john cena

Cena made his television debut answering an open challenge by Kurt Angle on June 27, 2002.^[27] Inspired by a speech given by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon to the rising stars of the company, exhorting them to show "ruthless aggression" to earn a place among the legends, Cena took advantage of the opportunity and almost beat Angle kicking out of his finishing move, the Angle Slam and enduring the ankle lock submission hold.^[28] Cena ultimately lost to a hard amateur wrestling-style pin.^[28] Following the near-win, Cena became a fan favorite and started feuding with Chris Jericho.^[27] In October, Cena and Billy Kidman took part in a tag team tournament to crown the first WWE Tag Team Champions of the SmackDown! brand, losing in the first round.^[29] The next week, Cena turned on and attacked Kidman, blaming him for their loss, becoming a villain.^[27]

Shortly after the Kidman attack, on a Halloween themed episode of SmackDown, Cena dressed as Vanilla Ice performing a freestyle rap.^[27] The next week, Cena received a new character: a rapper who cut promos while rhyming.^[27] As the gimmick grew, Cena began adopting a variant of the 1980s WWF logo — dropping the "F" — as his "signature symbol", along with the slogan "Word Life".^[30] Moreover, he was joined by an enforcer, Bull Buchanan, who was rechristened B-2 (also written B² and pronounced "B-Squared").^[27] Buchanan was later replaced by Red Dogg,^[27] until he was sent to the Raw brand in February.

For the first half of 2003, Cena sought the WWE Championship and chased the reigning champion, Brock Lesnar, performing weekly "freestyles" challenging him to matches.^[31][32][33] During the feud, Cena unveiled a new finishing maneuver: the FU, a Fireman's carry powerslam, named to mock Lesnar's F-5.^[34] Cena won a number one contenders tournament against Lesnar at Backlash. However, Cena was defeated by Lesnar.^[27][35] At the end of the year, Cena became a fan favorite again when he joined Kurt Angle as a member of his team at Survivor Series.^[36][37]

In early 2004, Cena participated in the Royal Rumble match at the 2004 Royal Rumble,^[38] making it to the final six before being eliminated by Big Show.^[39] The Royal Rumble elimination led to a feud with Big Show,^[40][41] which Cena won the United States Championship from Big Show at WrestleMania XX.^[42] During his reign, Cena came into contention with SmackDown General Manager Kurt Angle over issues arising with René Duprée and Torrie Wilson.^[43] The reign ended almost four months later, when he was stripped of the belt on July 8 by Angle after he (kayfabe, accidentally) knocked him over, thus attacking an official.^[44] Cena won the championship back defeating Booker T in a best of five series that culminated at No Mercy,^[45] only to lose it to the debuting Carlito Caribbean Cool the next week.^[46] After the loss to Carlito, the duo began a feud, which Cena was kayfabe stabbed in the kidney while at a Boston-area nightclub by Carlito's bodyguard, Jesús.^[47][48] This worked injury was used to keep Cena out of action for a month, while Cena was filming The Marine.^[25] Immediately on his return in November, Cena won the United States Championship back from Carlito debuting a "custom made" spinner-style championship belt.^[49][50]

Cena took part in the 2005 Royal Rumble match, making it to the final two. Cena and Raw brand wrestler Batista went over the top rope at the same time, ostensibly ending the match. Vince McMahon, however, appeared on stage and re-started the match in sudden death rules, with Batista eventually eliminating Cena.^[51] The next month, Cena defeated Kurt Angle to earn a spot in the SmackDown brand's WrestleMania 21 main event match,^[52] beginning a feud with WWE Champion John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) and his Cabinet in the process. In the early stages of the feud, Cena lost his US belt to Cabinet member Orlando Jordan,^[53] who proceeded to "blow up" the spinner championship with JBL and returning a more traditional style belt.^[54] Cena defeated JBL at WrestleMania winning the WWE Championship, giving Cena his first world championship.^[55] Cena then had a spinner WWE Championship belt made,^[56] while JBL took the original belt and claimed to still be WWE Champion,^[56] until Cena reclaimed the original belt in an "I Quit" match at Judgment Day.^[57]

Cena was drafted to the Raw brand on the June 6, 2005, becoming the first wrestler selected by General Manager Eric Bischoff in the annual draft lottery.^[58] Cena immediately entered a feud with Bischoff, after refusing to participate in the "war" against the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) roster at One Night Stand.^[59] With Bischoff vowing to make Cena's stint on Raw difficult, he hand picked Jericho to take Cena's championship from him.^[60] During their feud, even though Cena was portrayed as the fan favorite and Jericho as the villain, a vocal section of live crowds, nonetheless, were booing Cena during their matches.^[61] More crowds followed suit during Cena's next feud with Kurt Angle,^[62] who took over as Bischoff's hand-picked number-one contender after Cena defeated Jericho in a You're Fired match on the August 22 Raw.^[63] As the feud continued and the dissenters grew more vocal, sometimes seeming to outnumber fans by wide margins,^[64] the announce team was forced to acknowledge the booing on television and began calling Cena a "controversial champion", claiming some people disliking him on account of his "in-ring style" and his chosen fashion.^[65] Despite the mixed and negative reactions, Cena held on to his championship through his feud with Angle, losing to him by disqualification^[66] — which titles do not change hands in WWE — at Unforgiven and pinning him at Survivor Series.^[67] The feud with Angle also saw Cena add a secondary, submission based, finishing maneuver – the STFU (a Stepover Toehold Sleeper, though named for a Stepover Toehold Facelock) – when he was put into a Triple Threat Submissions Only match on the November 28 Raw.^[68]

Cena lost the WWE Championship at New Year's Revolution, but not in the Elimination Chamber match that he had been advertised to participate in beforehand. Instead, immediately after winning the Elimination Chamber, he was forced into a match against Edge, who cashed in his Money in the Bank contract — a "guaranteed title match at the WWE Champion of the owners choosing". After two quick spears pinned Cena, winning the championship.^[69] Three weeks later, Cena won the championship back at the Royal Rumble.^[69] After winning the championship, Cena began feuding with Triple H, which the crowd began booing Cena and cheering the intended Triple H.^[70][71] The negative reaction intensified when facing Rob Van Dam at One Night Stand. Taking place in front of a crowd of mostly "old school" ECW fans at the Hammerstein Ballroom, Cena was met with raucous jeering and chants of "Fuck you, Cena", "You can't wrestle", and "Same old shit". When he began performing different moves into the match, the fans began chanting "You still suck". Cena lost the WWE Championship at One Night Stand, with Van Dam pinning Cena after interference from Edge.^[72]