25 Great Wrestlers That EVERYBODY Turned Against

4. John Cena

WWE actively dined out on John Cena dividing the audience for the majority of his career, such was the veracity of emotion from every side when he was on top.

It was over-simplified in the moment as the women and children loving him and the male demographic despising him, but it was never as simple as that. Alienated millennials were finding a WWE that hadn't catered directly to them for the first time since before WrestleMania 1, and Cena was the loyal soldier leading that charge. 

The proof of the strategy's success wasn't just in how much of a draw 'Big Match John' became when almost no other wrestlers made a difference at the gate, but in how much those fans still passionately cared for 'The Champ' as retirement neared. The haters had gotten older too, softening their stance on him to the point where the entire crowd had decided he was good an egg as the one in the nest on the back of his head. 

For all the years for the character to turn heel, 2025 might have been the worst. As shocking as the moment was heading into that year's WrestleMania, WWE's uncommitted booking of the entire run before his abrupt pre-SummerSlam babyface relaunch (and Cena's ropey acting) hammered nails in the coffin from the off. It moved many to re-check their thoughts on his legacy, ironically creating the same bitter divide he'd spent years trying to shake.