John Cena has been at the top of the WWE food chain throughout most of his career, being pushed as the number one babyface in the company for much of the 2000s and 2010s, with him arguably being the biggest star of the PG Era.
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During his run at the top of the card, many wrestlers suffered and fell by the wayside in order to keep Cena as the number one star. Whether it be those whose pushes were stopped due to Cena being ahead of them, or those who were booked to lose against Cena and squandering their momentum, there were several examples of this.
10 Ryback
At the end of 2012 and start of 2013, Ryback was a red-hot new star on the WWE roster, gaining momentum each and every time he was on-screen. He stepped in to replace John Cena in the main event of Hell in a Cell, and due to WWE not wanting to commit with Ryback (with the planned storyline being The Rock beating CM Punk and Cena beating Rock), it led to his first defeat and ultimately his downfall.
Ryback could’ve bounced with a Royal Rumble win and World Heavyweight Championship pursuit, but WWE went with the predictable option of having Cena win the Rumble, damaging Ryback even more.
9 Dolph Ziggler
Dolph Ziggler looked like the biggest babyface on the planet when he came back from a 3-on-1 deficit to defeat The Authority at Survivor Series 2014, winning the match for Team Cena. Ziggler should have then been the focus of the storyline, with him being a far better underdog babyface, but WWE couldn’t help themselves by having Cena remain as the main good guy.
Ziggler then became essentially a Cena lackey and cheerleader, losing any individuality and being made to be cannon fodder to members of The Authority.
8 Damien Sandow
Damien Sandow oozed charisma and looked set to be a star in WWE, especially after winning the Money in the Bank ladder match. However, due to WWE wanting to unify their two world titles, doing so with John Cena and Randy Orton, Sandow was booked to lose his briefcase in a failed cash-in.
Despite a decent showing against Cena, Sandow lost this match and proceeded to get buried. He became a glorified jobber for the next year, being pushed down into a comedy character status, which is far from where he was in 2013.
7 CM Punk
John Cena’s booking is one of the factors that led to CM Punk walking out of WWE. Cena’s domination of the main event despite not even being champion most of the time, frustrated the hell out of Punk.
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Cena would main event nearly every PPV during Punk’s year-plus reign as WWE Champion, and it led to Punk feeling less important. He had to take a backseat for WWE’s rematch of The Rock vs. Cena, and following that he never really recovered, failing to break into the title scene again before leaving in 2014.
6 Rusev
Rusev was dominating in 2014 and 2015 as the undefeated United States Champion in what was getting over as a great act. However, he then came up against Cena, and like so many other monster heels before him, it led to his downfall.
Rusev lost three times to Cena, effectively ending his aura as an unstoppable monster. Rusev was never the same again in terms of status in WWE following this. Sure, Cena’s United States Title open challenges were fun, but it came at the expense of a potential main eventer.
5 Bray Wyatt
Bray Wyatt was looking like one of the hottest new stars WWE had seen for a decade in his debut year, and all he needed was a win over John Cena at WrestleMania 30 to make him a mega star. And then he lost. The feud continued and he lost the deciding match too.
Wyatt’s whole act came crumbling down, as it would’ve been legitimized with a win over Cena. At this stage in Cena’s career, he didn’t need to be the conquering babyface, but WWE couldn't help themselves.
4 Kane
Kane returned to WWE in 2011 after an absence, and his iconic mask came back with him. Instantly for the first time in years, Kane had a real presence again, and all WWE needed to do to get one last proper main event run out of him was to book him strongly.
Unfortunately, his first feud was against John Cena. The whole “embrace the hate” storyline followed in which Kane immediately lost all the special aura that was brought in with the mask. Kane would fall to Cena and was never quite the same.
3 John Morrison
When The Miz won the WWE Championship, one of his better feuds came against former tag team partner John Morrison. During this time, Morrison was experiencing a real surge in popularity as a singles babyface, and in truth he did look like he could well dethrone The Miz for the belt.
However, WWE wanted the title back on Cena, and this led to Morrison having to take a backseat. Many promising babyfaces have had the rug pulled from underneath them due to WWE’s persistence on Cena being in the top spot, and Morrison was one of them.
2 Umaga
When WWE repackaged and debuted the Umaga character, he looked like an absolute beast. An intense style and scary appearance made him one of the more striking monster heels for quite some time.
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Unfortunately, he was used to put over the super-babyface John Cena. This felt very reminiscent of all the monster heels that Hulk Hogan used to go through one by one, with them all falling in relevance in the aftermath, and that was the case here.
1 Wade Barrett
Wade Barrett and The Nexus took the WWE by storm upon their main roster debut. They were over, had a great act, and it was something completely fresh, so of course John Cena had to be the underdog and overcome them.
Barrett fell multiple times to Cena, notably at SummerSlam where the Nexus suffered a defeat that spelt the beginning of their end.
