10 WWE Storylines That Saved Wrestling Careers

2. SmackDown's Halloween Party (John Cena)

By far the most throwaway storyline included here, the 2002 SmackDown Halloween party was supposed to be memorable for Eric Bischoff (dressed as Vince McMahon) snogging the face off Stephanie McMahon (dressed as a witch). It had something else more notable to offer.

"Word life, this is basic thuganomics."

Although John Cena had already turned heel on Billy Kidman pre-party, he was still seeking that killer character to demonstrate his skills to WWE higher-ups. Amidst the Halloween fun, Cena dressed up as a '80's rap relic Vanilla Ice and showed a new side to himself. Almost overnight, a star was born.

OK, not quite. Cena had to jump through some hoops after morphing into the bad boy rapper, but he was on the right track for the first time in his career. Within a few short months, he'd kiss 'C' level programming like Velocity goodbye forever and fire himself into the collective consciousness of fans by using nifty rap battle putdowns.