Ranking John Cena's WrestleMania Matches - From Worst To Best
9. Vs. Rusev - WrestleMania XXXI
From Cena's first United States Championship win at WrestleMania to his most recent Mania singles success, last year saw him defeat the previously unpinned Rusev in a true old fashioned USA vs. Russia showdown. Rusev got the big Mania entrance treatment for this, memorably coming out on a tank in one of the greatest entrances of all time. The match itself wasn't too bad, Rusev showing that he could truly hang in the big time and Cena hitting all of the spots one expects from such a seasoned performer. The issue here lies in the booking, the way both men were presented when all was said and done. Everyone and their dog knew Cena was winning. and that was where a lot of the problems lay. All it took was an accidental bump with Lana and an AA to put the previously unconquerable Bulgarian down. This match, and subsequently Rusev's entire story at this point, felt like an exercise in getting Cena over, something which would have made no sense in 2010 let alone 2015. Rusev hasn't been the same since.
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
