Like him or not, it is hard to picture the last 10+ years of the WWE without John Cena. But that was almost the case, as Dave Meltzer told the story on Wrestling Observer Radio:

"[John Cena] worked OVW for a while which is where he really learned his craft. He was called up too soon, which everyone knew, and there’s political reasons why that happened, and it nearly cost him his career. If it wasn’t for Stephanie McMahon taking a liking to him after they’d just about decided to let him go, he could’ve been gone.

Imagine that. Imagine this business in the last 11 years with John Cena as the top guy and John being out of the picture. Obviously they would’ve gone with Batista as the top guy, and Batista wouldn’t have been as good in that situation as John Cena, and he wasn’t as versatile as John Cena. He would’ve been okay, and it’s not like the business would’ve collapsed, but it would’ve been a lot worse off."

Imagine Batista as The Face That Runs The Place. How does that sound to you?