Ranking Every WWE Title Match At WrestleMania Worst To Best

30. WrestleMania 21 - JBL Vs. John Cena

John Cena JBL
WWE.com

In reality, JBL defending the WWE Championship against John Cena was never particularly on the WrestleMania 21 card to serve as an all-time classic.

Rather than being about putting on an in-ring clinic, this match was merely here to serve as the moment the young Cena won a World Title for the first time. In that regard, the bully, brash heel figure of John Bradshaw Layfield was a fine foil for a Cena who was growing in popularity with each passing week.

Less than three years after he appeared on SmackDown to proclaim his "ruthless aggression", Cena had morphed from generic babyface to the Doctor of Thuganomics, to United States Champion, and by this time in 2005, it was a matter of when WWE was going to pull the trigger on the Massachusetts native as a true top guy rather than if Cena would ever get to that rarefied air.

The WrestleMania 21 WWE Title match was serviceable, clocking in at a brisk 11 minutes as JBL did the job for the rising babyface star who was still a while away from the Let's Go Cena/Cena Sucks chants that would come to be a trademark of his career.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.