9 Times John Cena Was The Worst WWE Babyface Ever
4. Feud With The Rock
The moment The Rock returned to WWE after a seven-year layoff in 2011, everyone knew he was going to be the overwhelming babyface. Nothing he did, short of attack the Divas division, would lead fans to boo him. Any superstar opposing him was going to be the default heel.
Enter, John Cena.
At the time, Cena was still the big star in WWE, the face of the company around whom everything revolved. He also was the most polarizing figure on the roster, so no matter what he did, he was going to be soundly booed by a large segment of the fanbase. Going up against The Rock for the better part of two years (off and on) was only going to exacerbate that issue.
Throughout their feud heading into WrestleManias 28 and 29, Cena played situational heel to a large section of the crowd, running Rocky down in his absence and while the Great One was on WWE programming. Cena was smug and at times smarmy as he blasted Rock for abandoning WWE and not caring about the company. He called him a part-timer, mocked his movie career, and then no-sold a lot of Rock’s rebuttals.
Probably the most infamous part of their rivalry came in the lead-up to WrestleMania 28’s “Once in a Lifetime” match when Rock was in the ring cutting a promo. Cena came out and ad-libbed an admittedly great line about how he didn’t need to have his promo scribbled on his wrist, as Rock had done. It led to some serious heat between the two, but it was an opportunity Cena couldn’t pass up.
In this situation, Cena was 100% correct to lean into the fans’ reactions and blur the lines a bit, as Rock was doing the same as he insulted Cena, but this was one of the easiest times to boo Cena as the heel going up against one of the most popular superstars in the company’s history.