The career of Christian appears to be over after many years of greatness for WWE and TNA. Christian started off as a tremendous tag team wrestler, teaming with his brother Edge during the Attitude Era. They dominated the tag team division before splitting up for singles runs. Christian changed up his character, look and overall presentation to move forward on his own.
We will look back at some of the best and worst rivalries to come from Christian’s run as a singles superstar. The best ones showcased how incredible of a performer he was without much restrictions. Unfortunately, a few negative ones prevented him from always shining through. Find out just what rivalries are worth checking back or avoiding. These are the five best and five worst feuds of Christian’s career.
10 Best: John Cena
The short rivalry between Christian and John Cena helped Christian gain more momentum as a singles performer. Christian started cutting promos running down Cena during his WWE Championship reign ahead of the brand split draft.
Cena moved to Raw where Christian was finally able to confront him. The two wrestlers faced off in a triple threat match involving Chris Jericho as well. Christian sadly didn’t get bigger matches with Cena, but the promos alone made him a bigger star.
9 Worst: Ezekiel Jackson
Christian became the face of the WWE version of the ECW brand. The title reigns helped him return to WWE from TNA with a noteworthy role. Christian had the last long title reign before losing the ECW Championship to Ezekiel Jackson.
The rivalry was done to put over Jackson as the final ECW Champion. Their matches had some positive moments, but the overall end result failed to deliver. Christian did his best to make Jackson look like a rising star. Unfortunately, it never worked out that way and he ended up flopping afterward.
8 Best: Samoa Joe
The TNA chapter of Christian’s career is quite underrated. Christian went to TNA to have his first real experience of being a main eventer for a television company. The run was quite entertaining, with his best feud taking place against Samoa Joe.
Christian and Joe had outstanding chemistry as opponents, leading to a couple of major matches. Joe’s big Bound for Glory win over Christian allowed him to continue gaining momentum as a main event player. WWE fans missed out on the two working together in the bigger company.
7 Worst: Abyss
One of the stranger TNA feuds for Christian came against Abyss for the NWA Championship. TNA was trying to make Abyss become an unbeatable monster heel, but it just never worked out that way. Abyss and James Mitchell stalked Christian as part of the storyline.
Filmed segments of them following Christian’s wife at the grocery store and attacking him at his home created a strange dynamic. The matches were fine, but the over the top storyline took away from the overall impact of the angle.
6 Best: Edge
The end of Edge and Christian as a tag team saw them splitting up during the Invasion storyline. Christian’s jealousy saw him snap and attack Edge to join The Alliance. Both former best friends had a rivalry last many months, with many layers to it.
Christian won the Intercontinental Championship from Edge for the first time in his career before losing it back to end the feud. WWE saw both wrestlers benefit from the time working together, as Edge was a fan favorite and Christian became hated.
5 Worst: Booker T
Booker T and Christian are both beloved veterans of the sport that now work together on the WWE Backstage show as broadcasters. They feuded quite a few times during their careers in WWE and TNA, but they never hit home runs together.
Christian moved from Raw to Smackdown following the major interactions with John Cena. The matches with Booker saw him lose most of his momentum. Their work together in TNA also failed to make the mark, as they weren’t meant to have great matches.
4 Best: Chris Jericho
The rivalry between Chris Jericho and Christian in 2004 was the best of the mid-card feuds all year. Christian turned on Jericho when the latter became a face character. Trish Stratus also turned on Jericho to align with Christian, adding more to the fire.
Both men had a great match at WrestleMania 20 that added to the important card. Their feud continued to exist for many months. Jericho and Christian had a great run as a tag team, so it made perfect sense that it continued to work in singles matches against each other.
3 Worst: Jack Swagger
The biggest ECW feud for Christian in his WWE return was against Jack Swagger. Christian ended the title reign of Swagger and became the new face of the show. WWE wanted Swagger to learn more from working with a talented veteran like Christian for a few months.
The matches entertained, but Swagger just lacked the microphone skills and character work to continue getting pushed. Christian’s big return felt like a waste of time working with a green wrestler on the smaller brand. WWE dropped the ball by not putting him on Raw or Smackdown for bigger success.
2 Best: Randy Orton
The most memorable rivalry of Christian’s career will always be the work against Randy Orton. Christian won the World Championship for the first time in his career after defeating Alberto Del Rio. Orton, however, ended his title reign after a few days on the next episode of Smackdown.
The two had superb chemistry that only improved when Christian turned heel. Smackdown would see them carry the show as the main storyline throughout the summer of 2019. Their matches always provided great entertainment, with Christian proving he was a good main eventer for WWE. Orton revealed his favorite matches came against Christian.
1 Worst: Diamond Dallas Page
The end of the Invasion storyline saw Christian struggling to break out after he was separated from the Edge feud. Diamond Dallas Page started playing a face character looking to inspire and motivate those struggling like Christian was during his losing streak.
It culminated in a feud between the two. DDP tried to stop Christian from having temper tantrums in the ring after losing matches. The WrestleMania 18 match saw Christian get embarrassed by Page to end the feud. Christian looked like a joke at the end and it took quite some time to rehab his image to the fans.