WrestleMania is the biggest night of the year in professional wrestling, without question. For almost 32 years it has acted as something of a Christmas for pro graps fans in the western world, the time of year when WWE (usually) ups its creative game, putting together engaging stories that make or break characters and set up the plots we'll watch for the next 12 months. John Cena is the biggest name in professional wrestling today, without question, and in many ways he has become something of a human version of WrestleMania. Whilst this isn't true when it comes to fan-excitement, it is true regarding his standing and influence. His ascension to the top table of WWE was completed at the event, and a decade later sharing the ring with him at the event is considered a pretty big honour for young stars. Since making his WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania XX Cena hasn't missed an event, and has featured in the main event of five of those shows. He has been involved in championship matches in nine out of his 12 Manias, and only two of his opponents have yet to hold the biggest prize in the business. JBL likes to call him Big Match John, and his record at WrestleMania more than backs that claim up. But how do his matches compare against each other? 12 matches, 11 different opponents and a whole variety of quality...
12. Vs. JBL - WrestleMania XXI
It is a strange quirk of John Cena's WWE career that the match that completed his rise to the top of the company will go down as one of the most underwhelming bouts in company history. At WrestleMania XXI Cena came up against John 'Bradshaw' Layfield for the WWE Title, a strap that JBL had held for 280 days at this point. Many expected Cena to win, but the match itself was dire. Sure, nobody expected Steamboat/Savage II, but this wasn't even worthy of headlining an episode of SmackDown. In many ways, this was the beginning of the end for Cena in the eyes of some fans, as he took a beating for about 10 minutes before completing a Superman comeback and walking off with the title. It was strange that someone whose rise through the company had been so well done to have their coronation happen in such a throwaway fashion. It was also an incredibly underwhelming end to one of the longest WWE title reigns of the modern era at that point. One unrelated quirk, Cena would also hold the title for 280 days before losing it to Edge at WWE New Year's Revolution.
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
