His most important match: John Cena

[D-Will316]

John Cena THE WWE guy. In your opinion what was John Cena's most important match that he's had thus far. The match that propelled him to being the "poster boy'" for the company.

For me it'd have to be his match at Wrestlemania 22 in a victory against Triple H. I think getting that clean victory over him just skyrocketed his career to heights never seen before.

Thoughts?

 

[Jdulemba1001]

Its gotta be the Rock...arguably not his best match, but it was the biggest stage and the biggest hype hes ever had, and this is the match that the most people saw and more importantly, most people bought.

 

[SilverBullet1929]

Im going with rock. Mostly because all of the other choices kinda blend together, rock cena is the only one that remotely stands above the rest. I thought of jbl but he very well could have hypothetically bombed after that, but he kept rising. From there any argument that u make on any big match after that, u can make the exact argument about his matches with edge hunter Shawn Brock etc. I think cenas reputation as far as matches is more a sum of all of them combined as opposed to having one key match. Therefore rock cena is the only one to even remotely stand on its own.

 

[LSN80]

While his win against JBL was nice and all, it was a terrible match. Yes, it was for his first WWE Championship, but the match was so bad that it wouldn't have been good as the main event of Raw, let alone the co-main event of Wrestlemania.

An incredibly important match for Cena was his WWE Championship match at Summerslam 2005. It was truly when the "Let's Go Cena, Cena sucks" chants began to emerge, and he began to be seen as a 'controversial champion', instead of him being cheered as a face and Jericho the heel. It also was his first one-on-one WWE title defense while on Raw, and he did so successfully against the first Undisputed WWE Champion during a time that Jericho was quite relevant. It wasn't well known that Jericho was leaving the company the following night, so it was a statement match for Cena, and he delivered with a very good performance.

Still, I think his most important match came at Wrestlemania 22, against HHH. For three reasons.

1. It was Cena's first Wrestlemania main event, and he won.
2. He made HHH, a ten-time former champion, tap out, clean as a whistle.
3. It was a very good match, in the ***1/2 to ***3/4 range.

It wasn't a classic, by any means, but it was a solid main event that showed that not only could Cena hang with HHH, but he was going to be the 'guy'. He was in the main event of Wrestlemania, and he made the man who was easily the top heel at the time in HHH, tap out. It showed WWE's faith in Cena, and he has paid them back in spades.

It makes me wonder, however, what would have happened had he had a bad match. That would have been two bad Wrestlemania matches in two years, and the trajectory of his push could have changed altogether. Instead, he had a very good one, and it lead, I believe, to him being where he is now. A 13-time WWE Champion. Had he failed, who knows what would have happened. Hence, it was his most important match.

 

[Aquaman6686]

I'm going with Cena vs. JBL at WrestleMania 21. JBL had been WWE Champion for 280 days, the second-longest reign by a heel champion in history, and had retained against every top guy, in every conceivable match type. Originally his title reign was scheduled to go until SummerSlam, but with Cena being so immensely popular at the time, they decided to have JBL drop the title to him at WrestleMania instead. John Cena beat him clean, in the middle of the ring, and decisively ended his title reign, instantly propelling him to the top of WWE. In my mind his victory was a much bigger deal than Batista beating Triple H, since Triple H was dropping and regaining the title every few months anyway.

The match was subpar no doubt, but I don't hate it as much as a lot of fans do. I think they deliberately booked the match the way they did to make it reminiscent of the Hulk Hogan title matches from the early WrestleManias. Not a decision I liked, but I see why they did it.

 

[MCMG]

When John Cena retires the match against The Rock will stand out. It wasn't a high quality match but the build was massive. This is his only match that will go down in history as a massive match. Hogan/Warrior, Rock/Hogan Taker/HBK, Taker/HHH, Austin/Hart, Austin/Rock, Austin/HBK. There aren't many combinations that I can think of that has the same status as Cena/Rock. The number-one guy of the current generation vs one of the biggest stars of all time.

It wasn't a classic but it had to happen. This is the biggest match Cena will ever have simply because The Rock is such a big name and there was proper hype building up to it.

 

[Downnice]

While not on the list I am going to say Judgement Day 2005. WM 21 was a crap match and plus I think Cena was put over at Judgement and showed he was a serious WWE champion

 

[Wald]

Should have been the Rock but I think this year's return match fell a little flat as Rock's heart wasn't in it and the outcome was too obvious. It definitely would have been the Rock had Cena won the first match at last year's Wrestlemania like he should have done.

I'm going with Edge at Unforgiven. I never really understood why Cena was anointed the guy to carry the entire company until his feud with Edge. The Unforgiven match was the highlight for Cena of that feud so that's my pick.

 

[BigThunder]

I went with his WM victory over Triple H, but for me, the one which I really thought was a star performance was his Parking Lot brawl with Eddie Guerrero on Smackdown.

 

[HBsam31]

To me it was the match with JBL. The fans wanted Cena on top. He had tons of momentum, and taking the title off of JBL after he held it for a year was huge for Cena. After that win he never looked back and has been on top ever since.

 

[Henry Hill]

John Cena has had a TON of important matches in his career, so picking one that stands out is very difficult. I'd say his best match had to be the one hour spectacle in London with Shawn Michaels on Raw from 2007, but that wasn't the most important. To me the first PPV match with the Undertaker at Vengeance '03 is the most important. While not a particularly overwhelming match, it showed that John Cena was going to be in the main event to stay. After losing to Brock Lesnar earlier in the year it seemed Cena was about to be pushed up to the Smackdown main event. Despite that feud Cena dropped back down to the midcard, though he did have a quality feud with Eddie Guerrero. After that being in a match with Taker kept Cena at the top. He was part of the major story leading into Survivor Series that year, being courted as a top star by both the heel and face teams, ultimately joining the faces and being on of two survivors on his team. The push that followed (Big Show at wrestlemania 20, dominating SD! for the year, despite only being US champ, eventually becoming WWE champ and face of SD, then WWE) would not have happened if he didn't deliver in that match with the Undertaker.