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John Cena’s illustrious career is full of championships and milestones. He equaled Ric Flair’s 16 world titles at the 2017 Royal Rumble and he also has a handful of other titles – including five US title runs, two Tag-Team Championships and 10 Slammy Awards.
However, there are a few strange opponents Cena has faced, who, in hindsight, had no place being in the ring with him. In this article, we take a look at six of the weirdest opponents that John Cena has faced in a WWE ring.
6. John Cena and Nikki Bella vs. James Ellsworth and Carmella
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This match took place on the March 7, 2017, episode of SmackDown when we saw John Cena and Nikki Bella team up in preparation to face The Miz and Maryse at WrestleMania 33.
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The match was a glorified squash with most of the action taking place between Nikki Bella and Carmella. Ellsworth refused to fight Cena when he got tagged in and he begged Carmella not to make him go through it. The match ended with Cena and Nikki Bella hitting Ellsworth and Carmella with stereo 5 Knuckle Shuffles followed by a stereo Attitude Adjustment-Rack Attack 2.0.
They ended the match with simultaneous STF locks as Ellsworth and Carmella tapped out together to hand Cena and Nikki Bella the win.
The part that Cena wouldn't have been happy about was the post-match beating he and Nikki Bella received from The Miz and Maryse.
5. John Cena vs. Eric Bischoff
On the 3rd October, 2005 episode of Monday Night RAW, John Cena defended his title against none other than Eric Bischoff.
Bischoff came out accompanied by Kurt Angle for the No DQ match. Surprisingly, the match was actually very entertaining and consisted of Cena beating up Bischoff till Angle interfered in some way. The ending segment came when Angle charged at Cena with a steel chair, which ended up bouncing off the top rope and hitting Angle in the face.
Cena then hit Eric Bischoff with an FU (AA) to pick up the win and retain his title.
4. John Cena vs. John Laurinaitis
John Cena’s match with then-RAW GM John Laurinaitis actually main-evented the 2012 Over The Limit PPV, ahead of a CM Punk-Daniel Bryan match. Cena had just come off feuds with The Rock and Brock Lesnar before being put into one of the worst feuds of his career – with the ‘Ace’.
Instead of being the squash match we all expected, Cena vs. Laurinaitis went 20 minutes and ended with Cena losing after a Big Show heel turn cost him the match.
3: John Cena vs. Jonathan Coachman
You have to hand it to Jonathan Coachman; he was actually a pretty good heel. In his 2006 match with John Cena, Coach actually acted cocky whenever he was on top.
Even before the match had begun, Big Show had hammered Cena before making his way to the announcer’s table. This left Coach in control for the opening stages. However, Cena soon recovered to make short work of Coach.
He hit Coach with a 5 Knuckle Shuffle and an FU (AA). Cena then locked in the STF and made Coach tap. All in all, the match lasted a little over 2 minutes.
2: John Cena vs. Michael Cole
It was June 2012 and Michael Cole was facing John Cena in an actual match. Why? Well, Cole was in the middle of his heel run and he ended up in a match with John Cena. The match took place on RAW after Cena had already beaten Lord Tensai.
The match started with Cole screaming at Cena into the mic. Cena then spent the match humiliating Cole and started by stripping Cole of all his clothes, except his underwear (thankfully). Cena then forced Cole to say sorry to Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross before forcing Cole to appreciate JR’s barbecue sauce.
Lawler miraculously had three bottles of the JR’s sauce at ringside, which Cena poured all over the semi-naked body of Michael Cole. Cena then took out a fire extinguisher and went to town with it.
‘The face that runs the place’ then tried to hit Michael Cole with an AA before Lord Tensai came out and hit Cena with the Ichiban. Cole scampered over to Cena and pinned him but the future 16-time world champion kicked out and hit Cole with the AA before pinning him.
1: John Cena vs. Kevin Federline
In the mid to late 2000s, RAW became a hotbed for B-grade celebrities to come and shill their movies, albums etc. One such flash in the pan was Britney Spears’ ex-husband Kevin Federline who came on RAW for a period in 2006 to promote his rap album ‘Playing With Fire’.
Federline somehow ended up in a mini-feud with none other than John Cena. The two of them even had a 1-on-1 match on WWE RAW, which Federline ended up winning, thanks to interference from Umaga. I wonder how The Nexus feel about this.
Even though the win wasn’t clean, it’s still mind-boggling that John Cena lost to Kevin freaking Federline.
