Welcome to Last Word on Mania month at Last Word on Sports! All month long we will be doing articles to build up for WrestleMania 31 on March 29, 2015. Be sure to read everything this month by clicking this link. Enjoy!
John Cena is arguably the biggest superstar in the WWE for the past decade. He is a 15 time world champion and has one of the most storied WrestleMania histories. Since this year mark’s Cena’s 12th match on the Grandest Stage of them all, it made sense that the leader of the Cenation should be one of the superstars that Last Word on Sports takes a closer look at this year. Is the match a Must Watch on the WWE Network or WrestleMania Anthology, or should you Skip! and move to next year?
John Cena Makes His WrestleMania Debut – WrestleMania 20 – The Big Show
John Cena was the Dr of Thuganomics back in 2004 when he made his debut on the grandest stage of them all, and took on the “World’s Largest Athlete”, a task that mere mortal men would have taken as a sign that they had bitten off more than they could chew. Not John Cena.
Cena was little known to the WWE Universe at the time, having only been in the WWE for around two years, and had only just stepped up to the midcard spot, when he was eliminated by The Big Show from the 2004 Royal Rumble, leading to a feud over the United States Championship that culminated at WrestleMania XX.
Cena won his first WWE title that night in New York, a reign that lasted just four months, but the match will be always be remembered as the one where Cena stepped up his game and took on the giant. Little did he know, 11 appearances later, he would be once again fighting for the United States championship.
WrestleMania – Skip!
WrestleMania 21 – JBL
Currently a colour commentator, John Bradshaw Layfield is one of the most respected superstars in the WWE. Back in 2005, he was one of the biggest personalities on Smackdown, and was in John Cena’s way, as he hoped to make a claim for the WWE Championship.
At the time of the brand split, the WWE Championship was the biggest title on Smackdown, and JBL had The Cabinet to protect him as a heel champion, something for John Cena to truly sink his teeth into.
In the lead-up to WrestleMania, Cena lost his United States Championship to Orlando Jordan, a member of JBL’s Cabinet, so Cena set his sights on his first World Championship. At WrestleMania 21 in Los Angeles, he picked it up. JBL went for his Clothesline from Hell, but Cena hit the FU (as it was called back then) for the win.
Cena would go on to unveil his famous spinning WWE Championship belt the following week on Smackdown.
WrestleMania – Must Watch
WrestleMania 22 – Triple H
If you’ve won a mid-card title, followed by the World Championship in your first two Wrestlemania appearances, how can you possibly top that?
By walking into Wrestlemania as a champion and forcing one of the greatest superstars in WWE history to tap out in the main event, and that’s exactly what John Cena at WrestleMania did in Chicago.
Triple H and John Cena locked horns following New Years Revolution in 2006, as Cena was now a member of the Raw locker room. The build-up to the match was the first time that it seemed as though the crowd had turned on Cena and began to boo him rather than The Game (the crowd had booed him in the past with Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle, but that was because he caused their exits from Raw). This didn’t change at WrestleMania, when he made The King of Kings tap to his new submission finisher, the STFU, and retained his championship.
Wrestlemania – Skip!
Wrestlemania 23 – Shawn Michaels
In arguably one of the greatest build-ups to a WrestleMania match in modern times, John Cena and Shawn Michaels, who were a tag-team at the time, became tag-team champions after defeating Rated-RKO, making Cena a double champion. This made for some tense viewing, as the impending match looming on the horizon made co-existing borderline impossible for the partners. Originally the match came to be because HHH was not healthy enough to do a rematch against Cena.
After Royal Rumble winner The Undertaker decided to challenge Batista while Michaels won the right to face Cena for the WWE Championship by defeating both Edge and Randy Orton. Cena and Michaels became allies in order to stop Edge and Orton from attacking the other.
This alliance worked until an episode of Smackdown the week before WrestleMania, when Michaels turned on Cena and cost them the match against Batista and The Undertaker.
Cena ultimately retained his title at WrestleMania after once again forcing his opponent to submit to the STFU. This took his record at Mania to 4-0.
WrestleMania – Must Watch
WrestleMania 24 – Triple H and Randy Orton
This was Cena’s first triple threat match on the Grandest Stage of them all and it was one of three main events on the night.
The pre-match build up saw John Cena win the 2008 Royal Rumble before being the first ever winner to cash in his title shot at Elimination Chamber instead of Wrestlemania. Whilst Cena won the match against Orton, it was by DQ so Cena didn’t win the match.
The wrestling pedigree involved in this match meant that the expectation was more heightened than usual and the match itself more than delivered. Cena attempted a double FU part way through the match before Triple H dropped off and low -blowed him, but ultimately in his fourth match at WrestleMania, Cena’s streak finally ended as Randy Orton walked out victorious.
WrestleMania – Must Watch
WrestleMania 25 – Edge and Big Show
John Cena returned to WWE at Survivor Series 2008 after he recovered from a herniated disc in his neck and after a brief feud with Chris Jericho, Cena won back his WWE Championship before Edge took it away at No Way Out.
The former champ was given the chance to win back his championship at WrestleMania when he was put in his second triple threat match in consecutive WrestleMania appearances but this time he came out on top and took home the World Heavyweight Championship.
Cena got the win after again attempting a double FU before he hit the move on Big Show and then dumped Edge on top of Big Show with the same move for his second World Championship.
WrestleMania – Must Watch
Part II will look at John Cena’s WrestleMania career from WrestleMania 26-31 as he looks set to face Rusev for the United States Championship at this year’s extravaganza.
