wrestling / Columns

The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 John Cena Rivalries

November 30, 2014 | Posted by Mike Chin

Over the past couple of years, it has been interesting to see the tectonic plates of the IWC shift. There was a time when seemed like everyone bashed John Cena for having less in-ring game than Daniel Bryan or CM Punk, or for delivering goofy promos. More recently, even the most jaded fans seem, to acknowledge that based on longevity, a preponderance of good to great matches on his resume, and some promos when he’s focused and directed appropriately, Cena deserves a place on the list of wrestling’s all-time greats.

Great wrestlers are defined by their great rivalries. So, this week I’m taking a look at the top seven John Cena rivalries.

#7. Batista

The John Cena-Batista rivalry owes much of its appeal to how shrewdly the two men were kept apart for so long. In the build to WrestleMania 21, they were positioned as the top two faces in WWE—Cena on Smackdown, Batista on Raw, and each won his first world title on the very same night in passing-the-torch moments. In the summer to follow, Cena got drafted to the Raw roster and before he could have any meaningful interaction with The Animal, Batista headed off to Smackdown when it became clear that WWE was positioning Batista as the top star of the B-show, Cena as the top star, period. While the two could have very reasonably collided at that year’s Survivor Series, booked to focus on an inter-brand war in which Batista captained the Smackdown side, instead, Cena stayed out of the fray and defended his championship against Kurt Angle.

So, John Cena and Batista more or less stayed out of each other’s ways for three years, until Batista came back to Raw and the two had a superstar showdown at SummerSlam 2008—a rare example of WWE using the brand split to build a legit dream match. The face-face clash uncharacteristically ended with Cena staring up at the arena lights, which shrewdly set up rematches in the years to follow, most notably at WrestleMania 26 where, despite fans expecting Cena to win, there was plenty of kayfabe reason for doubt—since Batista had gotten that first win and was performing well as a monster heel.

The twosome went on to good matches at ‘Mania, and the following Extreme Rules and Over the Limit PPVs. Despite sweeping the series, Cena nonetheless found an opponent with the both the physical and star power credentials to pose a real threat and the outcome of their first match went a long way toward making Batista one of The Champ’s strongest rivals.

#6. The Rock

Similar to Cena-Batista, Cena-Rock felt like a big deal because it was a match that was kept from us. More than a brand split, Cena and The Rock seemed to have been stars from different generations, and imagining a meaningful program between the two seemed little different from hoping for a Hulk Hogan-Bruno Sammartino or Bret Hart-Kurt Angle.feud.

But then, after about six years away from WWE, The Rock made an improbable return and became the elephant in the room that everyone was more interested in than that year’s Cena-Miz main event, paving the way for WWE to book Rock-Cena at WrestleMania 28 a year out.

The program has its detractors. Yes, Rock’s absence diminished the company’s ability to build a coherent story and the two sniping at one another on Twitter didn’t exactly light the world on fire. Just the same, the initial intrigue of the program was captivating, and the fact that The Rock, as a part-timer, got to beat the face of the company in the main event of the biggest show of the year marked a surprising twist and a change in how WWE did business—besides building to Rock-Cena II at ‘Mania 29—a match I feel was stronger for riffing off many parts of the pair’s first outing, and which allowed Cena to achieve some kayfabe redemption because he’d suffered a decisive loss in the first outing.

It may not have been the IWC’s favority storyline, but, when it comes to marquee value, Rock-Cena has very few peers in the contemporary wrestling landscape.

#5. The Big Show

I’ll be first to concede that Cena-Show has been overdone, and that I don’t have any interest in seeing WWE ever revisit it (I cringed when Show KOed Cena at Survivor Series). Just the same, there’s no denying this on-again off-again program’s importance to Cena’s legacy. Big Show was the grizzled veteran for Cena to overcome when he won his very first title, taking the US Championship off Show in the opening match of WrestleMania 20. And based on Show’s size and star power, WWE hasn’t hesitated to revisit the feud time and again in the years to follow including one-on-one encounters a-plenty, as well as triple threats in which Show complicated ongoing programs between Cena and Edge and CM Punk.

This program does have limitations. For all of their talents and star power, Cena and Show have never put on a truly great in-ring performance together. Moreover, Cena has come out on top such a disproportionately high number of times that it’s difficult to see why anyone would still buy Show as a credible threat to him. But for all of those weaknesses, the program has its strengths. Show is perpetually over and capable of some impressive spectacles, like the time he chokeslammed Cena off the stage and through a spotlight. Better yet, Show offers Cena an immense enough dance partner to put his power game on full display—no matter how many times he does, how can you not stop and marvel at Cena hitting the Attitude Adjusgment on a man that big?

Yes, the story has been overdone, but it’s easy enough to understand why. Show has done more to put over Cena than just about anyone else in WWE.

#4. Randy Orton

There was a time when I recall thinking of John Cena versus Randy Orton as a dream match. Aside from Edge and Batista, they were the defining main event stars of a new generation—Cena the ultimate whitemeat babyface, Orton a masterful heel. But between the brand splitand getting wrapped up in different storylines, the two never seemed to have much interaction.

Then it was 2008. They wrestled under standard rules. In an I Quit Match. In a Last Man Standing Match. In a Hell in a Cell Match. In triple threats, fatal fourways, and on opposite sides of tag team wars. And finally in an Iron Man showdown.

Not entirely different from Big Show, if a bit more concentrated in nature, Cena-Orton was overdone, and despite WWE’s hopes that it would feel fresh again five years later, their TLC world title unification match failed to inspire a ton of interest, and their Royal Rumble rematch suffered from fans who wanted nothing to do with this pairing. Their Hell in a Cell encore this fall wasn’t much better received.

So for all this flack, why does Orton still get fourth place in the countdown? Take a step back and watch almost any match between Cena and Orton in a vacuum and the surprising fact of the matter is that the matches tended to be awfully good. Cena and Orton are each more than capable in the ring, and know the WWE main event style inside and out. They’ve created some artful encounters together, and I feel their falls count anywhere Iron Man Match, particularly, is way underrated as a creative, offbeat, and entertaining piece of business. Like most entries in this countdown, I’m not exactly pining for more Cena-Orton bouts, but I suspect that, with the benefit of some separation and hindsight, history will be kind to this particular pairing.

#3. Brock Lesnar

In the build up to SummerSlam 2014, much was made of Brock Lesnar as an alternative to and, in some ways, a bizarro version of John Cena. After all, Lesnar was the preeminent new face of WWE before he left the company to pursue football and then MMA after WrestleMania 20, and that run included decisively winning is first program opposite Cena.

But what hindsight tells us now, which we couldn’t have necessarily known then, was that that first high stakes instance of Cena-Lesnar at Backlash 2003 represented much of what the rivalry would evolve into. Lesnar was a physical phenom with traces of his amateur wrestling career still evident in his every encounter. Cena was jacked, too, if less of superficial genetic freak, and had the beginnings of the charisma that would get him over as the biggest wrestling star of his generation. Fast forward a decade, and you have a monster with UFC credentials and the kayfabe rocket of ending The Undertaker’s streak, and you have Cena—the star who stayed the course and rose through the ranks to become damn near untouchable.

Their Extreme Rules 2012 clash was an epic piece of business. Off beat in a brutal way and arguably the most memorable match WWE has put on, period, post-Attitude Era. And when WWE revisited the angle in 2014, with the WWE Championship on the line, it made for some something special. Lesnar as a destroyer like none other dominating Cena at SummerSlam 2014, followed by a perfectly good rematch at Night of Champions (up to the DQ finish).

Cena is the ultimate company man. Lesnar is a part-timer and one of WWE’s biggest gambles. Cena has a history of being mocked by adult male fans. Lesnar is the most credible WWE superstar of all time. Add up all of these factors, then factor in the men’s in-ring abilities and unmistakeable chemistry, and you have a truly special wrestling rivalry.

#2. CM Punk

In as many ways as Brock Lesnar turned out to be John Cena’s opposite, CM Punk is much more visibly and literally so. He is, by WWE standards, scrawny. His bodied is littered with tattoos. He had facial hair for most of his run. And while Cena’s polish has established him as an above average promo guy, CM Punk is both well-spoken and the antithesis of a company man—all too eager to buck against systems and speak the truths the most jaded wrestling fans are clamoring to here.

So, Cena and Punk represent opposite sides of the same generation of wrestling megastars. Better yet, when the two have clashed, the resulting matches have more often than not been superb, particularly their matches at Money in the Bank and SummerSlam 2011, and a number one contender’s match on Raw leading up to WrestleMania 29—not to mention the exceptional promos they’ve drawn out of one another.

Perhaps most notably, despite multiple iterations and rematches, Cena-Punk never quite reached the point of feeling overplayed or stale. It was a good rivalry that always felt important, and that’s about the highest praise you can give two guys performing at their level. In fact, there’s only one John Cena rival I’d have to say was a nudge better.

#1. Edge

John Cena is the top star of his era, but there came a critical point at which no one was quite sure if the Cena experiment was really going to work out. The fans were behind him for his rise to the main event. They were happy to see him relieve JBL of the WWE Championship and more or less on his side for his initial Raw programs opposite Chris Jericho and Christian. But then Cena went against Kurt Angle—the premier in-ring worker of the day who may have played heel, but who smart fans, by and large, weren’t prepared to shun him in favor of goofy John Cena. It only made matters worse that guys like Carlito and Chris Masters were the next heels in line—promising up-and-comers, perhaps, but far from ready for world title runs.

And then there was Edge.

In a delicious little slice of heel history, Edge cashed in the very first Money in the Bank briefcase to relieve Cena of the WWE Championship, kickstarting a brief but red hot feud between the two.Cena recovered the gold and seemed to move on to a feud with Triple H (in which hardcore fans again sided with the better established heel), only for Edge to keep rearing his head in that program, and then again when Cena struggled against Rob Van Dam at the second One Night Stand.

Edge was a pesky and nefarious thorn in Cena’s side, not unlike the roles Roddy Piper and Ted Dibiase played against Hulk Hogan, or what Mr. McMahon was to Stone Cole Steve Austin—no, he wasn’t a match for Cena physically, but he was conniving enough to manipulate situations his way and thus generate a back and forth feud in which the championship moved between the two men in triple threat scenarios, one-on-one encounters, and a too-often overlooked TLC match. The program relaunched in 2009, with Cena chasing Edge’s World Heavyweight Championship heading into WrestleMania 25, followed by a Last Man Standing showdown. Even when the men weren’t feuding directly, their kayfabe animosity remained, including petty bickering when they were supposed on the same team opposing The Nexus.

The two most important factors in this feud being a major success were quite simple. First of all, having a back and forth feud with John Cena finally and permanently elevated Edge from perennial upper card also-ran to a legit main eventer who would go on to important feuds at the top of the card with The Undertaker, Jeff Hardy, and Batista to name a few. Secondly, in Edge, WWE found a villain sleazy enough that the crowd got behind Cena far more than Angle, Triple H, or any of the other top heels of the day could do. The feud sold tickets and PPV buys, produced good to great matches, and furthered the careers of both men—the truest measures of success for pro wrestling programs.

Who were your favorite rivals to John Cena? Chris Jericho? The Miz? Shawn Michaels? Let us know in the comments section.