5 WWE Superstars who received the "John Cena push" from Vince McMahon

John Cena is hands down the biggest WWE Superstar of the 21st century. He made a name for himself during his stint as a WWE Superstar and utilized it to make a jump to Hollywood as an actor. Cena made his main roster debut in 2002 and won his first WWE title three years later at WrestleMania 21.

The year 2005 saw Cena receiving one of the biggest pushes in WWE history, as he kept getting over Superstar after Superstar and cemented himself as one of the most polarizing figures in all of WWE. He is currently a 16-time World Champion and is only tied with WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair.

Vince McMahon's decision to push Cena to the moon was certainly the right one, as he became one of the biggest merch movers of all time. As years passed, Vince McMahon gave 'Cena-like' pushes to a handful of WWE Superstars.

Although it'll be hard to declare that these Superstars became as big as Cena while getting the push, one fact that can't be discounted is that they certainly benefitted from those pushes and became some of the biggest Superstars of the past decade.

Let's take a look at 5 of these Superstars.

#5 CM Punk

CM Punk's legendary Pipebomb promo in 2011 kicked off one of the biggest pushes in WWE's storied history. He went on to defeat John Cena at Money in the Bank 2011 and the angles that followed in the next few months are now collectively dubbed as "The Summer of Punk". Punk lost the belt at SummerSlam 2011 when Alberto Del Rio cashed in on him at the end of the PPV.

At Survivor Series 2011, Punk defeated Rio to win the belt and kicked off one of the greatest title reigns of all time. He went on to successfully defend the belt against a string of WWE greats, including a dream encounter with Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 28. Punk turned heel during his title reign, and finally lost the belt to The Rock at Royal Rumble 2013 after holding it for a whopping 434 days!

#4 Seth Rollins

By the time he won the Intercontinental title at WrestleMania 34, Seth Rollins had already become one of the most popular Superstars in WWE. The year 2019 finally saw Rollins get the biggest push of his career. It all began with a Royal Rumble win, with Rollins eliminating Braun Strowman last to win the annual free-for-all.

He went on to defeat Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 35 to win the Universal title. Fans couldn't be happier as someone they genuinely loved had dethroned Lesnar at The Grandest Stage Of Them All.

Rollins ran roughshod over the WWE roster over the next few months and was being heavily protected by WWE. He registered victories over the likes of AJ Styles and King Corbin. After losing the title to Lesnar via the latter's MITB cash-in, Rollins put own The Beast at SummerSlam to win back the belt, and he did it in clean fashion. Rollins didn't stop here though. The Monster Among Men was next and Rollins defeated him as well.

Finally, Rollins met The Fiend, and the duo battled in a Hell In A Cell match. The encounter was stopped when Rollins went too far with his beatdown. He lost the title to The Fiend at Crown Jewel 2019, thus ending one of the most dominant reigns in recent memory.

#3 Becky Lynch

After dangling in the mid-card for years on end, Becky Lynch's time to shine came at SummerSlam 2018. She turned heel on Charlotte Flair following a WWE SmackDown Women's Title Triple Threat match, and thus kicked off hands down the biggest push of the modern era. Lynch soon donned the persona of "The Man", a no-nonsense, determined woman who reminded many of Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Lynch's popularity only grew as months passed and she went on to win the first-ever Women's main event in WrestleMania history. This was only the beginning though.

Lynch went on to defeat a string of women to keep the RAW title belt on her shoulder. Lacey Evans, Natalya, Sasha Banks, Shayna Baszler, and Asuka, were put down by "The Man" during her legendary run as RAW Women's Champion which lasted for more than a year.

She also shared the cover of WWE 2K20 with Roman Reigns last year. Lynch finally vacated the belt on the WWE RAW after Money In The Bank 2020 and is currently on hiatus due to her pregnancy.

#2 Roman Reigns

The Big Dog was the breakout star of The Shield, after the faction imploded in mid-2014. Following Seth Rollins' heel turn, Reigns set his sights on Randy Orton and scored a dominant victory over him at SummerSlam. He went on to win the 2015 Royal Rumble match. The extent of Reigns' push was such that he headlined WWE WrestleMania for the next four years.

Reigns met Brock Lesnar, Triple H, and The Undertaker over the next four WrestleMania events, and became only the second Superstar to defeat The Deadman at WWE WrestleMania.

Months later, Reigns defeated John Cena to prove once and for all that Cena's time on top had finally come to an end. Reigns also defeated Lesnar at WWE SummerSlam 2018 to win the Universal title but was forced to relinquish it soon after as he had to take time off to fight leukemia.

Reigns made an explosive return at last year's WWE WrestleMania and defeated Drew McIntyre in front of 80,000+ screaming fans. Reigns' monstrous push over the past few years has made many people compare him to John Cena and rightfully so. There aren't many who can claim to have headlined four WrestleMania events in a row.

#1 Brock Lesnar

When Brock Lesnar defeated The Undertaker at WrestleMania 30, fans didn't know that this was only the beginning of a push that would see Lesnar becoming the most dangerous entity in all of WWE. Lesnar met John Cena months later for the WWE title at SummerSlam. 16 German Suplexes and 2 F-5s later, Lesnar was standing tall over Cena and fans were legit surprised at what they had just witnessed. No one had ever squashed Cena in this fashion in the past.

Lesnar remained a mainstay on the main event scene for the next several years. He defeated the likes of Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Goldberg at WrestleMania. Lesnar ended Kofi Kingston's dream run as WWE Champion in a matter of seconds when he squashed The New Day member on the debut edition of SmackDown on FOX last year.

He had an incredibly strong showing at the 2020 Royal Rumble, as he eliminated 13 Superstars before being thrown off the top rope by Drew McIntyre. Lesnar finally lost the title to McIntyre at WrestleMania 36 and hasn't been seen since.