Power Ranking Every WrestleMania Match in John Cena's Career
There is no bigger franchise player in the world of sports entertainment than John Cena.
Over the course of the last decade, Cena has served as the face of WWE, it's leader and most visible star at a time when creating full-time, main event talent has proven difficult.
No matter what has changed and who has come and gone, Cena has remained the one constant in Vince McMahon's promotion. As such, he regularly finds himself involved in the most relevant matches at the annual Showcase of the Immortals, WrestleMania.
Over the course of his career, he has competed against industry icons the likes of The Rock, Triple H, Shawn Michaels and Batista, as well as young stars such as The Miz and Bray Wyatt.
On Sunday, March 29, he will again take to the ring for a match against a younger, faster, more athletically gifted star when he battles Rusev for the United States Championship.
Will the leader of the Cenation overcome the previously undefeated star, capturing the title he won way back in 2004 at his first WrestleMania?
The answer to that question is not readily apparent. What is, however, is that Cena will be making his 12th consecutive appearance at The Show of Shows, tying him with Bret Hart for the second-most in event history.
As he prepares to accomplish this feat, let's take a stroll down Memory Lane and relive all of his WrestleMania battles, ranked from worst to first in terms of overall quality.
11. United States Championship Match: John Cena vs. Big Show (WrestleMania 20)
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John Cena's first venture into the ring wars of WrestleMania came at the 20th incarnation, where he challenged the massive Big Show for the United States Championship.
Cena threw everything he had The World's Largest Athlete, diving off the top rope and even delivering his vaunted FU finisher to no avail.
Then, behind the official's back, he utilized the chain and lock that he wore around his neck to his advantage, balling it up in his fist and blasting the champion in the face. From there, he delivered a second finisher, leading to the pinfall win and his first singles title.
It was Cena's first win at The Showcase of the Immortals, one that provided the event with a hot start and helped establish the West Newbury, Massachusetts, native as one of the young faces of WWE's bright future.
That does not necessarily mean that the match was good.
Cena was not the same guy who can now get a good wrestling match out of broom, and Big Show certainly was not one to carry anyone to a quality bout. Thus, the match was a fine, energetic opener, but one that ranks easily as the worst on Cena's WrestleMania resume.
10. WWE Championship Match: John Cena vs. The Miz (WrestleMania 27)
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The main event of WrestleMania 27 featured John Cena challenging WWE champion The Miz in a match that should have been the crowning achievement of the titleholder's career.
Instead, the contest single-handedly killed The Miz's chances of ever enjoying a sustained main event run, while also planting the seeds for the monumental marquee match that would headline the next year's event.
From the second The Rock returned to WWE television and it became obvious that he was engaging Cena in a feud, the main event of the 2011 spectacular was in trouble.
Rather than paying attention to the action that was going on inside the squared circle, the fans watched with great anticipation for wrestling's most electrifying Superstar to make his presence felt. The lack of reaction to Cena and Miz led to a lethargic match that would have been better at home on Raw or SmackDown than the biggest show of the year.
When Rock did finally appear, he cost Cena the title, meaning Miz retained his championship.
Not that it mattered, because by the time Raw arrived the following night, few remembered that he ever competed in the most important match of the year.
So bad and ineffective was the match that today it is the punch line of many a joke in regard to Miz's career, which has dwindled in the wake of his biggest match to date.
9. WWE Championship Match: John Cena vs. JBL (WrestleMania 21)
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As The Doctor of Thuganomics, Cena rose steadily up the ranks throughout 2003 and '04, becoming arguably the most popular star on the roster. He was young, edgy and cool at a time when WWE was desperately trying to find the next big star to lead it into the future.
At WrestleMania 21, the company took its first step toward making Cena that star when he battled the hated John "Bradshaw" Layfield for the WWE Championship in the co-main event.
The match was standard SmackDown affair, with little in the way of innovation or excitement.
JBL grounded Cena, who made the first of many, many Superman comebacks to follow and delivered the FU for the pinfall win and his first heavyweight championship.
Some 10 years and 15 titles later, Cena has established his as the greatest dynasty in professional wrestling.
8. WWE Championship Match: John Cena vs. The Rock (WrestleMania 29)
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The WrestleMania 29 main event between Royal Rumble winner Cena and WWE champion The Rock was not one fans wanted to see.
One year after the two Superstars had captivated fans with an intensely personal rivalry, leading to a "Once In A Lifetime" match at the biggest show of the year, fans felt as if WWE had deliberately lied to them.
Rock had won the first match, fair and square, and there really was no need for a followup except to put Cena over. It was obvious, and as a result, the main event of the 2013 show was greeted with apathy.
That the Superstars appeared rushed, starting with basic headlocks before suddenly segueing into an exchange of finishers—most of which were kicked out of or just not sold—only hurt the quality and effectiveness of the match.
An injury slowed The Rock even more than his considerable mass had a year earlier, and the match suffered even more.
While it picked up nicely by the end, the damage had been done, leading to one of the more underwhelming and disappointing matches on Cena's WrestleMania resume.
7. World Championship Match: John Cena vs. Edge vs. Big Show (WrestleMania 25)
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The Triple Threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 25 was actually a very good one. Unfortunately, it had the unenviable task of following a modern classic by The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels, which led the WWE Universe on a roller coaster of emotion and exhausted them for the remainder of the night.
The result of Cena's ongoing rivalries with both Edge and Big Show, the contest featured a number of cool spots, including one in which the resident babyface hoisted both of his opponents onto his shoulders for an Attitude Adjustment attempt.
Big Show was treated like the monster heel he was, but by the end of the evening it was Cena who captured yet another heavyweight championship, further establishing himself as the measuring stick of World Wrestling Entertainment in the PG Era.
6. WWE Championship Match: John Cena vs. Randy Orton vs. HHH (WrestleMania 24)
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WWE champion Randy Orton had established himself as Public Enemy No. 1 by the time 2008 rolled around, the rare heel who could be the centerpiece of booking. He had infuriated both Triple H and John Cena, all the while managing to retain his title in matches against both.
At WrestleMania 24, he would be faced with the unenviable task of defending against both in a Triple Threat match.
The action was nonstop, with Orton doing just enough to avoid defeat at any given point. Cena, on the other hand, looked determined to regain the title he never lost. Late in the match, however, Cena found himself on the receiving end of a Pedigree by Triple H.
It appeared as though The Game was going to pick up another championship on The Grandest Stage of Them All when, out of nowhere, Orton shot across the ring and delivered a vicious punt to the head of his former mentor.
The man known as The Viper retained his title, much to the dismay of his opponents and the fans, who had hoped to see one of the more popular babyfaces leave Orlando with the title.
The defeat would mark Cena's first loss at The Granddaddy of Them All, effectively bringing to an end what could have been a huge moneymaking match against The Undertaker at some point down the line.
5. John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt (WrestleMania 30)
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The role of heroes in today's society was the theme of Bray Wyatt's promo work ahead of his WrestleMania 30 match with John Cena, arguably the biggest and greatest hero in today's WWE.
With no championship at stake, the story was still built incredibly well and had as much heat behind it as any other on the card.
The match was different than what fans may have expected: It was ripe with story and light on action, at least early.
Cena was caught off guard, visibly shaken by Wyatt's Spider Walk, but that did not affect his will to win. Overcoming interference by the massive Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, even going airborne to do so, the leader of the Cenation proved that at least for one night, good could still trump evil.
His win over Wyatt came in a contest that was never technically pretty or traditional. Instead, it was one that added the latest chapter to their story while doing just enough to make it Cena's fifth-greatest WrestleMania match.
4. WWE Championship Match: John Cena vs. Batista (WrestleMania 26)
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At WrestleMania 26, two Superstars who began their runs atop WWE five years earlier at The Showcase of the Immortals, battled for the most coveted prize in the industry when John Cena and Batista clashed in one of the many main events the 2010 show touted.
The contest was a war of attrition, with each Superstar looking to put the other away with a high-impact signature move.
Anyone looking for a match rife with German suplexes, fancy submission maneuvers learned from days spent touring the globe or any high-risk flips was bound to be disappointed. It was a hard-hitting heavyweight battle to determine the top dog on Monday Night Raw, and in that context, it was a phenomenal bout.
Cena and Batista had proved in the past that they had crazy chemistry with each other, and that was again the case on that April night in Phoenix, as the two icons of the Ruthless Aggression Era kept fans on the edge of their seats with a dramatic contest that culminated in Cena's trapping his opponent in the STF and forcing a tapout.
The Champ was indeed here again, but the feud with Batista was far from over, as fans would learn in the weeks that followed the spectacle.
3. John Cena vs. The Rock (WrestleMania 28)
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John Cena vs. The Rock at WrestleMania 28 was a year in the making. Thus, anything less than a classic contest between the two would be considered a major disappointment, especially given the hype and promotion that went into it.
Luckily, two of the biggest stars ever produced by Vince McMahon's empire came together to deliver one of those truly special, iconic matches that had every single one of the 78,363 fans jam-packed into the Orange Bowl Sun Life Stadium in Miami guessing as to who would emerge with their arm raised in victory.
Cena and Rock traded signature maneuvers, with each digging deep into their proverbial bag of tricks to pull out moves neither had used in quite some time, including a cross-body block off the top rope by The Great One.
Late in the match, Cena saw an opportunity to mock his rival and took it. Setting up for The People's Elbow, he flashed a cocky grin and hit the ropes. As he bounced off, he ran right into a Rock Bottom and had his shoulders pinned to the mat for the count of three, ending his opportunity to prove his superiority over The Rock.
Dejected, he watched from the ramp as The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment celebrated in front of his hometown fans.
2. WWE Championship Match: John Cena vs. Triple H (WrestleMania 22)
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"It's gonna be the easiest match of my life."
That was Triple H's feeling in regard to his WrestleMania 22 main event against WWE champion John Cena. Though The Doctor of Thuganomics spent most of the previous year as the heavyweight champion, waging war with the likes of Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, John "Bradshaw" Layfield and Edge, The Game refused to take him seriously as the top dog in the industry.
To Triple H, Cena was but a boy in a man's world, and at the biggest event of the year, in front of a rabid Chicago crowd desperate to see the goody-two-shoes Cena lose his title, he would prove it.
But The King of Kings' conquering of the champion would not be as easy as he thought. Despite being overwhelmed early, Cena fought back, seemingly thriving off the jeers of the pro-Triple H crowd in Chicago.
He withstood a shot from the challenger's vaunted sledgehammer and even kicked out of the Pedigree. Meanwhile, the fans in Chicago erupted with every near-fall, believing that they were about to see the end of Cena as champion.
He crushed their hopes, forcing Triple H to tap out to the STF and continuing his reign atop WWE.
Watching the match on mute, without the benefit of the crowd reaction to each and every little move, one may be tempted to rank the contest much further down this list. After all, Cena was still fairly green as a main event performer, and at times it showed. Triple H clearly carried the match, something he does not get nearly enough credit for.
But in the world of professional wrestling, getting the crowd to invest in a match is as important as anything that goes into the actual in-ring action itself. Thus, the Chicago crowd was absolutely essential to the overall quality of the match.
1. WWE Championship Match: John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels (WrestleMania 23)
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It should be no surprise that the best match on John Cena's WrestleMania resume features Shawn Michaels.
After all, The Heartbreak Kid has become synonymous with the event over the last two decades, so to suggest that he was partly responsible for providing the best match of anyone's career on The Grandest Stage of Them All, let alone Cena's, was no stretch.
For the second year in a row, the WWE champion found himself faced with the task of successfully retaining the title against one-half of D-Generation X.
In front of 80,000-plus fans inside Detroit's Ford Field, Cena was bloodied following a piledriver onto the ring steps and outwrestled at nearly every turn.
But as numerous T-shirts over the years have advertised, he never gave up. Instead, he kept fighting, overcoming Michaels' superior in-ring skills to trap him in the STF, much like he did to HBK's best friend Triple H just one year earlier.
And just like The Game, Michaels had no choice but to tap out.
The match was full of drama and superb storytelling, a trademark of all great Michaels matches. Cena carried his own and, for the first time, looked like the face of the company. He was much more confident than he had been a year earlier, and more importantly, he turned in a much better performance.
Together, the Superstars crafted a classic, the first of many between them over the course of the next month.
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