10 major WWE superstars and their tipping points

John Cena

John Cena vs JBL in an “I Quit Match”

Having wrested the WWE Title from JBL at Wrestlemania 21 in what was a rather uninspiring bout, a Cena-JBL rematch at Judgement Day was not a prospect that one would have normally looked forward to in anticipation but for the “I Quit” stipulation attached to it. The match itself had been decided upon after a convoluted elimination process had been implemented to determine the number 1 contender for Cena’s WWE Title, in which JBL had come through.What both men lacked in in-ring technicality, they more than made up with some intense psychology interwoven into the storytelling of the match, which was in itself completely overshadowed by the blood and gore aspect of the encounter. John Cena eventually triumphed and retained his title but the effort that it took a severely bloodied Cena was not lost on the audience.

The temporal perspective that one affords this match places it at the beginning of Cena’s stardom. Although now, having endured the entirety of the PG era, one can observe the stark contrast in nature between how John Cena’s reign as the top babyface started and how it then played out. However if the “I Quit” match that Cena had with JBL was any indication to go by, one can only imagine how John Cena the persona might have turned out if not for the happenstance of the PG era.

The Rock

The Rock is easily considered as the greatest superstar on the mic in WWE history

Dwayne Johnson, as hard as $82 Million makes for it to believe, once was near broke and devoid of a job. Just like he wasn’t always the extremely popular, larger-than-life Hollywood-WWE hybrid that he is now.

When he started out in the WWE his ring name was Rocky Maivia, christened in respect of his grandfather High Chief Peter Maivia and was pushed as a clean babyface. Although initially cheering him for the athletic ability and enthusiasm that he displayed, the fans soon got tired of his squeaky clean babyface persona and turned on him.

“Die Rocky Die!” chants coupled with “Rocky Sucks!”, rang across arenas as it increasingly became apparent that the Rocky Maivia character just wasn’t catching on with the fans.

Added to the rejection that he experienced from the fans, his Intercontinental Title loss to Owen Hart in 1997 caused something to snap in young Dwayne. He requested Vince Mcmahon 5 minutes of air time on the microphone so that he could tell the audience what he felt and the rest as they say, is history.

So began not only the tryst between Dwayne Johnson and the microphone, but also the use of his new ring name of The Rock and the third-person narrative that has so come to characterize it.