Top 8 Underrated Feuds of John Cena's Career
John Cena is one of WWE's greatest superstars - and one of the most enduring of his generation. While he's been mostly absent for the past few years, working on other projects and only popping in occasionally, Cena was undoubtedly WWE's workhorse for the better part of a decade. During this period, he developed a list of rivals unmatched by anybody else in the industry: Orton, Triple H, Kurt Angle, Edge and a whole host of other surefire first-ballot Hall of Famers had some of their best matches and feuds with the 16-time World Heavyweight Champion.
RELATED: John Cena's 10 Best Feuds, Ranked
It might come as no surprise then that the former 'Doctor of Thuganomics' had some less-notable - and even forgettable - clashes with others. Some of them, such as his various quarrels with folks like Kane or the Big Show, were generally stinkers. Still, there were some feuds that were overlooked or underrated.
8 Carlito - 2004
Let's address the proverbial elephant in the room first: yes, there was a point in John Cena's feud with Carlito over the United States Championship in 2004 where the following was (kayfabe) factually correct: "Carlito hired Jesus to stab John Cena outside a Boston nightclub."
Aside from that whole thing, this wasn't that bad a feud. Carlito was early into his WWE stint, displaying that he was one of the younger mid-carders on the roster to watch. Cena was clearly above the US title level at this point, however, biding his time through the end of the year until he'd ascend to the next level at Wrestlemania 21. Still, these two had a handful of entertaining matches and promos, which we believe would have happened with or without Jesus' blessing.
7 Rusev - 2015
By the time 2015 rolled around, it was clear WWE was starting to look at transitioning beyond John Cena as its most reliable star. The respective ascensions of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan showed, despite their subsequent falls from McMahon grace, that the company could move beyond the last true transcendent full-time star they created.
After Cena was unsuccessful at recapturing the WWE World Championship from Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble, he needed a Wrestlemania 31 opponent. Rusev, along with his manager Lana, was gaining momentum barely into his second year in the company and held the United States Championship hostage as a show of foreign heel strength. When Cena challenged Rusev to a match for the title at Wrestlemania, which Rusev lost in his first pinfall defeat on the main roster, WWE creative didn't know how to react to Lana's increasing babyface popularity. However, this wasn't Cena's fault. Fact is, regardless of their results, the matches were good! Furthermore, Rusev's constant losing helped garner babyface sympathy, propelling his subsequent viral popularity.
6 Mark Henry - 2013
When Mark Henry arrived at the June 17, 2013, Raw after a John Cena promo, fans were stunned to hear him announce his retirement in an emotional speech. The soliloquy was so moving, Cena's since admitted to tearing up for real despite obviously knowing what fans didn't until its conclusion - it was all a ruse, meant to set up Henry as the next challenger to Cena's WWE Championship at Money in the Bank.
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Henry lost in his challenge, and the match was decent but unspectacular, but what was most notable about this feud was their masterful execution of the stop-gap angle before setting things up for SummerSlam. The 'World's Strongest Man,' in particular, showed just how far he'd come since signing with the company as a green-as-grass former Olympian in 1996, and even if it was just for that one Raw segment, he managed to turn his usual 'Hall of Pain' into a 'Hall of Tears.'
5 Kevin Federline - 2006
Back in the Aughts and long before her infamous and recently-severed conservatorship, pop star Britney Spears was free to date - and marry - whomever she chose. When she and Federline, a backup dancer in the industry, married in 2004, 'K-Fed' became an instant celebrity, famous solely by association.
Of course, this all meant that he was the type of 'C-Lister' WWE loves to exhibit. Federline made his first few appearances on Raw that October, immediately targeting John Cena. After interfering in several of Cena's matches - including an eventual loss to King Booker at Cyber Sunday - he challenged the WWE Champion on the New Year's Day 2007 edition of Raw. In that match, Federline managed to pull off the 'Upset of the Century' - with help from Umaga and Johnny Nitro - and despite mass skepticism from fans, the whole story wound up being surprisingly entertaining, as 'K-Fed' was a natural villain.
4 Sheamus - 2009/10
Sheamus might be one of the more overlooked and underrated former WWE Champions in history. Boasting a surprising number of titles over his career, the Irishman accomplished more in his first year on the main roster than many do over decades. Not only did he win his first two world championships within Year One in WWE, but did so both times by beating the company's biggest star: John Cena.
While Sheamus was enjoying his rookie year moonshot push, Cena was firmly entrenched in the prime of his run on top. Cena continued to experience mixed reactions from fans, and pitting a mostly-unknown young heel in such a high-profile feud with the polarizing star was a bold move. It was a bit jarring at the time, but looking back, the two had some of Cena's grittiest, most entertaining brawls as 'Champ' until that point. It's also worth noting that 'Big Match John,' who was often accused of burying young talent to maintain his position back then, was generous in his encounters with the 'Celtic Warrior,' who might not be the star he is today if not for the 'rub.'
3 Booker T - 2004
Booker T was the victim of one of the worst burials in WWE history in 2003 when the five-time WCW Champion made the mistake of gaining viral popularity with fans during Triple H's Reign of Terror. While Booker was pushed to the main event of Wrestlemania 19, he (and WCW) was made to look like a chump along the way and was one of the few babyfaces to walk out of a world title match on the 'Grandest Stage of Them All' empty-handed.
Booker fell back down to the mid-card after 'Mania, and after a few short runs with the Intercontinental and Tag Team Titles over the next year on Raw, he was 'traded' to SmackDown in 2004. He set his sights on the rising United States Champion John Cena, and the two feuded throughout the summer. Booker won the title in an eight-man elimination match after Cena was stripped of the title, and then-new SmackDown GM Teddy Long decided they'd settle their score in a Best-of-Five Series. The bouts weren't classics but were solid, and Cena's eventual 3-2 win at No Mercy to recapture the belt helped legitimize him in the eyes of fans on the way to bigger and better things.
2 The Authority - 2014
The Authority's multi-year run of heel dominance in WWE began in earnest at SummerSlam 2013, but it wasn't until the end of the year when John Cena would be the subject of their wrath when he challenged WWE Champion (and the Authority's hand-picked golden boy) Randy Orton to unify the belt with Cena's newly-won World Heavyweight Championship.
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For the next year, Cena would be in and out of the Authority's business, which mostly consisted of controlling the WWE Championship - whether held by Orton or Seth Rollins. Eventually, Triple H and company tried to recruit him, but ever the babyface, Cena defied their advances and assembled a team of his own to oppose them at Survivor Series. Team Cena won (with Sting's assistance), but the saga was far from finished. The Authority's run on top grew stale as it moved into its third year in 2015, but it provided the basis for Cena's run with Rollins that summer in a handful of great matches.
1 Umaga - 2007
By early 2007, John Cena was still struggling as a dominant babyface champion in an era where fans were still not ready for clean-cut, smiley good guys. He spent most of the previous year in feuds with Edge, Triple H and Rob Van Dam that saw the WWE Championship change hands several times in solid matches that never earned Cena credit from critics. Many said his moveset was bland and mechanical, and his booking was almost too strong.
The undefeated Umaga stepped up as Cena's next fresh challenger, and at New Year's Revolution and the Royal Rumble, the two had a pair of tight, stiff brawls. The matches not only helped Umaga prove he belonged at the top, but opened some eyes to how far Cena had come as an in-ring worker since winning the WWE Title nearly two years prior. Sadly, they'd never have a chance to revisit their classic contests as Eddie 'Umaga' Fatu tragically passed away just under three years later.
