Ranking John Cena's 10 Greatest Rivals in WWE
John Cena will wrestle his final match on December 13 as part of Saturday Night's Main Event, and in the 11 months predating the contest, fans have taken a magical journey through his career.
Now, it's time to look at the rivalries that have helped define The GOAT's Hall of Fame career.
From personal wars to championship clashes, against training buddies and anti-authority rebels who stepped up to the biggest star in the company, these are the 10 rivalries that helped establish Cena's legacy and elevated a few future Hall of Famers along the way.
10. Bray Wyatt
1 of 10
Cena was the undisputed top star in professional wrestling when Bray Wyatt crossed his path in the weeks leading into WrestleMania 30.
The Eater of Worlds recognized the connection Cena had with the crowd, his status as a superhero to millions everywhere, and sought to expose him for who he really was. Wyatt spent weeks trying to tear his rival down, trying to convince the world that the hero act was merely a facade.
He failed in his attempt to prove as much at The Showcase of the Immortals. Wyatt would get his win back at Extreme Rules in a steel cage match before Cena won the deciding match in the feud at Payback.
Six years later, they rekindled their rivalry ahead of a surreal WrestleMania 36, which took place via tape delay from the WWE Performance Center due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Looking for the best way to present the story they wanted, Cena and Wyatt engaged in the Firefly Funhouse match, a surreal walk through the career of WWE's resident hero.
From what it would have looked like had he turned heel to mocking examples of the caricature Cena had been at times, it was a cerebral, cinematic match that ended with Wyatt's The Fiend persona defeating Cena with the Mandible Claw.
Unfortunately, the two never got to cross paths again before Wyatt died in August 2023.
Still, at a time when there were complaints about Cena growing stale as a character, Wyatt took the character down a different path and created some unforgettable moments with The Unseen 17.
9. Shawn Michaels
2 of 10
A torn quadriceps muscle forced Triple H to the sidelines early in 2007, leaving the planned rematch with Cena at that year's WrestleMania off the table.
Enter Shawn Michaels, who stepped up to the plate and opposed Cena in a rivalry that may have been short, but made for some compelling television.
They partnered to win the Raw Tag Team Championship, but still took shots at each other, leading to a WrestleMania 27 main event in which HBK pushed Cena to the limit in a grueling marquee bout.
As he had a year earlier against The Game, Cena overcame the challenge, trapped his opponent in the STF and forced a submission for the win.
Later in April, the two mixed it up again, this time in a near hour-long classic on Raw. Michaels won the non-title match, earning one more shot at Cena's belt, this time in a Fatal 4-Way also involving Edge and Randy Orton at Backlash.
Cena retained and brought an end to the Michaels rivalry. However, the physicality and fortitude shown by both men makes it one of the forgotten gems of Cena's Hall of Fame career.
8. Kurt Angle
3 of 10
From the moment Cena first walked through the curtain and into the households of WWE fans around the world, he had beef with Kurt Angle.
On the June 27, 2002 episode of SmackDown, he confronted Angle, answering an open challenge and citing "ruthless aggression" as the driving force behind him.
He took The Olympic Gold Medalist to the limit that night and, even in defeat, established himself as a star of the future.
When he won the WWE Championship and made the jump to Raw from SmackDown, he rekindled the rivalry, feuding with the future Hall of Famer through the back quarter of 2005 and repeatedly successfully defending his title.
They would not meet again after 2006, but one cannot discount the significance Angle had on Cena's career early on, both in establishing him as a main roster talent and validating his WWE title run.
7. Batista
4 of 10
Cena and Batista rose through the ranks of Ohio Valley Wrestling, WWE's developmental territory, in the early 2000s and earned rave reviews as potential faces of the company's future while there.
They both arrived on the scene in 2002 and enjoyed near-identical journeys to the top of the promotion, two promising young stars who were not picked to be the top guys but worked hard, connected with the audience and earned their way there.
At WrestleMania 21 in 2005, both men captured their respective brand's world title, establishing themselves as the faces of the Ruthless Aggression era in WWE.
At the 2008 SummerSlam, fans got their first taste of a feud between the two when hostility boiled over and they battled to determine who the biggest star was. Batista won that night, but it would not be the last time they competed against each other.
In February 2010, Cena had just won the WWE Championship inside a brutal Elimination Chamber match when the evil Mr. McMahon informed him he would defend against Batista. The Animal took advantage of the exhausted Cena and captured the title.
The GOAT regained it at WrestleMania 26, but the feud was not over. They wrestled again at Extreme Rules and Over the Limit, with Cena beating his rival in a Last Man Standing match and an "I Quit" match to put an exclamation point on the rivalry.
The promos between the two, their rich history dating back to OVW and the chemistry they had in the ring elevated the rivalry, even when the creative behind it could have been better.
6. AJ Styles
5 of 10
AJ Styles arrived in WWE in 2016 amid concerns about how well Vince McMahon and the creative team would utilize a star of his stature.
A former world champion in TNA and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, he was widely considered the best in the world by the time he debuted with the company and some believed it was only a matter of time before he was misused and poorly booked.
Within five months of his debut, though, Styles began a rivalry with Cena that would entrench him among the elite WWE Superstars.
The Phenomenal One defeated Cena at Money in the Bank 2016 in a match that was excellent but also somehow the worst of their trilogy. At SummerSlam a month later, Cena got his win back in an all-timer.
They saved their best for last, though, as Cena defeated Styles to win the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble in January 2017, in a match where neither man left the ring and the entire thing unfolded inside the squared circle.
Those three contests would have been enough to earn the rivalry representation on this list, but it was not their final encounter.
That came at Crown Jewel in Perth, Australia in 2025.
Borrowing from their greatest hits, and the moves of their most notable rivals, they took fans on an emotional roller coaster that concluded with Cena delivering a Tombstone Piledriver in homage to The Undertaker, and putting Styles down with the Attitude Adjustment for the win.
Unreal in-ring chemistry, and Styles' determination to prove he belonged with the elite, made the rivalry truly special and left fans begging WWE to revisit it one last time during Cena's retirement tour.
5. Brock Lesnar
6 of 10
One of Cena's first tests as a potential main event competitor came in 2003, when he opposed new WWE champion Brock Lesnar on the heels of WrestleMania 19.
Avenging an F-5 into the ring post that put him on the sidelines for months, the Doctor of Thuganomics cut some of his most aggressive promos on The Beast Incarnate, setting the stage for an intensely personal match at that year's Backlash.
Cena lost that contest and would not have an opportunity to avenge that defeat for another nine years.
Upon his return from an eight-year absence, Lesnar immediately targeted Cena, jumping him the night after WrestleMania 28. Now the face of the industry, The GOAT responded with a gutsy performance at Extreme Rules, withstanding a bloody beatdown from Lesnar before catching him with a steel chain to the face and defeating him with an Attitude Adjustment onto the ring steps.
The most famous match between the two came at the 2014 SummerSlam, where Lesnar obliterated Cena, overwhelming him with strength and fury en route to a WWE title win.
Like Batista, Lesnar came up through OVW with Cena, so the two were always linked but it is the variety in their matchups and their ability to tell a story that captivated fans and has made their rivalry one for the history books.
The two men also clashed as Wrestlepalooza in September, where Lesnar again asserted his dominance.
4. Randy Orton
7 of 10
Like Lesnar and Batista, Randy Orton was one of the breakout stars of Ohio Valley Wrestling at the same time Cena was winning the promotion's world championship as The Prototype.
Tapped for success right out of the gate, the third-generation star arrived on the main roster at nearly the same time as Cena.
For the first few years of their main roster runs, they barely interacted. Their first match came on the November 13, 2005 episode of Raw, the Eddie Guerrero Tribute broadcast, and ended in a disqualification.
They would not compete one-on-one against for nearly two years.
From there, though, the matchup became a staple of WWE programming. They wrestled each other in singles action on Raw, SmackDown and pay-per-view 16 times, not to mention countless tag team and multi-man contests along the way.
Two of the biggest stars in the industry, who first encountered each other in a warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky, grabbed the attention of the wrestling world and waged war in some of the most physical matches of the new millennium.
The lack of one truly great contest hurts the overall feud a bit, but there is no denying the aura when they shared a ring and how important their feud was to a company that struggled to create new stars beyond them in the late 2000s.
Their final dance at Backlash in 2025 was an emotional contest for an entire generation of fans, for whom Cena vs. Orton was their Hogan vs. Andre or Austin vs. Rock.
3. The Rock
8 of 10
From the moment Cena rose to the top of the company, he made it clear he wanted a match against The Rock. He took shots at The Great One in the media, accusing him of claiming he loves WWE but running the moment Hollywood came calling.
In 2011, seven years after his last appearance on WWE television, Rock made his triumphant return and immediately targeted Cena. For weeks, he and the top dog in the company exchanged insults, leading to The Great One costing Cena the WWE title at WrestleMania 27.
The following night on Raw, the megastars came together and lay down a challenge for the following year's event: a Once in a Lifetime battle with 12 months to build the story and hype.
For nearly 365 days, they continued to trade blows and insults, leading to one of the most anticipated matches in WWE history. The Rock won that initial encounter in his hometown of Miami, but it was not the end of the rivalry.
A Royal Rumble win in 2013 meant Cena had a shot at either the WWE or World Heavyweight Championship. After Rock defeated CM Punk for the former, it was clear where the story was headed.
For one last time, Cena and Rock clashed on the grand stage, with the former getting his win back and regaining the WWE title along the way.
They have interacted since, both at WrestleMania 40, where The Final Boss flattened Cena with a Rock Bottom, and at this year's Elimination Chamber, where Cena sold his soul to his rival and executed a heel turn that...went nowhere, thanks to The Rock's unavailability.
There have been longer rivalries in Cena's career, but one would have a hard time finding another that meant as much to establishing him as that Mount Rushmore-level guy than the feud with The Rock, which shattered box-office records and gave WWE that one great, must-see match.
2. Edge
9 of 10
The most important rivalry in Cena's career began in January 2006, when Edge cashed in the Money in the Bank briefcase and stole the WWE Championship from him, moments after a grueling victory inside the Elimination Chamber.
Cena took the title back weeks later at the Royal Rumble, but that moment elevated Edge to the top of Raw and ignited a rivalry with the biggest babyface in the company.
For the next four years, the two future Hall of Famers waged war on multiple occasions, including an unforgettable Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match at Unforgiven in September 2006. They brutalized each other in the name of capturing gold and enhancing their legacies.
They grew up together in that feud, evolving into the main event talent WWE foresaw them being. They fed off each other, as did the crowds. Edge was the anti-authority rebel who was cool, while Cena was the product of the machine. Some fans booed The Rated-R Superstar, others jeered his clean-shaven babyface opponent.
The electric atmosphere and the quality of their matches together made their stuff unmissable and, while fans would have loved to see the two wrestle one last time, Edge's contractual status with All Elite Wrestling made it impossible.
Still, fans have countless matches between the two to cherish as the classics of an era in which both men rose to the top of the industry and injected much-needed new blood into the main event picture.
1. CM Punk
10 of 10
The greatest rivalry in Cena's career will always be with CM Punk.
Two polar opposite characters but with the most undeniable in-ring chemistry of any pairing of main event stars in the last 15 years, they brought the best out of each other.
Punk was loud, opinionated, disgruntled, angry and counter-culture. Cena was the ultimate company man, always showing up, never complaining and being the best role model he could be.
Their first match took place in Hershey, Pennsylvania on the November 23, 2009 episode of Raw, an inter-promotional showdown won by Cena. The contest gave fans a taste of what they could expect if and when the two locked up again.
They clashed several times over the next two years before Punk cut his infamous pipebomb promo and announced his intention to leave WWE with the WWE Championship, which he would take from Cena at Money in the Bank in his hometown of Chicago.
In one of the greatest, most iconic matches in WWE history, Punk defeated Cena to win the title. They collided again the following month at SummerSlam, where Punk again narrowly escaped with the win.
A heel turn from Punk in 2012 resulted in another handful of showdowns with Cena and in February 2013, the two wrestled what may have been the best bout of their rivalry, a No. 1 Contender's match on Raw.
Fast-forward 12 years and the two waged war one last time in Saudi Arabia when they squared off in the main event for the Undisputed WWE Championship at Night of Champions.
Cena won that match, with help from Seth Rollins, bringing an end to their rivalry.
The most unexpectedly great program of the last 15 years, it elevated Punk's star and reminded the rest of the world of how great Cena was as a performer, both on the mic and in the ring.
It was a truly iconic rivalry that got the best out of both performers.
