WWE: John Cena and 7 Baby Faces Fans Have Loved to Hate

The wrestling business is one that typically lives and dies by conventions. One of the biggest conventions has always been that faces get cheered while heels get booed. There have been several special circumstances over the years that have deviated from that, however, particularly in the present day.

Perhaps no baby face has ever been booed as loudly and as often as John Cena. He has had a very similar character for about seven years, and much of the heat he receives is a result of many fans having grown tired of his gimmick. Cena isn't the only guy who has had to deal with this, however.

Whether it's a matter of being unable to connect with a face from the time of his debut or ultimately falling out of love with him over the years, fans have been known to react outwardly in a negative fashion toward faces from time to time.

Here are the top seven faces over the course of the WWE's storied history that fans have loved to hate most.

John Cena

There is no more polarizing figure in professional wrestling today and perhaps wrestling history than John Cena. He is clearly the face of the company and the most recognizable active wrestler in the world, but not everyone is buying what the WWE is selling.

Cena appeals primarily to the younger audience as well as women, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the frustrated male demographic often rains boos down upon him.

It's safe to say that the start of the hatred toward Cena took place at ECW One Night Stand in 2006. Cena defended his WWE title against Money in the Bank winner Rob Van Dam at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, which housed almost exclusively diehard ECW fans. Cena was booed mercilessly and things continued from there.

Money in the Bank 2011 is another example of the crowd turning on Cena. He was facing CM Punk in Punk's hometown of Chicago, and it was clear that Punk had the home-field advantage, if you will.

Since then, the boos for Cena have been quite evident, but he has remained face. Such fan reactions are often used as a vehicle for turning a face into a heel, but Cena continues to persevere as the company's top face. There is no sign of that coming to an end any time soon.

Hulk Hogan

Hulk Hogan is almost certainly the most popular and well-known superstar in the history of wrestling, but not even he could always escape the wrath of fed up fans.

Hogan is the primary reason why the WWE has become a global empire and why wrestling is no longer a territorial enterprise. He became a major star in 1984 when he won the WWE title and was the driving force behind the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection, which led to WrestleMania and all kinds of other successful ventures for Vince McMahon.

The fans absolutely loved Hogan from 1984 through 1991, and it was extremely rare to hear a boo of any kind, but things shifted a bit in 1992.

Not only was Hogan on shaky ground due to steroid allegations against him and the WWE as a whole, but the fans were beginning to turn as well. Sid Justice came to the WWE in late-1991 as a dominant face and the crowd got behind him almost immediately, so much so that it began to favor him over Hogan.

Sid eliminated Hogan in the 1992 Royal Rumble, which prompted fans to cheer. Those same fans then booed when Hogan pulled Sid over the ropes from the outside, allowing Ric Flair to win.

Hogan's appearances dwindled before he left for WCW in 1994. Hogan's Hulkamania shtick didn't last long there, however, as the fans turned on him again. This prompted Hogan to turn heel and help form the nWo in 1996.

Rocky Maivia

Today, The Rock is considered one of the most popular wrestlers that the business has ever seen. However, considering how rough his career was at the beginning, it's quite amazing that he has ascended to this level.

As the son of Rocky Johnson and grandson of Peter Maivia, The Rock entered the WWE as Rocky Maivia in 1996 and there were certainly high hopes for the athletic and exciting youngster.

Maivia was given a ton from the very start. He was the sole survivor in his debut match at Survivor Series, and he also became Intercontinental champion just three months into his WWE tenure.

Rocky Maivia was a far cry from The Rock, however, as there wasn't much substance to him aside from the fact that he smiled a lot. That wasn't cutting it for the fans, which led them to chant "Rocky sucks" and "Die, Rocky, die" among other things during his matches.

This affected Rocky in a very profound way.

Although it might have discouraged most wrestlers, it drove him to become better and that is precisely what he did.

The negative crowd reaction prompted him to turn heel and develop The Rock character. He then went on to become an absolute legend in the industry and has even managed to transcend wrestling with his acting career. Being booed as a face can definitely have its advantages.

Bob Backlund

In the 1970s and 1980s, it wasn't uncommon for a wrestler to hold a belt for several years without fans becoming the least bit tired of it.

Bob Backlund couldn't escape that fate, however. Backlund won the WWE title in 1978 and held it until The Iron Sheik defeated him in 1983.

It remains the second-longest reign in WWE history, but it was forced to come to an end due to the emergence of Hulk Hogan as well as the crowd turning on Backlund.

Backlund was among the most popular wrestlers in the business for quite some time, and was excellent in the ring due to his amateur wrestling background.

That only held the fans' interest for so long, though, as he completely lacked charisma.

Backlund was still mostly cheered throughout his reign since he was often facing big-time heels like The Iron Sheik and "Superstar" Billy Graham, but he was too vanilla for a product that was evolving.

Backlund was nicknamed "Howdy Doody" by famed manager Grand Wizard because of his milquetoast presence and the fans began to buy into that description of him.

Backlund left the WWE not long after he dropped the title to The Iron Sheik, and it was probably a good thing he did because he would have been a poor fit for the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection.

Owen Hart

The late Owen Hart is remembered fondly by most wrestling fans as one of the most underrated workers the business has ever seen. He is also remembered as one of the best wrestlers to never hold the WWE title.

During his heyday, however, the fans weren't always behind "The Rocket."

Owen played a heel for much of his career, but he was featured as a face during the early part of his WWE tenure. He formed tag teams with Koko B. Ware and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart respectively before ultimately teaming with his brother, Bret.

It was during this time that Owen began to draw some heat from the fans.

He was initially very supportive of Bret, but over time he started to look like a jealous little brother. Things got really heated at Survivor Series 1994 when Owen teamed up with Bret and their other brothers, Keith and Bruce, to take on a team led by Shawn Michaels.

The Harts won, but Bret and Owen accidentally collided during the match, causing Owen to be eliminated. This sent Owen into a rage and foreshadowed his heel turn.

Owen and Bret eventually reunited, but the fans were certainly tentative when it came to supporting Owen. They teamed up against The Quebecers at the 1994 Royal Rumble, but Bret was ruled unable to continue due to a knee injury, causing the Harts to lose the match.

Owen berated his injured brother and attacked him. This confirmed Owen's heel turn as well as the suspicions of the fans.

X-Pac

When a wrestler has a type of heat named after him, you pretty much know that he incited some reactions from the crowd.

That is the case with X-Pac.

Sean Waltman was a pretty popular wrestler throughout his career, originally as the 1-2-3 Kid and then as X-Pac, a member of D-Generation X. Every character runs its course at some point, however, and X-Pac seemingly reached that point in 2001.

X-Pac returned to action that year after suffering a neck injury, but the fans simply weren't as kind to him as they had once been.

This was apparent during the WCW/ECW Invasion storyline.

X-Pac was a face representing the WWE, but the fans decided to boo him anyway. It was presumably because they were tired of him and simply wanted him to go away. This type of heat has since been christened "X-Pac heat."

Several wrestlers have been the recipient of X-Pac heat since then, but nobody could ever reach the same level that X-Pac himself did.

X-Pac left the WWE in 2002, much to the delight of the fans, and he didn't make his official return until the 1,000th episode of Raw during the DX reunion segment. It seemed as though the fans put their negative feelings toward X-Pac behind them, but few will forget how much the crowd hated him in 2001.

Kurt Angle

Kurt Angle's situation is somewhat of a controversial one to put on this list, but it is quite interesting, so I decided to do it anyway.

Angle, who is an Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling, made his WWE debut in 1999. His character was that of an American hero who preached the importance of "The Three I's," which were intensity, integrity and intelligence.

Despite his good-guy persona, Angle quickly drew heat from the fans.

This was because Angle became quite arrogant and often acted as though he was better than anyone else. While Angle was essentially a heel working under the guise of a face, I don't feel like it is unfair to say that he was a pseudo-face getting booed by the crowd.

Angle's character was actually extremely entertaining and revolutionary in some ways because it blurred the lines between face and heel, which is somewhat rare in wrestling.

Angle went from face to heel and back a few times during his WWE tenure, but he is one of the most popular WWE wrestlers over the past dozen years or so regardless of whether he was playing a face, heel, comedic, serious or any other type of character.

Angle was essentially a chameleon in the WWE as he could adapt and change his character based on the situation, and that is what made him so great.

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