10 Wrestlers Whose WWE Careers Were Derailed By John Cena
Big Match John has been the final nail in the coffin of many a WWE career.
John Cena will always divide opinion. He’s WWE’s cornerstone superstar, the biggest draw in the business, and he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Cena sells far too many t-shirts and live event tickets for WWE to even consider to even consider shaking-up his stale character and turgid feud format.
On one side of the coin, Cena is a proven big stage performer who regularly churns-out outstanding pay-per-view matches like it’s second nature. His Money In The Bank 2011 clash with CM Punk is an all-time classic, and his back catalogue is littered with ****+ matches.
He’s one of the hardest-working wrestlers in the business, a great role model, and the most invaluable PR figure on WWE’s roster. Love him or hate him, John Cena is good for business, and until that changes, he’s going to be at or close to the centre of everything they do.
That’s one side of Cena and, unfortunately, the other isn’t so positive. His character’s been standing still for the best part of a decade, his “Hustle, Loyalty, Respect” rhetoric is tired, and most egregious of all, Cena’s career is littered with wrestlers who’ve never recovered from their run-ins with Big Match John.
It’s little fault of his own, since WWE want Cena as their top guy, and they’re more than willing to make sacrificial lambs of anybody who might seek to take his place. Here are 10 examples.
10. Rusev
From 2014 to early 2015, Rusev was en route to become WWE’s alpha heel. An excellent worker who’s built like a truck and comes packaged with the most easily detestable gimmick in the company, Rusev and his valet Lana were on a roll with the United States Championship.
After a series of anti-USA rivalries with Jack Swagger, Big Show, Mark Herny, and noted American patriot Sheamus (what?), Rusev ran into John Cena, and that’s where his problems started.
The feud was little more than a crass regurgitation of Rusev’s prior stories, and not only did Cena take his belt at WrestleMania 31, he went on to “crush” Rusev three more times.
In a row.
Oh, WWE...
This sparked a long period of irrelevancy and failed storylines for Rusev, who’s only recently started recovering some of that lost heat. Rusev will likely go on to have a long, successful WWE career, but losing to Cena set his development back several years.