Wrestlemania XX was the last time that The Rock wrestled at Wrestlemania. Wrestlemania XX was one of the best PPVs of all time. The show included The Rock and Mic Foley's battle against Evolution, Triple H defending his title against Chris Benoit and Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker extending his streak against Kane, Eddie Guerrero defending his title against Kurt Angle and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin giving a beatdown to Brock Lesnar and Goldberg. One of the other matches on the undercard was an up and coming white rapper that did the unthinkable when he lifted The Big Show on his shoulders and slammed him to win the US Title.
That's how long it's been since The Rock wrestled at Wrestlemania. John Cena was making his very first Wrestlemania appearance. Since then Cena has wrestled at Wrestlemania eight times. Cena and The Rock have wrestled the same amount of Wrestlemania matches but Cena actually has a better record. The Rock is 4-4 all-time at Wrestlemania and Cena is 6-2.
Cena's first Wrestlemania was the aforementioned match against The Big Show at Wrestlemania XX. The 20th Wrestelmania event was star-studded and Cena was not one of those stars yet. However, the fans were quickly jumping on the Cena bandwagon so Cena got the opportunity to start the show and get the crowd fired up. Cena succeeded with his incredible feat of strength and the United States title win announced to the WWE that Cena was a rising star.
The Rock was wrestling for the World Championship by his third Wrestlemania but Cena was wrestling for the WWE Championship in just his second Wrestlemania match. At Wrestlemania 21 Cena defeated JBL to win the WWE Championship for the first time in his career.
At Wrestlemania 22 Cena had by far his toughest outing yet. Cena was defending his WWE Championship against Triple H, who was known for often going over the new rising stars. Not even the owner's son-in-law was able to stop the red hot Cena though. Cena had been working a new submission move into his repertoire so when the FU failed to put Triple H away it was the STFU that made Helmsley tap out.
Cena defeated Triple H at Wrestlemania 22 so there was only way he could top that at Wrestlemania 23 and that was wrestle Mr. Wrestlemania. Shawn Michaels had made a career out of being the star of Wrestlemania and this event was no different. Cena and Michaels put on a match of the year candidate and it might still be the best match in Cena's career.
Now Cena has defeated Triple H and Michaels in back-to-back Wrestlemania events to run his record up to 4-0. What could he possibly do for an encore now? How about take on two wrestlers at once? How about take on the two biggest stars in the WWE other than Cena and The Undertaker? Cena had to take on both Triple H and Randy Orton at Wrestlemania XXIV. Orton was in control of the match for a long period of time but the end of the match had a fury of near falls. The match came to an end when Triple H countered the FU into the Pedigree. Triple H was laying on Cena attempting to pin him when Orton ran towards him and punted Triple H in the head. Orton then pinned Cena to hand him his first Wrestlemania loss.
While John Cena was battling Triple H, Michaels and Orton on Monday Night Raw the man dominating Smackdown was Edge. Edge was currently feuding with The Big Show when Cena also got involved to make it a three-way at Wrestlemania. The Big Show and Edge teamed up against Cena for most of the match but eventually the alliance fell apart. That left Cena with an opening give the FU-now called The Attitude Adjustment-to both The Big Show and Edge to increase his Wrestlemania record to 5-1.
The following year Cena would face Batista at Wrestlemania. Cena and Batista had faced each other a series of times but Batista really came out looker stronger than Cena. In this match Batista dominated to start the match. Cena hit a suplex out of nowhere to turn the momentum over to him. Eventually it became an even match. The end of the match occurred when Cena countered a Batista Bomb into a STF and made Batista tap out. Cena won his ninth world championship and increased his record to 6-1 at Wrestlemania.
Last year's Wrestlemania is the reason that Cena and The Rock are facing each other this Wrestlemania. The Miz came into Wrestlemania as the surpirse holder of the WWE Championship. Even though Miz was champion he seemed like a huge underdog against Cena. The Rock was in attendance because he was the host of Wrestlemania. The two wrestlers had some harsh words for each other lately so The Rock interfered and cost Cena the match. The following night on Monday Night Raw Cena and The Rock agreed to wrestle at Wrestlemania XVIII.
Source:
Wrestlemania at WWE.com
Lee Andrew Henderson has been a fan of wrestling since the WWF in the Mid-80's. Since then Lee Andrew has been a fan of WWF/WWE, WCW, ECW, TNA and ROH and followed all the news and results surrounding all of these wrestling federations. Lee Andrew Henderson can be found on Twitter @LeeAHenderson.
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