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John Cena is credited to be one of the greatest WWE superstars of all time. He lead the charge of a WWE era much like his iconic predecessors like The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan. In doing so, he became the face of the company and one of the top draws for years to come.
However, the road to Cena’s spectacular success came at the expense of multiple hard-working and talented WWE superstars. The company, in the bid to elevate the 16-time World Champion, sacrificed many talents, with John Cena also playing a role in the process.
The Face that Runs the Place reportedly used his backstage influence and power to take his career to greater heights and buried the careers of many young talents. Here are those five names whose WWE aspirations were crumbled with the rise of John Cena.
Ryback debuted in WWE in the early 2010s as a dominant force of nature. His imposing size, strength and dominance inside the squared circle poised him for big things. Moreover, he was inserted in top storylines surrounding the WWE title with stars likeCM Punk, Vince McMahon and even John Cena.
However, due to WWE’s storyline set with Punk being beaten by The Rock for the WWE Championship and Cena challenging him to a rematch at WrestleMania 29, Ryback’s rise took a massive hit.
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He lost his high-profile Hell in a Match with Punk, where he replaced John Cena and was even eliminated by him at the end in the Royal Rumble 2013, falling down the card and never recovering to the same status again.
4Damien Sandow
Damien Sandow emerged as a captivating character inWWEwith his ‘Intellectual Savior of the Masses’ gimmick. The popularity led Sandow to taste championship gold and even win the Money in the Bank briefcase in 2013. This possibly meant that Sandow was positioned to become a World Champion at the time.
#OnThisDayin 2013, Damien Sandow cashed in his Money in the bank on John Cena and lost the match….They should have pulled the trigger on Sandow. Got to keep John boy over i guess 😉@AronsThoughts#wweraw#wwe#JohnCena#sandowpic.twitter.com/Jx1mYq0g0G
But WWE had plans for a John Cena vs Randy Orton match at that year’s TLC to unify both World titles. This led to them booking Sandow to lose his cash in a match against Cena and being pushed down the card, becoming a mid-card talent.
3John Morrison
One of the most talented, magnetic and popular superstars to never taste major glory in WWE was John Morrison. The Prince of Parkour had everything to succeed as a top-tier star and was very close to capturing the WWE Championship in 2011 from his best friend, The Miz.
But WWE being fixated on keepingJohn Cenaat the top led to Morrison taking a back seat. He was part of the triple threat steel cage match at the WWE Extreme Rules 2011 event, but the company chose to put the belt back on Cena and continue his positioning as the top star, leaving out the Monday Night Delight.
2Wade Barrett
Wade Barrett made a huge impact by winning the first season of the WWE NXT reality show in 2010. He continued riding the wave of momentum when he led the group of all NXT rookies named ‘The Nexus.’ Barrett gained massive attention as he and his group feuded with John Cena.
The way John Cena asked to stop the music so he could end Wade Barett’s career right there 😭💀pic.twitter.com/DntcI9rRfc
But WWE chose to book Cena strong, giving him the victory over Barrett in top matches like SummerSlam and their Chairs match at TLC pay-per-view. This would ultimately lead to his relegation to the mid-card and never becoming a World Champion in the company.
He now works as a commentator and moved to SmackDown from RAW after its successful debut on Netflix, which featuredmultiple celebrities and stars.
1Dolph Ziggler
Dolph Ziggler was one of the most underrated WWE superstars of all time. Many fans and critics believed that the company should have positioned him as one of their top attractions. Ziggler commanded massive attention when he was the sole survivor of Team Cena against Team Authority at the 2014 Survivor Series event.
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Instead of making him the centre of attraction, Ziggler was relegated to become a Cena sidekick, and WWE made the Franchise Player the main guy in the storyline, completely overshadowing Dolph Ziggler’s rise in the process.
Articles Published :360
N Singh is a long-time fan of professional wrestling. After dropping his Engineering regular studies in 2020, he decided to pursue his passion and became a writer. Over the last few years, he has written for multiple webs bringing a lot of skills and creativity to the table.
