John Cena's rise in WWE was seen by a Hall of Famer long before anyone else, according to backstage figure

Former WWE personality and current backstage figure Bruce Prichard recently stated that legendary wrestling promoter Jim Barnett predicted John Cena's WWE rise before anyone else.

Ever since his WWE debut, John Cena was treated as the next big thing in the company. It didn't take him long to win his first WWE Championship in 2005, and there was no looking back. The Cenation Leader defined the Ruthless Aggression Era and was the face of the company for several years, winning the world title 16 times.

On a recent episode of the Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard podcast, the longstanding WWE figure revealed that it was the late promoter Jim Barnett who highlighted Cena as the man with the most potential.

“John Cena. The first time he saw John Cena, he said, ‘he’s a star. He’s the guy.’ You know, it was very early on, when John had just started, we were scratching our heads, trying to figure out what to do with John. He had something, you know, he had it, but not knowing what to do. Jim was like, ‘That’s your next guy. He will be the guy.’ I’m like, ‘Ah, yeah, you know, Jim, I get it, man. He’s got all the tools and everything. But right now, I think he’s a little green.’ He said, ‘Get behind him. He’s the guy.’ He was right. He saw it before any of us saw it.” [H/T Fightful]

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AJ Styles picked his favorite match against John Cena

AJ Styles made his WWE debut in 2016, which made way for some dream matches and feuds. One of the dream matches was Styles vs. Cena.

The two men wrestled each other in four amazing matches, with their best match arguably coming at the 2017 Royal Rumble. AJ Styles appeared on a recent edition of WWE's The Bump, The Phenomenal One picked two bouts from his trilogy against Cena between 2016-2017.

"I always say the fans make the match. There's no doubt, that you had two guys, you've heard me say this before, you thought that would never meet in a ring, and there it was, John Cena and AJ Styles, in the same ring together. In my opinion, we had some classic matches. So, I would say, Summerslam, or the Royal Rumble match that we had. Either one of those would do." [59:00-59:28]

Cena has now taken his talents from WWE to Hollywood, where he has acted in some high-profile movies over the years. His latest venture, Fast X, will see him reprise the role of Jakob Toretto.

Who do you think is the greatest WWE Superstar of all time? Sound off in the comments section below.