John Cena has been at the top of the WWE pyramid for a long time now. He is perhaps the most recognizable wrestler on the planet. The WWE has branded the entire PG era around his colorful, family friendly gimmick and has made millions off him.
Cena has also been the man to beat, over the years, picking up 15 World Championships, headlining several pay per views including going against the Rock at successive WrestleManias. He also won two Royal Rumbles and is a guaranteed Hall of Famer.
But the New Era is looking to go beyond ‘The Leader of the Cenation’. Cena has worked somewhat of a part time schedule this year and hasn’t been able to win big at the pay per views. In fact, Cena has looked out of sorts. He lost to AJ Styles twice, more importantly he lost clean to Styles at SummerSlam.
However, something unique happened during the last episode of SmackDown Live! – something that hasn’t happened in 13 years. Cena suffered his first clean loss on SmackDown in, that’s right, 13 years.
The fact had been pointed out on Reddit earlier this week. Cena’s pinfall loss last Tuesday to Dean was his first clean pinfall or submission loss in a singles match on RAW or SmackDown in nearly 7 years. The last time this happened was on 19 October, 2009 in a match against ‘The Game’ Triple H on RAW. Cena's SmackDown career is even better. Cena has dominated the SmackDown roster in the past. He suffered his last clean loss on SmackDown against Brock Lesnar on February 13, 2003. That was 13 years ago and Cena has come a long way since then.
However, Cena has lost his fair share of matches but all of his opponents had to use some sort of unfair means. Eddie Guerrero won against Cena with an interference. Renee Dupree had to go down south with a low blow, while Booker T used the ropes to pick the win over Cena. Others like Carlito and the Undertaker had to use foreign objects like his own chain to beat ‘Big match John’.
There were also instances where Cena lost to Billy Gunn, Orlando Jordan, Chris Benoit, Rhyno and even the Big Show due to distractions. The Big Show was, in fact, the last person to beat Cena on SmackDown in 2009, seven years ago.
Cena will be going into the No Mercy pay per view looking to equal Flair’s record of 16 World Championships when he takes on Dean Ambrose and champion AJ Styles for the WWE World Championship in the main event.
