9 Times John Cena Was The Worst WWE Babyface Ever
1. Making Rey Pull Double Duty
When CM Punk defeated John Cena to win the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank 2011, it didn’t just kick off the Summer of Punk or save WWE from having the Chicago faithful riot had Cena won, it also left the company without a true world champion.
Punk’s WWE contract had run out that night, and he left the company with the world title in tow. This left the brass with no choice but to crown a new champion. A hastily thrown-together mini-tournament concluded the following week when Rey Mysterio beat The Miz (that’s one hell of a tournament there) to become the new WWE Champion.
Enter, Cena.
Mysterio was backstage celebrating his first world title in more than five years when John approached him to congratulate him. Shortly thereafter, Triple H announced that Cena and Rey would face each other for Mysterio’s newly won WWE title… which fresh-as-a-daisy Cena would naturally win, ending Rey’s title reign at less than two hours.
Wait, so the ultimate babyface Cena agreed to this? The match just had to be right then and there? Any honorable wrestler would have immediately put a halt to this and said that he wanted to face Mysterio at 100% rather than making him compete twice the same night, and surely John had the clout to insist exactly that. But Cena was more than fine with this, as he needed to get his 11th world title reign going ASAP.
This is a heel move of the highest order, showing up, smiling, and shaking the new champ’s hand, then accepting a match to make him defend the title 90 minutes later. This didn’t go over all that well in the arena at the time and left a bad taste in many fans’ mouths as it unfolded.