So I made a list of John Cena's best matches that are essential to watch if you're a John Cena fan. These collection of matches comes from Dave Meltzer (his matches feature his ratings for matches rated 3 1/2+), and matches that I believe are good too (these matches will be included in honourable mentions). I have also added a link to each match as well. If this post gets picked up with responses I'll add links to promos for everyone. **Also, if you're into posts about Match lists and whatnot check out my other lists on this post, this post, and also this post. Lastly, I used Meltzlers ratings as a guide but make sure to make your own opinion (or rating in this case) about the matches. Just cause he gives something a 3, doesn't mean it it isn't a 5 to you!
2002:
2003:
2004:
- John Cena Vs Big Show (Wrestlemania 20) - 1 ¼* - This is pretty significant, as this was Cena’s first Wrestlemania match, and it was against a The Big Show for the United States Championship. Man, it was great to hear the crowd be 100% behind Cena. Who really would’ve thought that Cena would become the biggest household name for professional wrestling in the modern era?
2005:
- Kurt Angle Vs John Cena (No Way Out) – 3 ¾* - Before Cena’s meteoric rise to the top of the WWE landscape by becoming WWE Champion for the first time, he had to go through his last foe, a familiar rival – Kurt Angle.
- John Cena Vs John Bradshaw Layfield (Wrestlemania 21) - 1 ¼* - This was the culmination of the ‘Rise of John Cena’. John Cena’s first championship reign, and it was well deserved and would change the course of WWE forever.
- John Cena Vs Chris Jericho Vs Christian (Vengeance) – 3 ¾* - At the start of 2005 it seemed WWE were looking to set the seeds for a feud with Christian & Cena when they interacted on the dual brand show of Royal Rumble. However, those plans sort of went through the door when it was believed at the time that WWE officials didn’t have faith in Christian in a solo WWE main event feud, so Jericho was involved in the match as well.
2006:
- John Cena Vs Triple H (Wrestlemania 22) – 3 ¾* - This is the match that WWE really believed would help put Cena on the map. Not to say it didn’t, but it also helps form a strong negative audience reaction to Cena. John was the poster boy, going against the most evil guy on the roster Triple H, yet the crowd still favoritely cheered Triple H. It’s also significant cause it’s Cena’s first main event at a Wrestlemania.*
- Edge Vs John Cena - Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match (Unforgiven) – 4 ¼* - Two years before this match when Edge was in Toronto, he was booed as a baby face, fast-forward to this match he was cheered as the most despise able heel. The culmination of the feud between him and Cena was in place as the faced each other in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match. This match really meant a lot to Edge, as you can see as they’re doing the introductions he’s trying hard not to be an emotional wreck when the home-town crowd cheer and applaud him. Fantastic match between the two, and such a great way to end their long feud.
2007:
- John Cena Vs Umaga - Last Man Standing Match (Royal Rumble) – 4* - This match was in the middle of Cena's 365+ day run and it showed he could still work with bigger men like Umaga. This is one of the best last man standing matches of all time that makes both men look equally strong and helped grow Umaga as a threat for the champion.
- John Cena & Shawn Michaels Vs Montel Vontavious Porter & Mr. Kennedy (Smackdown 2/16/07) - 3 ½* (Can’t find video, sorry.)
- John Cena Vs Shawn Michaels (Raw 23/04/07) – 4 ¼* - This is one of not only the best Raw matches of all time, but one of Cena’s best matches of all time. They go close to an hour back and forth with no end in sight – if this match was for the WWE Championship that crowd would’ve been absolutely electric.
- John Cena Vs Edge Vs Randy Orton Vs Shawn Michaels (Backlash) – 4 1/2* - Following Wrestlemania 23 it left multiple people wanting a shot at John Cena for his WWE Championship, and thus three men were awarded the opportunity for it; Cena’s Wrestlemania opponent Shawn Michaels, and former tag team Rated RKO, Edge and Randy Orton. Four outstanding talents that mash well together, perform in one of the best four ways of all time.
2008:
- Royal Rumble 2008 Ending - 4 ¼* - Following the Rumble last year, it starts the opposite way with Taker and Shawn entering numbers #1 and #2 – giving fans absolutely what we wanted. The match has plenty of good stars in it and its really fun to watch – it seems like this Rumble is the first one in a while really capitalises on the ‘Surprise Entrants’, Foley gets his moment, but I personally enjoy Jimmy Snuka and Roddy Piper entering after each other and the whole Rumble stopping so these two can battle it out for the first time in 20+ years. Another thing this Rumble capitalises on is surprise returns, this is still my favourite return/surprise in a Rumble (besides AJ) and that’s John Cena returning from injury as number 30. People complain that Cena was never over, but without a doubt when his music hits the crowd absolutely pops crazy for him.
- John Cena Vs Batista (Summerslam 2008) - 3 ¾* - The two ‘made men’ of WWE in 2005, were finally going to square off in a WWE ring against each other one on one. This is a hard-hitting match and just goes to show the great chemistry these two had against each other. Also call me a sucker for Face Vs Face matches, this was such a big time feel match for the Raw brand that it made the Raw World Heavyweight Championship play second fiddle to it. This match is fairly under looked and quite underrated when people bring up the careers of these two men.
2009:
- Undertaker & John Cena Vs Jeri-Show Vs D-Generation X (Raw November 2009) - 3 ¼* - Fun and fast match with the top WWE stars at the time all competing against each other in tag team competition. This is also one of 'Takers last matches on Raw because after this year he would slowly become semi retired and only make spontaneous experiences (usually at Wrestlemania's).
2010:
- John Cena Vs Batista (Wrestlemania 26) – 3 ½* - Five years after each man won their world championships at Wrestlemania 21, they’d finally meet in one of the main events of a Wrestlemania in a decent match, however I believe it was doomed from the start with the winner being very predictable.
- John Cena Vs Batista - Last Man Standing Match (Extreme Rules) – 4 ¼* - Arguably the best match in their trilogy of matches, really fun match and super goofy but decent ending to this match.
- John Cena Vs Batista - I Quit Match (Over the Limit) – 3 ½* - This would be Batista’s last match in WWE for 4 years as he would seek acting roles for movies and television and also getting into Mixed Martial Arts.
- CM Punk Vs John Cena (Raw 07/06/10) - This was a viewer’s choice, this isn’t 100% significant because of that match itself, and it’s more significant for what happens near the end of the match. It’s the debut of the Nexus, the rookies from NXT Season 1 all debuted on WWE Raw and attacked both CM Punk (with Luke Gallows) and John Cena and destroyed the Raw set, as well as everyone at ringside including Justin Roberts
- Team WWE (Bret Hart & Chris Jericho & Daniel Bryan & Edge & John Cena & John Morrison & R-Truth) Vs The Nexus (Darren Young & David Otunga & Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel & Michael Tarver & Skip Sheffield & Wade Barrett) – 3 ½* - Daniel Bryan had been fired from WWE after his Raw debut (post-NXT) when he chocked announcer Justin Roberts with a tie which was a big no-no because the show was PG (and because I believe somehow it relates to Chris Benoit, could be wrong on this). But Team WWE needed another partner for the match, and everyone believed it would be The Miz.. but no John Cena would announce seconds before the match started that WWE had brought back Daniel Bryan and that he would apart of their team. People really hated the finish of this match, which saw Cena "bury" the Nexus.
2011:
- John Cena Vs John Morrison Vs The Miz - Steel Cage Match (Extreme Rules) – 4* - This was Miz’ final match as WWE Champion and it was against the man he faced at Wrestlemania and his former tag-team partner (real life best friend) inside of a Steel Cage – very fun, fast paced match.
- John Cena Vs CM Punk (Money in the Bank) – 5* - Punks second 5 star match and it has the back story as well as the match abilities to build up to a great match and fair rating. The emotions that night, matched with the abilities of both men show how great they work together in the squared circle showed how good each mens performances are in that match.
- John Cena & The Rock Vs The Miz & R-Truth – 3 ½* - In early 2011, The Rock returned to WWE after 6 ½ years to host Wrestlemania 27 and to also start his feud/build to his match with Cena at Wrestlemania 28. For a strange reason, John Cena decided to choose Rock as his tag team partner at Survivor Series. To make sure the Rock didn’t have any ring rust before he returned for his big fight with Cena at Wrestlemania 28 they set him up in a tag-team match where he would team with Cena and face the top heels on Raw – The Miz & R-Truth. It was almost like Rock hadn’t left WWE because he didn’t miss a beat and the crowd still absolutely adored him.
2012:
- The Rock Vs John Cena (Wrestlemania 28) – 3 ¾* - This match was built up for more than a year and it was set in stone one year in advance. It was billed as ‘Once in a Lifetime’. It main-evented a stacked card which also featured Jericho/Punk for the WWE Championship and also Triple H/Undertaker End of an Era Hell in a Cell match, and still did decent. The match was really fun, and it was good to see Cena play the ‘heel’ role during this match for the crowd. People seem to negative about this match, and I really don’t know why – it was good to have the Rock back, Cena was coming into his prime and was proving he could work a decent match with anyone. It did great business, making it the biggest Wrestlemania PPV buy rate to date I believe, if this is wrong comment on this.
- Brock Lesnar Vs John Cena - Extreme Rules Match (Extreme Rules)– 4 ½* - Brock Lesnars first back match in 8 years, it’s bloody and absolutely brutal. Plenty of people complain about the ending being another ‘LOLCENAWINS’ but in terms of reasoning for why they did it I completely understand it. Plus Lesnar would get redemption just two years later.
- CM Punk Vs John Cena (Raw 1000) - The main event of Raw 1000; also Punk turns heel again. Fun match, but think overall the ending sours a lot of peoples opinion on the match.
- CM Punk Vs John Cena (Night of Champions) – 4 ¼* - Probably their best match with each other following their match at Money in the Bank 2011, lots of people expected Cena to win this match or Punk to cheat to win this match; however strangely this match ends in a draw between both competitors.
2013:
- Royal Rumble 2013 Ending - 3 ½*
- Dean Ambrose & Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins Vs John Cena & Ryback & Sheamus (Elimination Chamber) – 3 ¾* - With Cena winning the Royal Rumble that year officials behind the scenes at WWE wanted Cena to win this match leading into his rematch with The Rock. Ambrose, Rollins, and Reigns went to Vince's office and refused to lose to Cena and really showed guts that day and really showed that were not to be messed with.
- John Cena Vs CM Punk (Raw 25/02/13) – 4 ½* - In one of the best Raw matches of all time these two show why they should have been the main event of Wrestlemania 29.
- John Cena Vs The Rock (Wrestlemania 29) – 3 ½* - So yeah, the match that was billed as ‘Once in a Lifetime’ was going to happen again in the main-event back to back Mania’s. Plenty of people shit on this match, me included honestly – I generally don’t like this match, I feel as if they could’ve done more maybe they could’ve gone with the triple threat match with Punk included or maybe they could’ve even had Rock face someone else (maybe Ryback who could’ve used the rub to become WWE Champion because he was over with the crowd), and yeah I know Ryback wasn’t the best wrestler but it could’ve pushed him as a top-star which WWE could’ve used at the time. Hell if they wanted to they could've possibly gone a Rock/HHH or Rock/Brock route.
- Daniel Bryan Vs John Cena (Summerslam) – 4 ½* - John Cena chose Daniel Bryan to be his big Summerslam opponent, and it really started off the big Rise of Daniel Bryan, the ovation when he was chose is fantastic. This may be one of John Cena’s best matches of all time, as well as Daniel Bryan. They work so perfectly with each other and even bring up a call back to their match back 10 years ago in velocity. This match is one of the best Summerslam main events of all time, and honestly really deserved this rating. The lead to the match was perfect with Bryan calling Cena a parody of wrestling, saying he was ‘more style then substance’ – both men equally backed up their claims and statements with each other. An additional part of this story would be when Stephanie McMahon and Vince McMahon would return and say that Bryan needed a more corporate look, but not before Triple H would make a surprise return and say that he would call the match right down the middle and declared himself the referee for the match. Whilst he called it down the middle allowing Bryan to cleanly defeat John Cena to become WWE Champion, when the match finished Triple H would turn on Bryan by pedigreeing him and letting Randy Orton cash in on him. This would set up for Bryan becoming the most over wrestler in WWE in the coming months with a Bryan Vs. Authority storyline.
2014:
- John Cena Vs Cesaro (Raw 17/02/14) – 4 ½* - The week following Cesaro's great Smackdown match with Orton, he would go onto face Cena in another great match that built up his credibility. One of my favourite matches from that year.
- Randy Orton Vs Cesaro Vs Christian Vs Daniel Bryan Vs John Cena Vs Sheamus - Elimination Chamber Match (Elimination Chamber) – 3 ¾* - I'll be honest with you, there's been many Elimination Chamber matches, some good and some bad, in the modern era of WWE most have been pretty 'eh' to say the least, but this one gives it some redeeming points. It was also good to see Christian with his final years as an in-ring competitor saw him competing with the top stars and in the main event matches. I feel like the build-up of the Wyatts interfering this match to attack Cena and cost him the championship also works very well, considering they interfered in his match at Royal Rumble.
- John Cena Vs Bray Wyatt (Wrestlemania 30) – 3 ½* - This Wrestlemania (and more the following Wrestlemania) helped usher in a new era of wrestlers who came from WWE’s developmental territory – NXT. One of the biggest stars from NXT was Bray Wyatt, who’s character is a ‘scary cult leader’. The WWE trusted him so much they placed him in a feud against the biggest star of the modern-era John Cena. Many people were disappointed with the result of this match, but lets not take it away from either man, this is a really fun match. Wyatt tries the whole match to try make Cena ‘join the darkside’ and turn heel and do things he usually wouldn’t. The crowd participation of singing and waving their arms to the tune of ‘He’s got the whole world in his hands’ also is a great little touch for this match.
- Brock Lesnar Vs John Cena (Summerslam) – 4 ¼* - As King (or JBL, honestly I forgot) would say on the next night on Raw – this match ‘is the most one-sided World Championship Match in the history of WWE’. That is completely right, within the first 15 seconds Lesnar lays Cena out with an F-5. Then for the next 20 minutes Lesnar would beat the living hell out of Cena including giving him 16 German Suplexes in the process. This totally redeemed his fight at Extreme Rules against Cena.
- Dolph Ziggler & Erick Rowan & John Cena & Ryback & The Big Show Vs Kane & Luke Harper & Mark Henry & Rusev & Seth Rollins (Survivor Series) – 4 ½* - It’s strange in terms of backstage WWE, a lot of people didn’t really see Ziggler as a ‘big-star player’ in 2014; he was moved away from the World Championships and pushed to more mid-card feuds for the Intercontinental Championships. However, to much peoples surprise he ‘stole the show’ yet again and was the soul survivor for his team; This match was perfectly built up to make all members of opposing sides and it’s hard to argue that this isn’t one of the best Traditional Survivor Series Tag-Team Matches of all time. It should also be added that this match features the debut of the legendary – Sting.
2015:
- Brock Lesnar Vs John Cena Vs Seth Rollins (Royal Rumble) – 4 ¾* - Arguably one of the best WWE Matches of 2015 – really showcased all three mens skills and abilities. Also, one of the best triple threat matches in history, really recommend people rewatch this match/watch this match. How they went from having this contender for match of the year, to having one of the worst matches of the year following it is asinine. Now thinking about it, I wonder if they should’ve switched the placement for this match.
- John Cena Vs Dean Ambrose – Raw 30/03/2015 - United States Championship - The night after Wrestlemania 31 to celebrate Cena’s United States Championship win he started the ‘US Championship Open’ which allowed wrestlers to challenge for the championship. Ambrose was the first person to challenge him and it’s one of their better matches with each other.
- John Cena Vs Sami Zayn – Raw 04/05/2015 - Not many people can make their WWE Debut against in their hometown, but not many people can make their WWE Debut against 'The Face That Runs The Place' - John Cena. This match was really fun, but unfortunately before the match started Zayn would injure his shoulder which would lead him to not being active for over 6 months.
- John Cena Vs Kevin Owens (Elimination Chamber) – 4 ½* - In shockingly fashion Owens made his WWE main roster debut in less than 6 months of his NXT debut. Which I believe could be a record for any previous NXT superstar. The reason for the early call up may have to do with Sami Zayn getting injured in his Raw debut match. This was in the midst of Cena’s mid-card matches for his United State championships, but this match was Kevin Owens debut WWE PPV match, and guess what.. He defeated the ‘face that runs the place’ clean nonetheless.
- Cesaro Vs John Cena (Raw 29/06/15) – 4 ¼* - With Tyson Kidd injured, Cesaro was seemingly left out of the shuffle of what to do mid-2015, so WWE allowed him to show off his talents with John Cena for the United States Championship. This match and their match the week after are easily both some of the best Raw matches from 2015, highly recommend, one with a interference finish and one with a normal finish, highly recommend.
2016:
- AJ Styles Vs John Cena (Money in the Bank) – 4 ¼* - 15 Years in the making. The Face of TNA and the independents vs The Face of WWE. Worth the watch, a great prelude to critically acclaimed Summerslam match.
- John Cena Vs AJ Styles - Summerslam 2016 - 4 1/2* - For many people this was their best WWE match for 2016 – and rightfully so. These two blew the roof off the Barclays Centre, and put on the match of the night. They exceeded the expectations of their previous match at Money in the Bank a few months prior, and to keep with John Cena tradition he would take a clean loss on arguably the second biggest show of the year.
- John Cena Vs Dean Ambrose – Smackdown 20/09/2016 - To have a match with Cena in 2016 was quite rare, what else is quite rare is to have a clean win over Cena – which now Ambrose has. This would be the first time Cena lost clean on Smackdown in over 10 years.
- John Cena Vs AJ Styles Vs Dean Ambrose - WWE No Mercy 2016 - 3 ¾* - This match is fairly recent but it definitely deserves to be on the list, one of the best Triple Threat matches in WWE history. Each man was able to get all their stuff in and they stole the show – and it helped with the new-era/anything can happen feel as it was the Main Event however it was the first match on the card. This is one of those matches I would disagree with Dave’s rating, I definitely see this match as a 4 - 4 ¼* calibre match.*
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