John Cena is one of the most polarizing WWE superstars in history. Although many fans will likely not have him in their "top five favorite wrestlers", it's hard to argue that Cena didn't carry the WWE for a decade. His resume is also insane to argue against. Sure there's a lot of criticism surrounding the fact that he was invincible for three years but when his moments were good they were great.
Cena was also unafraid to put other superstars over despite his massive status. There's a long list of current WWE superstars who owe gratitude to John Cena because in the era before he arrived, there were a ton of wrestling superstars who achieved the status similar to Cena but refused to help anybody else get over. That doesn't mean every wrestler John Cena wrestled turned into a superstar and this list will examine 5 wrestlers who John Cena made look legit and five he made look like an absolute joke.
10 Look Legit: Edge
There was no greater foe to John Cena than Edge. Although fans, now, know Edge as a multi-time world champion and a WWE Hall of Famer, before he started feuding with John Cena he was an upper mid-carder at the company. Edge won the Money in the Bank contract and cashed it in on John Cena after he defended the title in the Elimination Chamber and everything changed.
Edge and John Cena become one of the most storied rivalries at the WWE. Cena does deserve a fair amount of credit in this feud since he always made Edge look legit and the two of them carried the WWE at the end of the Ruthless Aggression Era.
9 Look Like A Joke: Bray Wyatt
Bray Wyatt's WWE return has proven that fans still haven't gotten enough of one of the most creative wrestlers to ever set foot in a ring. On the night that Daniel Bryan won the WWE's biggest prize (WrestleMania 30), Wyatt should have been launched into the main event scene by defeating John Cena.
Instead, Cena beat Wyatt in a match that did little to bolster Cena and hindered Wyatt for another year. It was another instance of the WWE booking Cena way too strongly and causing outrage from fans in the process.
8 Look Legit: AJ Styles
The moment that AJ Styles arrived to the WWE, fans looked forward to seeing him and John Cena feud. Styles was a much more critically acclaimed wrestler and the clash between him and Cena had been a dream matchup since Styles was at TNA. The two finally entered into a feud in 2016, and it was a perfect way to help AJ get over with WWE audiences.
Some fans may forget that Styles didn't get the usual treatment of a wrestler arriving from Japan by entering NXT. Instead, he was given a bigger platform upon arrival. Thanks to his matches and feuds with John Cena, AJ Styles became the main event star and eventual two-time WWE Champion.
7 Look Like A Joke: The Nexus
One of the worst booking decisions in the history of the WWE was allowing John Cena to single-handedly destroy the Nexus. This was in the era when John Cena was essentially invincible and everybody hated him for it.
The Nexus was a great opportunity to not only create new superstars since many members of the Nexus would go on to be big names but was also a chance to break Cena and give him a new hill to overcome. Instead, he squashed Nexus, and everything Cena did after that felt obsolete and fabricated.
6 Look Legit: Bryan Danielson
Although Bryan Danielson's rise to the top of the WWE reached its peak at WrestleMania 30, he also entered into a feud with John Cena that helped him get over in a big way with the audience. Just like nobody ever expected him to be a WWE World Champion, not a single person ever expected that a person of Bryan's size would ever be able to score a pinfall victory over John Cena.
Not only did Bryan Danielson look great in the ring with John Cena, but he also held his own during promos which was an aspect of his game that wasn't nearly on par with Cena. The two competed at SummerSlam 2013 and after Brian Danielson won the bout, it set up the long-term run in the main event scene.
5 Look Like A Joke: Baron Corbin
The WWE has tried countless times to get Baron Corbin over with audiences. He's gone through multiple gimmicks and has won a few big matches. One of his earlier attempts to get over was completely foiled when he and John Cena put on an absolute stinker of a match at SummerSlam 2017.
It was supposed to be a shining moment for Corbin, even if he lost, but he just left the match looking like a subpar wrestler who couldn't even draw eyes with John Cena.
4 Look Legit: Kevin Owens
Kevin Owens is another unlikely WWE world champion. He was never the kind of person that Vince McMahon would have ever given a main event status before 2013. Owens entered into a feud with John Cena in 2015, and it helped bolster his status in many ways.
Not only was he able to put on good matches with John Cena but Cena also gave enough effort to help Owens look like an absolute stud in promos.
3 Look Like A Joke: The Miz
The Miz and John Cena were supposed to be rivals at the level of Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan. In all honesty, no fan buys the Miz as a "great wrestler." Not even main eventing a WrestleMania could sell their feud as "good."
The issue with John Cena and Miz is that they lack wrestling skills in the same areas which means their matches are pretty tough to sit through. They're also unlikeable characters because of many factors and over time, instead of becoming an opponent at the level of Edge, the Miz was given a platform he probably didn't deserve in 2010.
2 Look Legit: CM Punk
Some fans consider John Cena to be one of the best rivals of CM Punk's entire career. It's impossible to deny the chemistry that these two wrestlers had as opponents. They told a perfect story between a person "who was given a platform early" like John Cena and a person "who worked his whole life but didn't look the part" like CM Punk.
They have had multiple critically acclaimed matches and Cena essentially passed the torch to Punk by making him look like an absolute stud in the WWE.
1 Look Like A Joke: Umaga
Umaga should've had a title run that was worthy of his status in the mid-2000s. In typical WWE fashion, John Cena ended Umaga's streak, proving Cena was unbeatable. Umaga never ascended to the top of the card as he deserved and his match with Cena left him looking like a mid-carder.
If he had been given the victory (that he deserved) then Cena would've had a great foe to challenge instead of the same old foes fans saw Cena topple over and over again.