10 WWE Angles To Retire John Cena
3. The Friend
John Cena and Daniel Bryan are brothers-in-law and collaborators on some excellent matches and angles. The relationship between the two plays into a final angle when Daniel Bryan, under pressure from either a rival power faction or a particularly rampant heel, desperately needs help for the good of SmackDown, or the WWE as a whole.
Bryan warns Cena he's biting off more than he can chew here, but Cena is resolute in helping his friend. Bryan is proved right as Cena crumples under the effort of coming to Bryan's aid.
Bryan survives, but Cena is battered so badly in either victory or defeat that he can't go on any more. In a heartfelt one-to-one with Bryan, he explains his body has given up on him in a echo of Bryan's own retirement promo. The alliance between the two continues out of the ring as Cena takes on a role co-managing SmackDown.