WWE WrestleMania 27: John Cena vs. The Miz, A History of Their Rivalry

As the WWE Championship match creeps closer and closer, it seems like as good of a time as any to recap the history between John Cena and The Miz. For nearly two years, these two have butted heads on and off, only to lead to this moment at WrestleMania with a world title match.

Many view John Cena as the person who got The Miz over with the fans, but will it be Cena who decides that the Age of Awesome is over?

Let's recap the history of these two men.

The Miz Drafted to RAW

The Miz that we all know and love today began after losing a match at the WWE Draft in 2009. The Miz, then representing ECW, was facing Kofi Kingston, representing RAW. The Miz's tag partner, John Morrison, tried to help his friend but ended up getting him disqualified. The win went to Kofi and the pick went to RAW. Ironically, The Miz was headed to the red show and, without his tag partner Morrison, needed to make a statement or be eaten alive. He chose to make that statement on the man who was the reason that he was drafted in the first place: John Morrison.

Miz turned on Morrison with a Reality Check. That was the night that John Morrison officially turned face and the night that The Miz began his road to awesomeness.

The Miz 7, John Cena 0

In his first act on RAW, The Miz wanted to make a statement by picking a fight with the biggest dog in the RAW locker room. This, of course, was John Cena. The problem is that Cena had bigger problems to deal with, an emphasis on the word "big." Cena had his hands full fending off Big Show, who had put Cena through a spotlight at one point.

The Miz would issue challenges to Cena on a weekly basis, which would often not be answered. That's right; Cena says how he is there every week to talk about The Rock, but Cena has had his fair share of nights where he doesn't show up to play up a kayfabe injury. After all, how else would he have made those movies of his?

Every time that Cena did not answer the challenges by The Miz, the number would grow. The Miz eventually stated that The Miz had defeated Cena seven times in a row, despite not truly doing it once. However, it was in that time that The Miz grew to be the anti-Cena and gained some fans with his mic skills that had improved as the weeks wore on.

Showdown at The Bash

Cena had finally had enough of The Miz and his empty threats and challenged him to a match at The Bash. Cena was handling The Miz with ease until one good counter by The Miz. Suddenly, The Miz was in control and showing some good moves. For a minute, it looked like The Miz could actually win the match, but did not.

That was the night where many realized that The Miz could be for real. He hung with John Cena for a few minutes and manhandled him for a point in a way that few have ever done. This was the beginning of a major change in The Miz.

The Miz Left off SummerSlam Team

After some minor collisions, The Miz was fired thanks to Cena, only to come back with his new look and attitude. Miz would then become United States Champion and win the Unified Tag Team Championships with Big Show. This all culminated with The Miz winning his Money in the Bank briefcase. A lot of speculation arose from fans believing that The Miz would be the first to lose their world title match granted by the briefcase.

For a few months, The Miz carried the case around, chomping at the bit to cash it in. At SummerSlam, as John Cena was dealing with The Nexus in a seven-on-seven match, The Miz didn't have anything to really do. He cut a promo stating that he would be the seventh man on Cena's team, but would not join the team in the long run. Cena chose Daniel Bryan, The Miz's rookie on season one of NXT, instead. The Miz would come in to hit Bryan and knock him out of the match.

The Miz drew a good point for being frustrated at SummerSlam. He could have been preparing to cash in that night for the WWE Championship, but saved his energy for the tag match instead.

Captain Miz

When it came to Bragging Rights, RAW was looking for a team captain. There was a match between The Miz and John Cena with the winner being the captain for Team RAW. The Miz won the match and, instead of being in charge of Team RAW, Cena was in the corner of Wade Barrett for his championship match against WWE Champion Randy Orton.

The Miz and the rest of Team RAW lost at Bragging Rights to Team Smackdown and The Miz held onto his briefcase for a little longer.

The Miz Cashes in

However, it wasn't too long.

The Miz became the WWE Champion when preying on a vulnerable Randy Orton to win his first world championship. At this point, The Miz was on the highest of highs and John Cena was still at the mercy of Nexus, the lowest point for Cena in years.

John Cena Wins Elimination Chamber

Cena would eventually get fired and then rehired, all to land in the Royal Rumble and have a major grudge with the New Nexus and CM Punk. John Cena then won the Elimination Chamber match to face The Miz at WrestleMania. As for The Miz, he defended the title against such contenders as John Morrison and Jerry Lawler to make it to the Grandest Stage of Them All.

New Tag Team Champions?

In the buildup to this WrestleMania match, the RAW general manager booked the two against Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater of The Corre for the tag team titles. The Miz did most of the work and won the match to win the tag team title belts.

By the way, do you get the feeling that John Cena will never win a tag title with someone he actually likes at the time? First Shawn Michaels, who he had an upcoming WrestleMania match, then David Otunga from the Nexus and now The Miz.

Speaking of Michaels and Cena, they made it seem like The Miz and John Cena as WrestleMania opponents and tag team champions was the first instance. Not only did Cena and HBK do it a few years ago, but the Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio storyline had them as tag team champions facing one another at WrestleMania.

Before I could even finish explaining all of this business, The Corre asked for their rematch, which Cena was handling until The Miz hit Cena with a Skull Crushing Finale and left him to lose the tag titles back to The Corre.

Rock-Cena, but Don't Forget About the Miz

When The Rock announced that he was the host of WrestleMania, the fans were thrilled. When he called out John Cena, it looked like it would be an epic encounter at the event.

However, people kept forgetting that John Cena has a world title match with The Miz at WrestleMania. The Miz used this situation with The Rock to get any advantage that he could over Cena. Miz even dressed as The Rock, which had everyone fooled for a moment.

The Miz has also performed a People's Elbow to Cena, nicknamed by me as the Awesome Elbow. Despite all of this, The Miz was knocked out of the ring by The Rock this Monday on RAW, only for The Great One to suffer an Attitude Adjustment at the hands of Cena.

This Sunday at WrestleMania

So where does this all lead us? While everyone is wondering when we will see The Rock in terms of this match, people need to realize that The Miz is coming full circle in this match. Two years ago, he was a hapless tag team partner to John Morrison, only to be pushed on his own and go after Cena. Now, it is Cena going after Miz with the world championship on the line. It should be a good one from Atlanta this Sunday at WrestleMania.