8 Exact Moments WWE Fans Turned On Popular Wrestlers
6. John Cena (SummerSlam 2005)
By the time John Cena defended his WWE Championship against the well-respected Chris Jericho at SummerSlam 2005, fans were already wishing the Champ's claims of invisibility were accurate. Within three years, the rookie from West Newbury, MA had outgrown his ironic rapping schtick - and its cult following - into a mainstream, establishment star finely tuned for maximum marketability and broad appeal.
The change in character was one thing, but now Cena was being booked like Hulk Hogan - and at the expense of a cavalcade of sacred internet fandom cows. Few complained about Cena wresting his first WWE Championship from the company's trolling exercise JBL, but when Christian was sacrificed as his first defence, grumbles began to emerge.
They developed into outright outrage once Cena dispatched Chris Jericho that summer. The now familiar chants of "John Cena Sucks!" loudly echoed throughout Washington DC's MCI Center, and they'd only continue to grow from that point forth - not least when workrate machine Kurt Angle was scheduled as Cena's next victim.