10 Best Major John Cena Feuds

3. Vs. AJ Styles

John Cena Vs. AJ Styles was based, as with many of Cena's latter day feuds, on his meta status as glass ceiling. Styles had dominated the Indy scene and established himself as arguably the elite U.S.-born pro wrestler on the planet...in Japan. He had not yet shown that in WWE. Cue promo battles concerning Styles illegitimacy as a WWE superstar and Cena's illegitimacy as a professional wrestler.

Tried and tested stuff - but those segments allowed Styles to flourish in a heel role, and allowed Cena to revel in his status as an unapologetic WWE guy. Cena's waffling about Styles not belonging even to the level below him was typically baffling stuff at times. Still, while unintentional, those sort of barbs add fuel to the molten reactions his matches invariably generate - and their thrilling SummerSlam 2016 coda was the best-received match on a bloated and tiring night. It was very good, great for that type of back and forth finisher festival of a match. But it seemed to indict Cena's words in retrospect. He raged for the WWE machine, but wrestled a match catered to the workrate set.

Their Royal Rumble '17 classic was a different beast.

Cena's muscle-flexing use of body language depicted him as a monster, the roll-through double AA finish even more so. Cena won through brute strength, ridding himself of the self-conscious shackles that rendered much of his latter work contrived.