WWE superstar John Cena has taken every beating the wrestling business could throw at him. Every finisher, chair shot, and last-second kickout shaped the mythology of “Super Cena,” the performer who refused to stay down long after the crowd expected him to fold. Across his legendary run, he became the man that couldn’t be buried.
Since debuting in 2002 in a challenge against Kurt Angle during an episode of SmackDown, Cena has built a career that pushed him into wrestling legend territory. He closes that chapter when he faces Austrian powerhouse Gunther at Saturday Night’s Main Event in Washington, D.C on December 13. The match is billed as “The Last Time is Now,” a fitting sendoff after a 23-year run. He leaves with 17 world titles, a Guinness record for most Make-A-Wish visits, and a resume that reaches far beyond the ring.
To understand why Cena became one of wrestling’s most durable icons, you can look at the moments when the spectacle, violence, and absurdity collided. Here are five of the wildest Cena matches in WWE history.
John Cena vs “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt, Wrestlemania 2020
Wrestlemania 36’s “Firefly Funhouse” Match played out as one of Cena’s most intense psychological warfares of his career. If Kane and Undertaker made Cena lose his mind, Wyatt was a different beast. The match, pre-recorded in various locations instead of a live setting, sees Wyatt drag Cena through a surreal reconstruction of his own career, turning every failure and public criticism into a weapon. Cena then relived the fallout of his 2014 win over Wyatt, the early days of his ruthless aggression persona, the forced smiles of the PG era, and the nagging accusation that he held others back.
Every setting and costume change worked as another layer of punishment. By the end of the sequence, Wyatt dropped the playful tone and transformed into The Fiend, choking Cena out with the Mandible Claw. The match became one of WWE’s strangest experiments in worldbuilding and a pointed dismantling of Cena’s legacy. Wrestling rarely delivers something this theatrical, but Wyatt understood how to turn the entire format into a trap.
John Cena vs Brock Lesnar, Summerslam 2014
Lesnar’s destruction of Cena at SummerSlam 2014 became one of the most lopsided beatdowns the company has ever aired.
Cena walked in as the face of WWE, the man built to absorb punishment and come out almost unscathed. Lesnar tore through that mythology almost instantly. The match became a nonstop run of German suplexes and F-5s, a barrage that made the audience wince every time Cena landed on his neck and shoulders. Lesnar dismantled him from bell to bell and left with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in convincing fashion.
The match reset the entire power structure of the company and cemented Lesnar as the most dominant force at the time. Cena’s toughness was never the question. The shock came from how little it mattered when Lesnar locked in.
John Cena vs Rob Van Dam, ECW One Night Stand 2006
The crowd at Hammerstein Ballroom New York hated Cena the moment he walked out. Every sign, chant, and thrown shirt made it clear he had stepped into a room that rejected everything he represented.
Rob Van Dam, a hero in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) lore, played into the hostility with every kick and dive. Cena tried to wrestle through the noise, but the crowd wouldn’t let the match settle. Every near fall felt like a riot waiting to happen. At one point, fans launched Cena’s t-shirt back at him repeatedly. The match ended with RVD winning the WWE Championship after interference from Edge, and the whole place erupted.
ECW’s culture clashed with WWE’s corporate face in ways that felt personal. It remains one of Cena’s most intense matches because nothing about the hostility was staged. The arena wanted him gone, and he still delivered.
John Cena vs JBL, Judgment Day 2005
This match was pure brutality. Cena and John “Bradshaw” Layfield tore into each other with the kind of violence that defined WWE’s pre-PG era. JBL opened a deep wound on Cena’s forehead with a chair shot that turned the ring into a bloodbath. Cena later returned the damage by throwing JBL through a television monitor, leaving both men covered in crimson and barely standing.
The fight spilled into the set, over equipment, and through debris, with each strike making the crowd react louder. Cena fought to prove he belonged in the main event scene, and this was the night he convinced everyone. The image of him holding the WWE Championship with blood running down his face became one of the most enduring visuals of his career. It was raw, ugly, and unforgettable, a match that solidified Cena’s legendary status.
John Cena vs Cody Rhodes, Wrestlemania 2025
When Cena turned heel for the first time at Elimination Chamber 2025 alongside The Rock and, strangely enough, Travis Scott, the moment landed as one of the most shocking turns in sports entertainment since Hulk Hogan betrayed Randy Savage at WCW’s Bash at the Beach in 1996.
The heel turn set the stage for the biggest night of the year in April. Cena’s main event match against Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 41 became one of the strangest chapters in his career because the crowd flipped the script before the bell even rang. Rhodes entered as the babyface carrying the company’s central storyline, but the audience rejected him, they booed the moment the “American Nightmare” theme played.
Cena walked out to his trademark “Time is Now” theme, but it was contrasted with a black screen and bold Arial text, a stripped-down entrance that set the tone. He immediately leaned into his new role with trash talk, slow taunts, and cheap strikes that pushed him fully into villain territory for the first time in more than a decade. Rhodes tried to push through the crowd’s hostility, but every physical comeback was drowned out by fans who were loudly rooting for Cena’s heel turn.
The finish landed with a low blow, a shot to the head using the championship belt, an Attitude Adjustment, and an unjustified pin. The reaction was explosive, but the match felt underwhelming once you peeled away the loud audience pop. The storyline had been muddled for weeks due to internal conflicts involving Scott and the company, which remain unclear to the public. Even with a flat conclusion, the match marked a clear turning point. Fans decided that Cena’s villainous arc was the real attraction, which turned the bout into one of the most chaotic and memorable in his career.
