10 Reasons Why It Took John Cena 16 Years To Get Good At Wrestling

5. We Didn't Get Cena/Lesnar At SummerSlam 2014 At Backlash 2003

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0dNrtc1D1s In order to face Brock Lesnar at Backlash 2003, John Cena won a #1 Contenders Tournament by beating Eddie Guerrero clean, The Undertaker via the assistance of the Full Blooded Italians and Chris Benoit via a surprise pinfall. The largely untested Cena lasted 15 minutes with Lesnar and after a back and forth matchup, Lesnar defeated him. Now let's imagine that the 16 suplex humbling that Cena took at SummerSlam 2014 occurred in 2003. Of course, given that Cena was in the midst of a major shove up the card, it would've certainly stopped that momentum. But, on the flipside, it would've left Cena as a midcarder at a time in WWE that the midcard in the company was filled with a ridiculously high number of very solid veterans. Cena being able to wrestle solid veterans on a weekly basis would've given him the in-ring seasoning that he may have missed in being elevated to the main event scene so quickly.