8. 2013 - John Cena Wins To Headline WrestleMania With The Rock AGAIN
2012 was a pretty great year for the WWE - CM Punk was riding high as the WWE Champion, they had a fantastic WrestleMania, Brock Lesnar returned after an eight-year absence years, The Rock returned to action, Paul Heyman teamed up with his two best mates to create great on-screen memories. How would WWE follow it up in 2013? Wait, what? They're doing Rock and Cena II? Haha, no they're not. Stop it. Don't do this to me. Oh, you mean you're serious? Oh well then... For the most part, the 2013 Rumble match was your standard slice of Rumble fun, until it came down to perennial top guy John Cena and Ryback, who had been on a meteoric rise in 2012 (until they booked him to lose to CM Punk twice in October and November). Now was Ryback's chance. Could he upset the status quo and help make a new star going into WrestleMania season? The fans roared with cries of 'Feed Me More' and the 50/50 chants of "Lets Go Cena/Cena Sucks", which started to drown the action. In the end, Cena eliminated Ryback and at that moment it was clear the mystique of The Big Guy had eroded. He wasn't a star on the rise and he wasn't chucked out by a major WrestleMania opponent. He was eliminated to set-up Rock/Cena II. For this reason alone, this Rumble makes the list. It acted to set the scene for, in my opinion, one of the weaker WrestleMania main events in recent memory. The returning movie star that everyone loves had beaten Cena and we all knew what would happen in the return match. The passing of the torch to Big Match John was so inevitable. Cena would flounder throughout 2013 and really only experience a true renaissance in 2015 with his outstanding US Title Open Challenge.
Kenny is a successful podcast host with Inside The Ropes, promotes exciting Q&A events in the UK with the likes of Sting and DDP, has interviewed the big guns like Foley, Jericho, Bruno and Austin and enjoys cheese a great deal.
