Batista, Lesnar, Cena, Orton & Benjamin - OVW class: 1999-2000

John Cena

John Cena debuted for WWE in 2000 as ‘The Prototype’ in a SmackDown dark match against Mikey Richardson, which he lost, and would continue several tryouts on SmackDown, all of which he would lose. In 2001, he signed a contract with OVW, where he was Southern Tag Team Champion once, with Rico Constantino, and also held the OVW Heavyweight Championship once, for three months.

Cena’s debut

In June 2002, Cena made his famous official main roster debut, answering Kurt Angle’s open challenge, and losing after a hard fight. This earned him respect from many wrestlers, including The Undertaker. One of the men, Billy Kidman, formed a tag team with Cena, but was broken up short after as Cena turned heel and blamed him for one of their losses. This is when Cena began adopting the rapper gimmick, and would carry it on into 2004, where he would make it to the final six in the Royal Rumble and be eliminated by The Big Show, who he would defeat in his WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania XX for the United States Championship. Over the next year he would trade the championship back and forth with Booker T and Carlito, before making it to the final two of the next year’s Royal and defeating JBL at WrestleMania 21 for the WWE Championship, and in a series of matches following. Later, when he was drafted to Raw, the crowds started booing him while in a feud with Eric Bischoff and his hand picked challengers for his championship, which he would lose at New Year’s Revolution 2006 to Edge, who cashed in his Money In The Bank, but won it back in three weeks. After defeating Triple H at WrestleMania 22 with a heavy negative reaction, he was subject to a torturous crowd when he lost the WWE Championship to Rob Van Dam at ECW One Night Stand 2006. Edge would win the title and feud with Cena until he won the championship back, and then began a long reign, defeating Shawn Michaels, Edge, Randy Orton and The Great Khali on different occasions. After the first feud between him and Orton ended with Cena on top, he had to vacate his title due to injury and returned surprisingly early to a huge pop to win the 2008 Royal Rumble. He would be unsuccessful in winning the WWE Championship, and then restarted his feud with JBL.

At SummerSlam, Cena lost to Batista and received a neck injury which is still mentioned today. He returned in November, and at WrestleMania 25, won the World Heavyweight Championship from Edge in a Triple Threat involving The Big Show, but immediately lost the title the next month to Edge. In September, Cena won his fourth WWE Championship in an I Quit Match against Randy Orton, and continued a series of matches against him for a few months, to lose it at Elimination Chamber and gain it back from Batista at WrestleMania XXVI. At SummerSlam, Team Cena defeated The Nexus, and Cena was heavily criticised for ‘burying’ the talent from the faction. This feud would carry on until The Royal Rumble, where Cena eliminated most of The Nexus.

Cena is a 15-time world champion

Cena lost the main event of WrestleMania XXVII to the Miz due to The Rock’s interference, which set up a match at WrestleMania XXVIII. In Summer 2011, Cena was involved in an infamous feud with CM Punk over the WWE Championship, which he lost, and would go on to lose his match against The Rock at WrestleMania, only to win the Royal Rumble the next year and challenge the Rock who was WWE Champion, and defeat him.

After a 2013 where he was mostly a step behind the top, he stepped down the midcard of WrestleMania XXX, where he defeated Bray Wyatt. After a brief stint as WWE World Heavyweight Champion, he lost to Brock Lesnar and failed to win his championship back. Following, he feuded with Rusev over the United States Championship and won at WrestleMania 31, and is still United States Champion, defending every week in his popular “US Open Challenge”, and is, by far, the most successful Superstar to come out of the golden OVW class of 1999-2000.

Cena as the US champion at WM 31