5 Wrestlers Who Beat John Cena (And What Happened Next)

5. Alberto Del Rio

Alberto, we hardly knew ye. Or we did, and we still didn’t care. Either way, John Cena’s two reigns with the United States Championship in 2015 brought consistently entertaining matches to WWE television, gave meaning back to a belt that hadn’t been relevant for a couple of years, and showed the world that John Cena is actually a brilliant wrestler. It gave people like Dean Ambrose, Neville, and Zack Ryder some valuable TV time, while opening the doors to both Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens (more on that to come). So when it came to Big Match John being scheduled for some time off and needing an opponent to lose his title to, WWE actually pulled a relatively nice surprise in bringing back Albertoooooooooooooooooooo Del Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiooooooooooooooo. So why, less than a year later, is the former AAA Champion out the door for the second time?

Well, there’s two reasons that have nothing to do with John Cena, but suspension and relationships aside, Del Rio’s latest run matched the final year of his first run in that it was boring, meaningless, and very stagnant. What’s perhaps worse is that the Pride of Mexico was first paired with WrestleTrump himself, Zeb Colter, for the awful MexAmerica gimmick which was a) nothing but a political hit to clear WWE’s conscience from his original firing and b) totally nonsensical given that ADR was a heel but was essentially asking for borders to be no issue and no hate to arise from one’s nationality – you know, like a nice person.

Jack Swagger soon swooped in to demand a better class of racism from his old mentor, but Del Rio went floundering on; playing hot potato with Kalisto did nothing for either (especially given that they were feuding purely because, you know, Mexico), joining the League of Nations to achieve literally nothing before getting beaten up by a bunch of pensioners, and the aforementioned suspension and relationship dramas.

The current Alberto El Pátron will probably want to forget that his second WWE run ever happened, even if it did bring him a big wad of cash and some romance.

He’s now seeking independent dates but not wanting to sign for one specific company, and will be all the better - and probably much happier - for it. A happy Del Rio tends to be a good one. His first post WWE appearance is on tonight's WCPW Loaded.

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