10 Important Steps In John Cena's WWE Evolution

5. The Crowd Start Audibly Turning On Him

When John Cena captured the WWE Title from JBL at WrestleMania 21, it should have launched him into the stratosphere as the biggest babyface on the WWE roster. Instead, fans shockingly started turning on the man. It was almost as though people were only behind him during his chase up the ladder, turning their backs when he finally achieved what fans had sought. It was a bizarre phenomenon, but suddenly a lot of wrestling enthusiasts didn't really like John Cena. As WWE Champion, his matches were often peppered with boos from the audience, which must have confused him greatly. Where was that support he had experienced during his ascent up the food chain? All of a sudden, it was virtually gone, and people started to reason that Cena was being shoved down their collective throats. By the time Cena was feuding with Eric Bischoff and Chris Jericho leading into SummerSlam 2005, there was a lot of heckling during his promos and matches. This was a huge sea change, because WWE - and Cena himself, for that matter - must have felt he was on course to become the top good guy in the promotion. The fickle nature of the industry was revealed once again.