John Cena’s longevity at the top of WWE is nearly unmatched, with him being the definitive number one guy in professional wrestling for around a decade before he began to wind down his schedule and become more of a part-timer. Multiple World Title reigns and countless PPV main events has seen him face an array of all-time great opponents over the years.
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Cena has faced the likes of Randy Orton, Triple H, CM Punk, Shawn Michaels, and more on multiple occasions, wrestling great matches, and has even gone up against The Rock twice. However, there are some wrestlers he has taken on just one singular time (per the cagematch.net database), with some of these one-time opponents perhaps coming as a surprise to some fans.
10 Jesus
Jesus was one of John Cena’s first rivals after turning babyface in WWE, following his heel run as the Doctor of Thuganomics. Their feud ignited when Jesus stabbed Cena in a club, which was a bizarre way to create heat.
They battled at the Armageddon PPV in 2004 under the stipulation of a Street Fight, which saw Cena essentially beat him down for seven minutes straight, putting an end to their feud, and putting an end to Jesus’ time in WWE, with this marking his final match with the company.
9 Ultimo Dragon
To think that John Cena and the legendary cruiserweight Ultimo Dragon shared the ring is completely bizarre, but it came just before Dragon left WWE in 2004. At the latter end of 2003, Dragon and Cena were both participants in a number one contender battle royal.
Cena would end up winning the battle royal to earn a shot at the WWE Championship, whilst Dragon was the second man eliminated from the match, meaning that their time shared between the ropes was only fleeting.
8 Jason Jordan
After the strange storyline in which Jason Jordan was revealed to be Kurt Angle’s illegitimate son, WWE attempted to begin a singles push for him, though it ended up being a failed project. To try and help him get over, he was put in the ring with John Cena.
He put in a good showing against Cena on an episode of Raw, despite coming up short. The idea at the time was to showcase Jordan as a plucky underdog, though he struggled to get over as a clean-cut good guy.
7 Adam Cole
Unfortunately for fans, the only time that Adam Cole and John Cena shared a ring was during the 2018 Royal Rumble match. Cena entered at number 20 while Cole came in at 23, though Cena would ultimately outlast Cole in the match.
It would have been nice to see these two face off in a singles match, though with Cena’s schedule depleting over time, and with Cole now in AEW, it is a safe bet that this match will never happen.
6 AJ Lee
Back when John Cena was feuding with Dolph Ziggler, he also became embroiled with AJ Lee, who aligned herself with Ziggler. This led to Cena teaming up with Ziggler’s former manager, Vickie Guerrero, in a mixed tag team match.
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It was a quick match which ended in DQ. Due to WWE not having many intergender or even mixed tag team matches, Cena and Lee faced off just one time.
5 Fandango
Due to Fandango being far lower down the card than John Cena, they barely interacted during their time in WWE (aside from sitting beside each other during WWE’s Southpaw Regional Wrestling series).
Their one and only match came on an episode of SmackDown in 2017, in a bout in which Cena squashed Fandango in a short and comedic sprint which lasted for just over a minute.
4 Veer
Veer’s time on WWE’s main roster was short-lived before his move back down to NXT. This, coupled with John Cena’s part-time status, makes it hard to believe that there was a chance for them to wrestle.
However, within Cena’s latest run, he wrestled a lot in dark matches after episodes of Raw and SmackDown, with one of those seeing him team up with Damien Priest to take on the team of Jinder Mahal and Veer, though this match happened just once.
3 Zach Gowen
Prior to this one-time match, Cena came to the ring, offensively rapping towards Zach Gowen, with this taking place within Cena’s heel run in WWE. Outside from a brief flurry of offense, Gowen was squashed by Cena.
This match lasted around three minutes, with it just being in place to make Cena look good and to increase the heat towards him. This would be their only match against one another, with Gowen leaving WWE just a month or so later.
2 The Sandman
The Sandman and John Cena couldn’t be further apart when it comes to the type of professional wrestlers they are. Cena is one of the most pure babyfaces WWE has ever seen, while The Sandman is a beer-drinking brawler straight from ECW.
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Their one match against each other came in 2007 when Cena and Shawn Michaels defended their World Tag Team Titles in a battle royale. Sandman teamed up with Tommy Dreamer in this match, though they were unsuccessful in their attempts to win gold.
1 PAC
PAC has proven himself to be one of the best wrestlers in the world today, though in WWE, he struggled to often get presented as such. He did rise to the occasion though to answer John Cena’s US Title Open Challenge, which was a highlight of WWE in 2015.
The pair wrestled a fantastic TV match, though the former Neville couldn’t find a way to put Cena away. He would win via DQ following interference, but he was made to look like Cena’s equal throughout the bout.
