Ranking The Biggest Rivalries In Wrestling Every Year 1990-2020

9. 2012 - The Rock Vs John Cena

Wrestlemania 28 The Rock John Cena
WWE.com

It wasn't always great, but when. John Cena and The Rock's promo battles hit, they were red hot. And when the WrestleMania XXVIII buyrate came in, even the sh*t suddenly looked like it was on fire.

WWE had crafted a match too good to botch, and a build - thankfully - that made a dream match feel just like that. Booked with a year to spare, the two only really came to verbal blows in the traditional Rumble-To-Mania run, but what run it was.

Rock's sublime acting pretending to be rattled after Cena "exposed" the notes on his wrist. Cena's return to a beloved persona of old to briefly unplug 'The Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment'. 'The Great One's retort reducing Cena to a Billy Gunn-adjacent goon. It felt like gold on television, then produced it on pay-per-view - the company never topped the 1,253,000 figure before mercy-killing the format entirely two years later.

 
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett