so there's no reason to think a resounding win over the wrestler-turned-actor shouldn't launch him into superstardom.

The aftermath will be the most important part. If Theory beats Cena but goes back to meandering in the midcard, then nothing will have been accomplished. He will need to capitalize completely on such a crucial victory by continuing his ascent up the card, or risk fading into obscurity like many of Cena's other old foes who couldn't measure up.

Never before has any one wrestler directly impacted the career trajectories of so many merely by winning or losing. That's the power Cena possesses thanks to the fabled run he's had and why the WWE 2K23 cover star remains the final piece of WWE's puzzle.

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Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.