WWE Tale of the Tape: Comparing the Rock and Cena by the Numbers

The Rock and John Cena facing off at WrestleMania 28 may be the biggest match on the card. WWE has been hyping the match since the last WrestleMania as one of the biggest of all time.

John Cena is the WWE's current poster boy. He sells tons of merchandise and does more press for the company and charity appearances than anyone else.

The Rock is WWE's poster boy from the attitude era. He was the biggest thing in his time and went on to become a movie star.

The two men share some similarities in their career paths, but they have very different personalities. I will take a look at the careers of The Rock and Cena and I will compare them by the numbers.

This is in no way meant to indicate who is better, but simply to see who has accomplished more in the business in certain areas.

WrestleMania Wins and Losses

Something that surprised me when I first researched it was that John Cena and The Rock have competed in the same number of WrestleMania events with eight each, but the win/loss records are a different story.

The Rock has an even record at the big event with four wins and four losses. His wins were over The Sultan, Ken Shamrock, Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin.

His losses were at the hands of Triple H, twice by Stone Cold and Evolution defeated Rocky and Mick Foley in Rock's last appearance at WrestleMania XX.

In an interesting note, WrestleMania XX was also John Cena's first appearance on the grandest stage of them all.

Cena has a better record than Rock with six wins and two losses. His two losses came at the hands of The Miz and Randy Orton.

His wins were over Big Show twice, Shawn Michaels, JBL, Triple H and Edge.

So when it comes down to getting the victory at WrestleMania, it looks like John Cena has the advantage.

Championships Won

John Cena and The Rock are two of the biggest names in wrestling history, and they both have a ton of titles to back up how good they are.

John Cena has won a total of 19 championships during his time in WWE. 12 of those titles were either the WWE or World Heavyweight Championship. He is also a four-time tag team champion, having won the belts with Shawn Michaels, Batista, The Miz and David Otunga.

His reigns also include three United States Championship titles. Cena is a bona fide WWE great at this point, and I think he has secured himself a place in the Hall of Fame at this point.

The Rock falls behind Cena again, trailing with 16 championships. This includes nine World Championships, two WCW and seven WWE titles.

His other titles include two reigns as Intercontinental Champion and five reigns as a Tag-Team Champion, having won the belts with Mick Foley, The Undertaker and Chris Jericho.

In this category Cena once again has The Great One beat.

Other WWE Accolades

These two men have had incredible careers, but there are many things in WWE that neither man was ever able to do.

Neither one ever won the King of the Ring tournament, which has been the launching point for many people like Steve Austin, Bret Hart and Owen Hart.

Both men have, however, won the Royal Rumble one time apiece. There are very few men who have done this more than once and only one person to do it three times, so winning the match at all is an impressive feat.

Neither man ever had the chance to try and knock The Undertaker off the top of the mountain at WrestleMania, which may be because WWE never wanted either man to look weak.

Despite being two of the bigger stars in WWE history, neither man has tons of non-title accomplishments to speak of.

In terms of Slammy awards, The Rock has one and John Cena has two, so in that aspect, Cena takes the win yet again.

Going into this match, I would say I am a bigger fan of The Rock, but after doing the research I did for this article, I am starting to notice that Cena has done more than Rock ever did.

Total Time in WWE

The final figure I will examine is length of career. The Rock debuted with the then-WWF in November of 1996 and wrestled full time until the end of 2003. This gives him a total of just over seven years with WWE, which when it comes down to it, is not that long compared to other legends.

John Cena debuted in June of 2002 and has been active ever since, giving him over nine years with WWE and still counting.

There is no question that The Rock helped usher in a new era in WWE, but when you examine the careers of Rock and Cena mathematically, it looks like The Great One falls a little short of The Champ.

This is in no way an indication of Cena being better than The Rock, because that is an opinion that differs with each fan. There are even a few fans out there that hate both guys, I am sure.

After seeing what these two men have done in terms of numbers, does it make you think any different about either man?