Arc Fatigue: His neverending feud with Randy Orton. While they generally have great matches together, there's a general belief that the feuds between the two aren't build up besides the premise of one being a goody two-shoes and the other being a psycho. That doesn't stop the company from trying to make them feud as if they were Stone Cold and The Rock. It doesn't really help either that neither guy has done much to evolve his character in years. The feud ultimately ran on-and-off for seven years straight and the fans came to hate it so much that their matches started getting insane amounts of X-Pac Heat for both wrestlers. Luckily the company quickly got the message after that, and haven't done another run of the feud since 2014, in part because both Cena and Orton began slowing down their schedules (with Cena transitioning fully into part-timer status).
Lampshaded by Cena himself at his "farewell" in 2010, when he insisted on one last set of "LET'S GO, CENA" and "CENA SUCKS" chants from the dueling sections of the audience.
In 2011, WWE finally realized they could make more money from Cena's base-breaking nature, and has made this shirt, accordingly.
And it's returned with a vengeance post-WrestleMania XXX. Was him defeating Bray Wyatt a logical transition point in their feud? Or was this yet another incidence of Cena coming out on top to the benefit of absolutely no one but himself? Go ahead and ask this question online. note For whatever it's worth, Wyatt won a second match, but Cena won a third and final one, leaving them 2–1 in Cena's favor. A year later, and the same thing happened with Rusev.
The few times he loses clean, with no cheating or bad officiating or outside tomfoolery involved, tend to become this as well. On the one hand, John Cena losing clean almost never happens, so whenever it does it should be a massive boost to the character that beats him. On the other hand, Cena has a tendency to come back in promos after the fact by either subtly highlighting some injurynote Daniel Bryan—golf ball elbow, or AJ Styles—destroyed shoulder or circumstancenote Kevin Owens—wrestled so much he was bound to lose once or outright excusing the loss,note The Rock—got cocky and went for a People's Elbow, or Brock Lesnar—he wasn't fully focused/motivated when he took that No-Holds-Barred Beatdown often without the other guy ever getting to retort to this—which in many's eyes reduces the impact of the victory just to protect Cena's image as the #1 guy. The Kevin Owens incident is particularly controversial, as it also included some peppering of the issue with how WWE treats Cena's charity as special. Some saw Cena as being a class act through putting over Owens one night, then having a great moment with a cancer survivor the next, while others saw Cena taking a clean loss to get attention for the Network only to come back and cut down Owens by taking credit for inspiring not only the young cancer survivor, but Owens himself, with the girl's happiness at the moment put forth as a shield to shame detractors.
Common Knowledge: Despite his use of imagery like dogtags, salutes and camoflauge, and his Memetic Mutation stating that he was, John Cena was never actually in the United States Military (it all largely originated from the time he promoted The Marine), but those who know him for his out of wrestling endeavours seem to think he was.
Crack Pairing: Cena/Stephanie and Cena/Torrie fanfics used to be a trend during Ruthless Aggression era despite Cena never used any service of manager/valet in WWE and only had limited on-screen interactions with the two aforementioned individuals.
Very, very downplayed, but Cena is a little rueful of the fact that he became known under his real name instead of a flashy and colorful stage name like he wanted.
He also feels a little bad over his "waving his hand in front of his face" gesture becoming his trademark, as it's a reference to a relative who can't dance and originated as an in-joke intended for his family.
Creator's Pet: Cena's character largely attracts the hate that it does because of his overbooking, with him getting belts and matches that he hasn't earned and never taking a "clean" loss, as well as his highly generic and formulaic matches. Almost nobody has a problem with the performer, who's widely respected as a wrestler and a man, but his character is seen as irrevocably tainted.
Critical Backlash: While Cena's moveset is certainly limited and his matches can be formulaic, he's nowhere near as bad as a lot of his detractors will have you believe (at least in comparison with most other WWE main eventers with similar schedules). In fact, when he has a good opponent to work with, his psychology and understanding of story can lead to classics such as his Money in the Bank match against CM Punk. When you've pulled off the first five-star WWE match in fifteen years, you have to have at least some talent, no matter how much the other guy is carrying the match.
Similar to Hogan, in most feuds, Cena came across as worse than the heel with his antics, including: excessive retaliation towards slights, failing to stand up for the boys in the back, leveraging his status to get title matches, and bizarre contradictions in his beliefs from one storyline to the next (or even within the same storyline).
This was not only deconstructed, but at the absolute crux of the Firefly Funhouse match against Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 36, as Bray bluntly accused Cena of being a selfish bully who acted like a hero even as he kept everyone else down with cheap shots, taking their weaknesses and turning them into jokes to make them into a laughing stock, if he felt they threatened his position at the top.
Epileptic Trees: Spoony once jokingly theorised that Cena was the result of genetic experiment to create the perfect wrestler, meaning his character in OVW was literally a "Prototype"- the original iteration of John Cena. He also suggested that there is a cloning lab beneath WWE headquarters containing dozens of John Cenas at various stages of development from fetus to adult, and whenever a John Cena is injured, they simply kill the current clone and activate a new one, explaining Cena's miraculous on- and offscreen healing abilities.
The WMG page for John Cena on this wiki suggests that Cena is actually a cyborg created in an air force testing base for the purpose of destroying the WWE at the behest of former rival WCW's Billionaire Ted.
Invoked when he was the Dr. of Thuganomics. Fans agree.
The One-Scene Wonder that was John Cena as part of the New World Order from the "Firefly Funhouse Match" at Wrestlemania 36 had people clamoring for more.
And most recently, The CenaTaker for Cena doing three of The Undertaker's signature moves (the sit-up, the Slashed Throat taunt, and the chokeslam).
Fountain of Memes: Since Hulk Hogan was Un-person by the WWE for his racist remarks, Cena has enjoyed a huge surge in memes. Cena himself has become a meme - or at least his appearance in unexpected and sometimes inappropriate places.note Specifically, moments being suddenly interrupted with the "AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA!!!!" meme.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Cena is insanely popular in South African townships - to the point where small children will greet any white male by waving their hands in front of their faces and screaming, "You can't see me!"
To demonstrate this further: one of South Africa's rising superstars in music and performing, Sho Madjozi, has a domestic and international hit called "John Cena." It has gotten so popular that it was featured on both Ellen and The Kelly Clarkson Show, the latter also being a heartwarming moment since he actually surprises her during her live performance of the song.
In India as well. Cena is about as over as The Rock whenever he visits there.
Cena's feud with Edge in 2006. Edge was the first heel challenger to Cena since JBL to consistently get enough heat to put the crowd on Cena's side; at the same time, Cena's in-ring execution improved tremendously. He continued to get mixed reactions afterward, but that feud (along with a concurrent side-feud with Rob Van Dam) convinced many fans that Cena deserved respect, if not cheers.
The US Championship Open Challenge has been the best thing to happen to Cena in years. After winning the US Title at WrestleMania 31, Cena evolved into a workhorse fighting champion, putting on PPV-quality matches nearly every week on RAW against the likes of Cesaro, Neville and Sami Zayn. His in-ring ability was a renaissance in 2015, and he even won over some smarky fans who were getting tired of him.
Harsher in Hindsight: John capping off their feud against The Miz and Maryse by proposing to Nikki in front of the live crowd at WrestleMania was a Heartwarming Moment at the time because of how badly Nikki wanted to get married and have kids but had to compromise because John didn't (having had a nasty divorce before and burned off marriage, and not having enough time to devote to raising kids) and they still wanted to be together. They announced their break up in April 2018, three weeks before the wedding, which retroactively makes that segment, the feud, and John's and Nikki's storylines together on Total Divas and Total Bellas, much harder to watch in hindsight - especially as accounts suggest that they were still very much in love but had finally accepted their priorities in life were too different to be truly happy together.
As noted elsewhere on this page, the "Firefly Funhouse match" was a great contest and saw the Fiend defeat Cena by essentially deconstructing his character, causing him to disappear from WWE. Fast forward a year later, and now the Fiend is gone, and Cena is back (due to WWE's Incompetence, Inc. management) meaning the whole thing was All for Nothing.
He Panned It, Now He Sucks!: Inverted, lots of internet favorites became a little less so (Kurt Angle, Jim Cornette, The Iron Sheik) for their praise of John Cena while others people were kind of apathetic to (Chavo Guerrero Jr.) became more liked because they do bash John Cena.
Or rather, He Really Can Wrestle. He's had people react this way to his better matches. For his tendency towards formulaic matches and Five Moves of Doom, he pulls out the stops in PPVs. This sentiment started popping up around 2009-2010, though Cena still got the occasional "You can't wrestle!" chant. Then his famous match with CM Punk happened, a match so good that some people to this day argue it as the best match in WWE history, and the chants died away completely. Nowadays the complaints are only about his character — his wrestling ability has gone from maligned to well-respected. 2015 in particular, as mentioned on this page, was considered his best year in terms of in-ring performance. Check out the awesome page for a whole list of examples.
Cena has also applied this trope to his resurgent movie career thanks to a scene-stealing performance in Amy Schumer's Trainwreck. In general, this reaction happened when he pivoted away from rather generic action movies and showed his strength in comedy.
Cena's role as Baron Draxum in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was shown to be all right, and then he shows off his singing ability in the "Warring Warrior Scientist" song which had fans absolutely in awe.
The Firefly Funhouse Match was a masterclass in this. Though he goes into the match in typical John Cena fashion, not only did he not wink and nod being turned into "Ruthless Aggression" Cena, Johnny Largemeat, The Doctor of Thuganomics, and "Hollywood" John Cena by the Funhouse, he plays the mental strain and anguish of being confronted with the darkest parts of himself and his failures chillingly straight. The pain and despair he portrays when he realizes he hasbecome everything he once opposed even causes him to lose to The Fiend.
His performance as Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad plays this straight, going from a parody of Cena's usual characters to nearly breaking down in tears after being forced to kill one of his teammates. This continues in Peacemaker when he has a mental breakdown about having to kill Rick Flagg and berating how he hates himself.
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin giving Cena a stunner at the 2003 Christmas in Iraq show. Only with time did it gain more significance.
On the February 5, 2004 SmackDown, which was held in Cleveland, OH, Cena did a rap about Paul Heyman excluding him from the #1 contender to the WWE Championship match between Kurt Angle and The Big Show at No Way Out. Cena said, "Yo! You see, leavin' Cena outta this match is completely insane/That's like cutting (then-Cleveland Cavaliers basketball sensation) LeBron James from The All Star Game." 6 years later, on July 28, 2010, ESPN aired an overblown TV special called The Decision where James announced that he would be leaving Cleveland to join the Miami Heat, drawing very negative reactions from Cleveland fans, who likely would not have minded if James was left out of any future All-Star Games.
The fact that he did the introductory speech for Kurt Angle during his 2017 Hall of Fame induction counts as this, since both men have had derogatory Crowd Songs to the tune of their entrance themes (the "You Suck" chants on Angle, to the infamous "John Cena Sucks!" Chants). May also double as Heartwarming in Hindsight since Cena's debut match was with Angle.
His recent feud with Roman Reigns also has shades of this, as it strongly mirrors his previous feud with The Rock of all people, for a couple of reasons: one, Cena's current status as a part-timer is exactly the same as The Rock's during their feud; and two, Cena is facing off with the guy being groomed as his successor to be the face of the company, who ironically is also Rock's cousin.
His feud with John Laurinaitis, considering that Johnny Ace's fiancee is the mother of his ex-partner Nikki Bella.
In 2007, when Cena drove a Mustang at high speed through the streets into the arena blasting through the WrestleMania 23 glass panel, Jerry Lawler asks Jim Ross if this was The Fast and the Furious. In 2019, Cena was officially cast in Fast & Furious 9.
It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: Years ago fans were clamoring for Cena to be pushed, because he was clearly the future. Not even a few months into his first title reign and smarks turned on him. This is similar to what happened with Triple H. The consensus was that Triple H was the best wrestler and deserved the title. Within months of his first title reign and people were sick of him and said he was overrated. Now that Cena is halfway out the door people are starting to change their tune.
Yeah, WWE, as if you're going to fire your #1 merchandise mover and top babyface because of the whims of a heel who previously wanted to destroy the company.
Like WWE would ever actually draft Cena to SmackDown. During the 2011 draft Cena was drafted to Smackdown at the beginning of the episode, but drafted back to Raw at the end.
Like WWE would ever really let Cena legitimately drop the title in an "I Quit" match - a.k.a. Cena's signature match - of all things.
"If Cena wins, we riot" - Other than the initial appearance of this sign at ECW One Night Stand 2006, no-one actually thought the fans would riot in the event of Cena winning; and they never did. Hell, at one point, Cena even took one of these signs and paraded it around the ring after winning his match.
For a lot of people, the title match itself as well. The way WWE tends to book Cena as well as treat departing Superstars, there were a lot of people that didn't think there was any way Cena would be booked to lose the Championship clean to a departing CM Punk (especially when Vince threw in the stipulation that Cena would be fired if he did). Then Cena actually lost the match, and it can be said that the WWE, in and out of Kayfabe, hasn't really been the same since.
Like WWE would really have Cena "embrace the hate" as a result of a feud with Kane, just one month before his match with The Rock, and especially when he's the face of the WWE's Make-A-Wish efforts.
So in conclusion: do we turn him heel, or do we not turn him heel? At a certain point, you have to ask yourself: At what cost?
Cena is notorious for loudly calling spots during his matches, resulting in the "Everybody Talks Too Much" segment on Botchamania. It opened with a clip of Cena getting choked out to the tune of Run–D.M.C.'s "You Talk Too Much."
The famous "IF CENA WINS, WE RIOT" sign at ECW One Night Stand 2006. Became an Ascended Meme for CM Punk where fans brought signs (seen in promotion for WWE '13) threatening to riot if he lost. Some fans went further at WrestleMania, hanging a huge banner off a building: If Cena wins we jump.
"fine speech....."
The pronunciation of his name by Justin Roberts,note JEEEEEEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHN CEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENAAAAAAAAH!!!! which apparently gets longer and longer every week.
Spoiler: Cena wins, which is the outcome of most of his matches.
"Brappledo" and "apple dough," based on mishearings of the sound bite at the beginning of his theme song. It's actually saying "Amadou," and it's sampled from this song.
There's a very special little meme I'd like to bring attention to...AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA!!! note A radio show did a prank call using John Cena's theme as a way to troll a wrestling fan's wife. During the call, a Bait-and-Switch was pulled where it seemed like a lady was calling about the Marines, but just as she said a former decorated Marine needs her support, they use the line.
JOHN CENA SUUUUUUUUCKS! JOHN CENA SUUUUUUUUCKS! note Sung to the tune of his entrance theme, this chant was heard about two or three times over the years (recorded on YouTube) before getting heard live and loud on the 2014 Night After WrestleMania show, then became a thing done once in awhile over the following year before the 2015 Night After WrestleMania show. Since then it's become practically mandatory, much like the "YOU SUCK!" chants at Kurt Angle. Has slowly begun to phase out with Cena's appearances becoming so rare; combined with the appreciation that fans have accumulated for what he had done over the past 2 decades, it's gotten to the point Cena is massively and unanimously cheered whenever he returns.
Expect many commentaries related to his "You can't see me!" catchphrase in every YouTube video featuring him, mentioning his status as a memetic invisible man.
"Are you sure about that?" note In a hidden-camera prank done with Cricket Wireless, members of the Cenation were instructed to give their best introduction for John Cena right before he himself bursts through his picture in the background, re-enacting the "Unexpected Cena" meme. Among these lucky Cenation members was one little girl who claimed that Cena would be a tiger if he was an animal. Cena then pulled away the face on his picture, stuck his head in the hole, and asked the question that later turned into a meme. That's right; while making an Ascended Meme, John Cena inadvertently created another meme.
"Let's go Cena!" "Cena sucks!" "Let's go Cena!" "Cena sucks!"note These dueling chants became so firmly ingrained that in many cases it was obvious to any listener that large parts of the audience were chanting both parts.
Him running backstage at WrestleMania 34 has become this.
The spot from his "Firefly Funhouse" match at Wrestlemania 36 in an nWo shirt, strumming his championship belt like a guitar.
John Xina / Zhong Xi Na / Jiang Xi Nanote John Cena called Taiwan a country when promoting F9 in 2021 which led to an uproar in China social media. Soon, John Cena made an apology video saying that he was sorry for his mistake in calling Taiwan a country as a damage control. Many of John Cena's Western fans are left disappointed by Cena's apology and "support of CCP", while his detractors are happy to find one more reason to dislike him and going as far as disowning him as an American and calling him "Zhong Xi Na" or "Jiang Xi Na", while other people use this nickname to poke fun at him and the increasing influence of China over the world.
Bing Chillingnote A corruption of the Chinese word for ice cream, 冰淇淋 (bīng qí lín). Comes from a video that Cena made in Chinese promoting F9 while holding ice cream, which quickly became a popular Gag Sub source.
In 2011, "CENA SUCKS" chants began to ring out during the shows of NWA promotions that never have and probably never will book John Cena, spontaneously, without any effort to work the crowds into it, putting him on the same level as the trope namer. Even more so after Cena claimed he would never wrestle for another promotion during his hor feud with Bryan, saying it would be an insult to the WWE Championship While some praised Cena for being refreshingly honest and felt he had the right to feel that way, others resented it.
While certain criticisms laid towards him are pretty firmly Cena's fault, his fans insist that he is not to blame for burying guys on the roster, based on the fact that storylines involving him tend to portray him as a big supporter of guys like Daniel Bryan, Evan Bourne, and CM Punk as well as the lack of concrete evidence that John Cena actually politicked against others (the closest thing to an evidence is his admission before WrestleMania 29 that he does have enough creative control to avoid turning heel). It especially became debunked in the case of Punk, as an interview at Starrcast III had Punk reveal that he loved working with Cena and they got on very well.
A big part of the backlash Cena suffered was also the WWE's obsession with having all fans (not just his own fanbase) accepting Cena as their undisputed hero. From having more popular wrestlers endorse him, to having the announce team flat out lecture the fans on why they "should" cheer Cena. Notice that once they eased up on this (mostly due to moving on to do the same to Roman Reigns), the backlash started to wane as well.
John Cena can usually be blamed for the bad spots in his matches, such as the asinine finish to the Nexus elimination match, however, while Cena is responsible for demolishing Nexus as a credible faction by delivering an ending that made them look very weak, the idea to go over Nexus in the first place was not John Cena's idea, and that part of the blame probably still lies with Creative (Edge says he did not care at that point since he was out of the match, implying that even though he and Jericho wanted Barrett to get pushed, the Nexus was losing one way or another by that point).
Most people will point out that it isn't the real-life persona of Cena they hate, it's the IDEA of Cena. John is an OK wrestler, but he is pushed so astoundingly hard compared to other people who should be on his level. The only people to even manage to claw with their fingertips at Cena's rung on the ladder are CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, and even those two were kicked back down after a few months. This was the first of several bullet points (almost spoken verbatim) in CM Punk's now infamous Worked Shoot promo in the summer of 2011.
Punk: I don't hate you, John. I don't even dislike you. I do like you. I like you a hell of a lot more than I like most of the people in the back. I hate this idea that you're the best, because you're not.
Narm: Oh , the angry face◊ Cena made during the January 23, 2012 Raw... especially because Cena's proven more than capable of making a convincing angry face... this was less angry and more 'constipated'...
Narm Charm: The happy face◊ Cena made after winning the 2012 Money in the Bank for the WWE Championship.
Older Than They Think: The "AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA!" meme actually dates way back to a 2004 episode of WWE SmackDown, where Eddie Guerrero announces him as the final member of his team for the Survivor Series pay-per-view that same year.note For the record, the other two guys on Eddie's team were Rob Van Dam and The Big Show. Hell, Eddie even quotes it ad verbatim, then gestures Cena's "You Can't See Me" hand wave to the opposing team.
One-Scene Wonder: Him in a New World Order shirt during the Firefly Funhouse Match at Wrestlemania 36.
Play-Along Meme: His theme song is "My Time is Now" and features the lyric "You can't see me!" Internet users like to pretend that they can't see him whenever he is present in any image or video they see that he's in.
Everyone expected the ECW crowd at One Night Stand to eat him for lunch. The Manhattan crowd were not going to settle for anything less than a Cena burial: "IF CENA WINS, WE RIOT". Also, at one point you can spot a "I CAME TO SEE CENA DIE" sign. But Cena came prepared. He knew there was no point in being a whitemeat babyface (or perhaps he had more agency since Vince wasn't as hands-on with this event?) and played an effective heel vs. Rob Van Dam, the most-obvious example being Cena punching RVD through a "FUCK CENA" sign. This is a spectacle and really doesn't get old to watch; probably Cena's best performance ever.
2010 as a whole was a big year for Cena, as, outside of the Summerslam match, his Invincible Hero nature was toned down, he stayed out of the title scene for most of the year, and he helped put over new talent in some damn good matches against the likes of Wade Barrett, Dolph Ziggler, and others.
His feud with CM Punk has had this effect for him as well. It's both because Cena treats Punk like a Worthy Opponent and respects him and because Punk is just that good at attracting heat from the crowd. It also helps that he and Punk had an absolutely epic match at 2011 Money In The Bank. The phase where WWE started having every passing legend tell Punk that he needed to fight Cena for the umpteenth time to validate his existence as champion unfortunately dulled this.
Everytime he comes out as the "Dr. of Thuganomics", as seen in WrestleMania 25 (entrance at least) and the March 2012 edition of Raw.
His match against Brock Lesnar in Extreme Rules. For reference, the Chicago crowd was firmly Anti-Cena during the start of the match, but even they could not bear to see Lesnar go to town on Cena. End result? Cena is cheered loudly by the end of the night.
Following Wrestlemania 31, he's won over a number of his detractors with his United States Title open challenge.
At WrestleMania 32, he had one of the biggest pops of the night, and that was from a predominantly smarky crowd of 100,000 people. Cena's more-or-less a smark favorite these days and fans genuinely missed him when he was gone.
As of mid-2016 and at age 39, Cena is firmly into the "crusty part-time veteran" stage of his career, and the smark hatred has significantly died down. Now that he's moved out of the main event picture and taking frequent breaks to do movies/TV shows, fans are excited to see him come back and deliver a great match every now and then. In fact, he's built up enough goodwill that when he made his declaration to pursue his sixteenth World Championship winNote Ric Flair is a 22x World Champion (10x NWA, 8x WCW, 2x WWE and 2x "WCW International" in Philadelphia (one of the smarkiest cities in the US, and historically very Anti-Cena,) he was cheered for it by the fans.
When he finally did achieve that historic sixteenth reign at the 2017 Royal Rumble, beating the massively over AJ Styles, the match was so well regarded by both fans and critics that Cena actually got cheered by the live crowd.
According to detractors, all the good matches involving Cena is solely carry jobs by his opponent, regardless if said opponent had a history of having bad matches. All the bad matches involving him is Cena's fault, again regardless if said opponent had a history of having bad matches. His fans, in response, would accuse Cena's opponents and partners of similar incompetence. Cue the flame war.
Taking to hilarious levels on 2-14-2011's edition of Raw. Just earlier in the night, the crowd in Anaheim cheered for Cena. Cue The Rock's return and he starts dissing Cena, the ENTIRE crowd turned on Cena at the drop of a hat.
John Cena is sometimes accused of being a Designated Hero as well as a Smug Super despite his complete loyalty to the WWE product, his frequently documented charity actions including granting 400 wishes to terminally ill children in the Make-A-Wish foundation, and overall an extremely altruistic straight up Nice Guy who is always willing to donate much of his free time helping underprivileged people. It should also be noted there that those criticisms are by and large aimed at John Cena the character, not John Cena the man—much of the blame is pinned on Vince McMahon for trying to use Cena the man to protect Cena the character.
Rooting for the Empire: It had to take a wrestler with nuclear X-Pac Heat to cause the crowd to root for Cena over his opponent but it has happened. During the height of his feud with Roman Reigns, there were more people that cheered Cena over Reigns.
Shocking Moments: Anytime Cena shows just how physically strong he really is, expect people's jaws to drop.
First instance: when he FU'ed the Big Show in Survivor Series 2003 and later in WrestleMania XX, but what probably caused the biggest jaw drops is when Cena was about to FU Big Show AND Edge at the same time, having them both on his back. To be clear on how jaw dropping that is, Cena had about 700 pounds on his back and didn't drop either of them.
August 1st 2017 on Smackdon has him fight Shinsuke Nakamura of all wrestlers and he actually delivers a hell of a match against him.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Cena started to build a fanbase in 2003, well before his rise to main-event status and back when he was technically still supposed to be a heel. When he was playing the "wigger" rapper, fans adored him either for his "don't-take-no-guff-from-nobody" (including Kurt Angle and The Undertaker) attitude or for his Narm-y "white-boy" rhymes, which were originally intended for comedy but were eventually embraced by the fans. Then, beginning in 2005 and culminating in 2006 with the release of his first movie, The Marine, Cena transitioned from a rebellious thug to a by-the-book armed-forces recruit who wore paramilitary gear and saluted the audience. Not only did we already get this gimmick with Sgt. Slaughter (not to mention Hulk Hogan and other top faces throughout WWE's history), but Cena lost almost all of the "underdog" aura that had up until then sustained much of his popularity. CM Punk lampshaded this to hell and back during his feud with Cena, comparing Cena to the perennial contender New York Yankees. Obviously, as the show where he did this was in Boston (Cena's de facto 'hometown' arena since he's a Massachusetts native), it was a creative way to draw heat. But the Reality Subtext was obvious, and it's very likely that same statement would have gotten him cheers of agreement anywhere else.
Tear Jerker: Cena's farewell promo the Raw after Survivor Series, when he was "fired", which ended in him starting a Let's Go Cena/Cena Sucks chant.
The Firefly Funhouse Match saw Cena be psychologically demolished by Bray Wyatt sending him down a dark vision quest into his own career, facing him with his own demons and an alternate timeline where he went heel and became a member of the nWo in the vein of Hollywood Hulk Hogan. When John finally reaches the end of the road he finds that instead of beating down on Bray, he's been pummeling Huskus the Pig Boy, looking down in horror at his own fists as he realizes he's become the kind of monster he'd been fighting all along. Then, taking advantage of his Heroic BSoD, the Fiend arrives and hits him with the Sister Abigail for the three count, after which John just vanishes. For a good while, given the fifteen month gap between this and his next appearance, it was assumed that was the end of Cena's career.
John Cena is now a member of The Nexus and is the guest referee for a WWE Championship match between Wade Barrett and Randy Orton with the stipulation that if Barrett does not win the WWE Championship, Cena will be fired! Instead of pulling the trigger on Barrett and letting him win the WWE Championship, with all of the storyline possibilities that would entail... Orton retains and Cena is "fired" with Survivor Series 2010 closing out on a forced attempt at making a "moment". The entire "Cena is Fired" angle counts as this too, as the only difference between him being fired and rehired was that he didn't wrestle on TV: WWE still played his theme music to close out RAW!
Lampshaded ruthlessly by CM Punk on commentary, pointing out that he was on the show more since being fired than he was when he was employed.
This pretty much happens every time Cena teases a heel turn: The above Nexus angle, the angle with Kane. Hell, even the Wrestlemania 28 build with Rock and his subsequent loss.
His 2012 Money in the Bank win was very obviously just so WWE could say he's won it. He didn't even use the briefcase the way it has been almost always used - announcing when he was going to cash in, first off (although he's not thefirst person to do that. Usually when a face wins the match while there's a face champion, that can either mean that the current champion is dropping the belt, or the contract winner is going to turn heel. Neither one of those happened. Add the fact that the MITB contract has historically been used as a way to elevate younger superstars that haven't gotten their big break yet (in a straighter example of that, Dolph Ziggler won the contract on the Smackdown side), and it's not hard to understand why the entire angle wasn't very well received.
Vindicated by History: After Cena took time off in late 2015, the quality of Raw tanked as Roman Reigns became the focus of the show. By Survivor Series 2015, several smarks stated that they actively missed Cena, and many began to look at his rise to the top more objectively. Unlike Reigns, whose entire push has been manufactured since his debut with the rest of The Shield, Cena actually got over organically. Of the famous OVW class that debuted in the company in 2002 (Orton, Batista, Lesnar, and Cena), Cena had the least amount of help from the company — Orton and Batista were both placed in Evolution with Triple H, while Lesnar got Heyman and was hotshotted to the main event within his first four months with the company. Cena floundered, and stood the chance of getting fired if Stephanie McMahon hadn't heard him rapping and helped him develop the "Doctor of Thuganomics" gimmick. After that, he got so popular that the company had no choice but to push him, especially as two others from his class didn't have their pushes pan out well (Lesnar left for eight years; Orton got the title way too early and ended up losing it to Triple H himself, and had to wait another three years before he got it again; and Batista was briefly more over than Cena for a while but he got moved to SmackDown to carry that show). It was the booking of his character after the title that ruined him for the fans (along with the company's outright refusal to turn him heel), but to Cena's credit, he at least tried to make the gimmick bearable and improved his wrestling to the point where he was considered one of the best workers in the company. When he left and the much more green Reigns had the spotlight, many began to realize that Cena was a much better performer than the fans ever gave him credit for. Nowadays, he's viewed far more favorably by fans; it's actually quite telling that the above "John Cena sucks!" chants which were originally done as an ironic show of respect towards the man have been replaced with straight up cheers.
His feud with CM Punk helped Cena in the long run, as it became one of the best feuds of the decade and included in what was arguably the greatest match of Cena's career, along with helping launch Punk into superstardom. Punk would end up having a 434-day reign with the WWE Championship, while Cena was a little more over for awhile.
A lot of his detractors had been giving him a lot more credit after his absolutely brutal match with Brock Lesnar at Extreme Rules, due to the legit punishment he took (such as being busted open hardway (without blading) by Lesnar's elbows and being put in a Kimura lock).
A number of fans were more willing to give Cena a break during his feud with The Wyatt Family, in part because Cena at least occasionally tried to drop some of his indestructible facade and treat them as an actual threat.
The US Championship Open Challenge. Considering the lackluster quality of Raw the past year and Cena's improved ring work, it was one of the few things that makes post-WrestleMania season worth watching, partially from the excitement of wondering who was going to answer the challenge next. In particular, it really elevated what was normally a midcard championship and the men who were fighting for it.
Leading up to his Summerslam match with AJ Styles, many fans were afraid that Cena would "bury" him as he did with other wrestlers, especially since Cena hadn't won a Summerslam match for a while and some thought management felt it was time for him to do so. This was especially important to them because many felt Styles NEEDED a push in the WWE (he had already built up a fanbase due to his accomplishments in other wrestling units). When the match actually came around, Styles won, satisfying the fans who thought he needed a push, but some people were even impressed by Cena during the match, as he gave Styles a hard fought fight, with both men pulling out moves they don't normally use, and the match certainly not being a case of one man "burying" the other. Some even say it's the best they've seen Cena wrestle since his debut fight with Kurt Angle.
accordingly.
