9 Times The Undertaker Helped Make WWE Superstars (And The One That Got Away)
4. John Cena
Big Match John had one hell of a debut night on SmackDown, didn't he? After answering Kurt Angle's open challenge and putting on a damn fine first impression (although I can never hear that "ruthless aggression" line without thinking of WrestleMania 36 again), Cena received some instant credibility from a legend backstage.
World champ Undertaker, in his marginally friendlier biker phase, offered a handshake and a word of encouragement to the newbie. The pair even tagged together in 2003, before Cena took Undertaker to the limit at Vengeance in a match that put a once-faltering career into overdrive; we all know how things turned out in the end.
As anyone who watched the Ruthless Aggression documentary will know, John Cena almost failed at the first hurdle in WWE, an unthinkable scenario in 2021. While King Druid Zombie Man can't take all the credit for getting Cena through that difficult first spell (and I'm not sure he'd even want that credit), his history with Thuganomics Cena definitely helped the 16-time world champ. Six or seven more minutes at WrestleMania 34 would have been nice...