20 Incredible John Cena Matches To Binge-Watch Before He Retires

2015 is the connoisseur's choice for the best year of John Cena's career. As Triple H was busy flooding NXT with the world's best indie talent (following CM Punk and Daniel Bryan exposing the WWE Universe to the idea that great wrestling happened outside of Vince McMahon's product), Cena needed something new to avoid looking like a relic of a bygone era.

The "John Cena US Open Challenge" is arguably the best title reign of Cena's career, and the most exciting the WWE United States Championship has ever been. Week after week, Cena would elevate talent in both exposure and credibility with WWE's audience. Having faced the likes of Neville, Dean Ambrose, and Sami Zayn during the first month of the concept, the first main roster appearance of Kevin Owens on Monday Night Raw embodied everything great about this run.

Coming during Owens's "Prize Fighter" era, KO appeared before he and Cena had a heavyweight mic encounter that led to the then-NXT Champion having a non-title match with Cena at Elimination Chamber. Showcasing everything that made Owens one of the best indie wrestlers of all time and coming during John's "Super Cena" height, Owens defeating Cena cleanly with the Pop-Up Powerbomb was arguably the most shocking result of Cena's entire run - and it made Kevin Owens an instant sensation and made a mockery of the idea that John Cena couldn't hang with the next generation of talent.