John Cena's Most Memorable Matches, Moments in WrestleMania History

Although John Cena's in-ring career appears to be winding down, he remains WWE's biggest star, and he has enjoyed his fair share of memorable moments at WrestleMania.

Cena's WrestleMania debut came in March 2004, when he defeated The Big Show to win the United States Championship in the opener for WrestleMania XX.

Since then, he has become an almost annual mainstay in the pay-per-view, and his matches are routinely among the most anticipated on the card. Even as he has worked a more limited schedule with WWE, he has continued to show up for WrestleMania season.

Let's take a look at Cena's journey through "The Grandest Stage of Them All."

WrestleMania 21: Cena Wins His 1st WWE Championship

It happened so long ago that it's easy to forget John Cena's first WWE Championship reign started when he beat John Bradshaw Layfield at WrestleMania 21 in 2005.

Kurt Angle's win over Shawn Michaels overshadowed much of that PPV, and it's one of the greatest matches in WrestleMania history. Triple H also main-evented with Batista, which took more shine off Cena's title win. But Cena would have plenty more opportunities to have the spotlight at WrestleMania.

Of course, shortly after his win over JBL, Cena introduced a new version of the WWE Championship that included a spinner plate in the middle. The design would remain until August 2014, though the spinner itself had long since been removed from the equation.

WrestleMania 22: Chicago Turns Against Cena as He Beats Triple H

Cena's WrestleMania 22 match is remembered largely for things that had little to do with anything Cena did in the ring.

Many fans recollect CM Punk being among the costumed gangsters who drove down the entrance ramp prior to Cena's arrival. This was also the first time Cena received a notably negative crowd reaction on a big stage.

Today, "John Cena sucks" chants have become commonplace at WWE events—to the point where it has almost become a chant of endearment, similar to when the crowd chants "You suck" in tune with Kurt Angle's entrance theme.

But the Chicago fans were not having Cena despite him clearly being the face in his rivalry with Triple H, and it created an odd dynamic during the match.

WrestleMania 23: Cena Defeats Shawn Michaels to Remain WWE Champion

This is the first great match Cena had at WrestleMania. Sure, Michaels deserves his share of credit for the match, but Cena showed he could hold his own in the ring against a technical wizard such as The Heartbreak Kid.

The pair had another classic on Raw less than a month later.

WWE did swing and miss somewhat, however, with Cena's entrance.

A pre-taped clip was aired showing a Ford Mustang driving through the streets of Detroit to Ford Field. The windows were tinted so much that it was impossible to tell whether Cena was driving. The entrance ended with the Mustang driving through a sheet of glass with the WrestleMania 23 logo.

It was an overly elaborate, nonsensical way for the champion to make his way to the ring.

WrestleMania XXIV: Cena Suffers 1st Defeat at WrestleMania

This was the first time Cena tasted defeat at WrestleMania. Triple H delivered the Pedigree to Cena and went for the pinfall, but Randy Orton stole the victory after punting Triple H in the head and pinning Cena instead.

It's one of the instances where the result is more memorable that what happened in the ring. The Triple Threat match was good, but it didn't have the amazing storytelling of Ric Flair's retirement match against Michaels or the in-ring drama of The Undertaker vs. Edge in the main event.

But Orton's win was a surprise, and he played into that on Raw the next night when he had Triple H's and Cena's entrance themes play before making his entrance as a way of asking the fans if they had expected somebody else to be the WWE champion.

WrestleMania XXVI: Cena Defeats Batista

WWE dropped the ball a bit when it had Cena cross paths with Batista for what was the first time ahead of SummerSlam 2008. It was a rushed feud not befitting how popular and important the two stars were.

The build to WrestleMania XXVI was much different, as WWE treated this as the spectacle it was. Batista vs. Cena didn't main-event WrestleMania, with The Undertaker's rematch with Michaels rightfully getting the slot; it was significant all the same.

In addition, Batista was doing the best mic work of his career as he went full heel and contrasted his rise through the ranks of WWE with that of Cena. Batista painted himself as the smug, arrogant powerhouse, while Cena was the fan favorite who supposedly had everything handed to him.

That's what made Cena's win so satisfying from a storyline perspective. It's hard to imagine how they could've delivered a better regular singles match than they did at WrestleMania XXVI. They subsequently wrestled in Last Man Standing and I Quit matches at the next two pay-per-views that were entertaining in their own right.

WrestleMania XXVIII: Once in a Lifetime

The main event of WrestleMania XXVII was basically all about building to Cena vs. The Rock at WrestleMania XXVIII—the biggest dream match WWE could create at the time.

Much of the feud focused on how Cena showed up every single night, while The Rock was off shooting movies and working part-time for WWE—showing up via satellite for some of his promos on Raw.

Cena has since expressed his disappointment with the way he framed the story.

"It was stupid of me. It genuinely was," he said in an interview with Sports Illustrated's Justin Barrasso in February 2017. "That was my perspective at the time. When you're involved in the daily grind of WWE, and that's something I never will let go of—I promise you that. I just love it, and I don't think I need to say that, ever again, or have somebody question my allegiance to a brand, not the sport of professional wrestling, so to say, but a brand. I love the WWE. For me to not be able to see Dwayne's vision on what he wanted to do personally, and how his personal success could affect a growing global brand, that was just ignorant on my part."

Still, it's hard to argue that strategy wasn't an effective way to build toward WrestleMania XXVIII. WWE is basically doing the same thing with Roman Reigns' WrestleMania 34 feud with Brock Lesnar.

The fact The Rock and Cena met again a year later did, however, undercut the whole premise this was a match fans would see only "once in a lifetime."

WrestleMania 29: Twice in a Lifetime

Although Cena got revenge on The Rock and reclaimed the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 29, this match didn't have the same kind of energy as their first encounter.

Predictable outcomes in the main event at WrestleMania aren't necessarily a bad thing when a story is told right—Stone Cold Steve Austin winning the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XIV—but WWE didn't do the work to provide any sort of gratification to Cena's Royal Rumble win in 2013 and subsequent victory over The Rock.

Trying to paint Cena as an underdog will never work, even as WWE took great pains to say his WrestleMania XXVIII defeat to The Rock sent Cena into a downward spiral. He was still main-eventing countless PPVs over WWE champion CM Punk during that time and won the Money in the Bank briefcase.

The whole exercise felt tedious rather than satisfying.

WrestleMania 33: Cena Proposes to Nikki Bella

On one hand, it was cool to see Cena propose to Nikki Bella after they had teamed up to beat The Miz and Maryse at WrestleMania 33. Before that, having Cena and Nikki hit stereo finishers was a nice touch, too.

On the other hand, it's a shame their win had to come at the expense of The Miz and that something that would've worked much better as a singles bout instead became a mixed-tag match.

But this match unquestionably achieved its goal of creating a WrestleMania moment WWE can show for years to come. And the whole saga told a good story, as The Miz and Maryse made Cena's failure to propose to that point part of the narrative.