John Cena/Awesome

• His match with CM Punk at Money in the Bank. While mostly the definitive Crowning Moment of Awesome for Punk (which covers a lot of ground), credit must be given to Cena for delivering a stellar performance for over half an hour.
  • To elaborate, respected wrestling critic Dave Meltzer rated this match 5 Stars, the first match to get this rating since 2006 and the first WWE match to get this rating since 1997^[1]
  • And then there's at the end when Vince tries to repeat the Montreal Screwjob. Cena instantly runs out and decks the one going to tell the timekeeper to end the match in Cena's favor. Sure, Cena lost because of it, but doesn't distract from the awesome.
    • Probably awesome more because nobody likes John Laurinitis, but one of the IWC's biggest complaints about Cena's character is his tendency to turn into The Cape (trope). Then again, it did cost him the match, which no doubt did please the IWC a bit.
• His matches with Shawn Michaels in 2007.
  • One of his matches was a back and forth match that lasted 45 minutes (which is around 4 to 5 commercial breaks), with Shawn ultimately getting the pin.
• I can't believe nobody has mentioned his Judgement Day '05 "I Quit" match with JBL.
  • To further elaborate: The match was a brutal one and it showed on both Cena and JBL, but arguably, Cena prolly got the worst of it, as his head was completely covered in blood. However, by the end of the match, Cena took the win by playing into JBL's cowardice and getting him to say "I Quit" by threatening to kick his ass with an exhaust pipe. But after JBL said "I quit", Cena kicked his ass with the pipe.
• People remember that Punk during his feud with Cena gave some of the best promos possible but how can we forget some of Cena's impressive mic work on a particular night. On the 8/8/11 Raw, after Punk states that he will walk out WWE Champion and Cena will still have his legion of fans and Wrestlemania match, Cena can only grin and offer Punk some advice.

Cena: Fine speech. Do you realize how much pressure is on you this sunday? No, no, no, no, no... You have no idea. Congratulations, Punk. You won one match... In Chicago, at Money In The Bank. You did a hell of a job. You beat me, straight up. You have every right to be called the WWE Champion. You ever thought about what happens if you just might lose at Summerslam? Your little diatribe about me going on and facing Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson at Wrestlemania is exactly correct. Win, lose or draw I'm headed to Wrestlemania to face The Rock. You... You need this match. You need this more than anything in your life because you now have people watching you. You have explained that that *points to the mic in Punk's hand* is a pipe bomb, and I commend you for that... But if you don't back it up when the bell rings, especially this Sunday, do you know what you are? You're a loud-mouthed one-hit wonder. You... You. You will be known as Buster Douglas, Yahoo Serious, Milli... *asks the crowd* What's the other guy? Vanilli. If you don't produce on Sunday with everything on the line, for you... All of this? *snaps his fingers* Gone, just like that... Good luck.

• His first Wrestlemania with a win over the Big Show showed an early example of Cena's ability as a WWE Superstar.
• His car-park brawl with the late Eddie Guerrero.
• On the July 19, 2011 edition of RAW, Vince McMahon calls Cena to the ring to fire him. Cena doesn't let Vince get a word in edge wise, telling Vince to save his tirade for when he's finished. He then proceeds to lay into Vince with a picture perfect "The Reason You Suck" Speech, calling Vince out for trying to recreate the Montreal Screwjob and for the black mark said screwjob had left on Shawn Michaels career as a result. He goes on to tell Vince that he'd rather be fired than have the same happen to him. Even better, despite the fact Vince banned the saying of CM Punk's name due to his rage, Cena practically spits in Vince's face by thanking him for the great match directly in front of Vince! For the first time in a long time, the crowd was firmly behind Cena without one boo directed his way the entire promo!
• On the August 8, 2011 edition of RAW, he and CM Punk have a face off. Punk airs a video of the Rock bashing Cena over his Broken Base, then proceeds to do the same thing himself. Cena turns it around in a way that's completely incharacter for him by pointing out the fact he likes being a Base Breaker who can get that kind of reaction out of people because he enjoys seeing people really get into his matches. He then goes on by thanking Punk for his "you've become the New York Yankee's" insult after giving it some thought a couple of weeks back, he realized he was right, but in a way that Punk hadn't thought of, that he and the Yankees share their ability to get the crowd to be extremely vocal and involved. This got a huge pop from the crowd as well.
• Punk/Cena II from Summerslam 2011 suffered a bit of Sequelitis and probably would have never been as good at the first one, but objectively speaking, it was one of Cena's better matches by a long shot.
• Cena coming to Rey Mysterio's rescue by storming the ring and going berserk on Alberto Del Rio. It wasn't so much that moment as Cena's acting for it. He looked truly furious, which added to "The Reason You Suck" Speech that followed. The best part, the sighted reason for his rage was that Del Rio had kept trying to screw the new champion out of the title after a hard fought win, then turning tail and running the moment he sees they can still fight him until he finally found CM Punk in a position were he couldn't defend himself, then acting like he'd actually accomplished something. This perfectly fit Cena's angle in the past weeks, where he'd showed complete disdain for someone trying to take the easy way out to win the WWE title. It makes perfect sense for Cena to be furious that Alberto is acting like he actually earned the WWE title by waiting for someone to be completely defenseless and running off if he found out they weren't.
• John Cena vs. CM Punk III was another awesome match, which Cena managed to win this time.
• A lesser example; just about any time he's involved in a match with a particularly large opponent. If he doesn't hit his Finishing Move, he will at least get said large wrestler up onto his shoulders. The normal reaction to this is pretty predictable.
  • One memorable moment was at Wrestlemania 25, where he was in a Triple Threat match against Edge and The Big Show, where he lifted both of them on his shoulders for his AA. Edge was in the middle of trying to choke out Big Show and and jumped off before Cena AA'ed Big Show. In case you didn't notice, Cena had 700 pounds of human flesh on his shoulders before Edge ducked out of the way.
  • According to his My Life DVD, he got into a body building contest when he was around 15-16; he got second place because he looked too good.
  • Similarly, at Night of Champions 2011, Alberto Del Rio, who's roughly 240 pounds, locked Cena in his Crucifix Armbar, only for Cena to stand up while in the hold and give him a one-handed powerbomb.
    • Especially awesome since the powerbomb is an actual Mixed Martial Arts counter to the juji-gatame.
• His debut against Kurt Angle. Kurt Angle was being his usual cocky self, claiming that he had beaten everyone there is to beat in the Smack Down locker room, and he was letting anyone from the back, who he hadn't went up against before, challenge him to a match. John Cena, looking like a local jobber coming out to jobber music got in the ring with an angry look on his face. Kurt Angle asked who he was. Cena responds by saying his name, and the crowd couldn't be more dead. Angle then asked what he thought it took to get in to the ring with "the very best in the business". Cena then yelled "RUTHLESS AGGRESION!" (a Call Back to an earlier speech from Vince McMahon) and proceeded to beat the crap out of Kurt Angle. Of course, Angle won, but the match proved that Cena wasn't just your everyday jobber.
  • And to everyone's amazement, he actually was able to get out of both the Ankle Lock and the Angle Slam, and lost to a basic roll-up. And remember, this was his first match in the WWE.
• Turning Awesome Truth's Hannibal Lecture back on them with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, successfully using their own egos to turn them on one another.
  • To put it in perspective: Cena successfully brought an end to one of the most dangerous alliances in WWE currently without even laying so much as a finger on either Miz or R-Truth.
• Cena has superhuman recovery. His first major injury required surgery and at least six months of no wrestling. This was in October 2007, just before his match against Orton at No Mercy. Fast forward to the Royal Rumble, that took place January 27 2008 Guess who's No. 30 and winner of said rumble?
  • Also, when he broke his neck in a match at Summer Slam against Batista. It was the week after, that the announcement was made, that he broke his neck. Cena was back in time for Survivor Series. Also, the day after the surgery, he was up and walking and went to see the other wrestlers at the Smackdown tapings.
• After weeks of psychological attacks, physical beatdowns, and having to witness his friend Zack Ryder get destroyed by Kane, Cena finally got a measure of retribution on the Big Red Monster during the 1/30/12 edition of WWE Raw, delivering a satisfying No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, causing Kane to go into retreat for the first time since he made his return in December 2011. The only question that remains is whether or not Cena will actually give into hatred just like Kane wants him to.
• 2/20/12 Raw: Eve Torres explains to The Bella Twins--in the opening segment of RAW--how she's gonna use John Cena the same way she used Zack Ryder. This even unnerves the Bellas, and just as she plans on putting her scheme into motion, she turns around...and Cena is right there, having heard the entire thing. Cue Cena going out to the ring, and taking Eve to task for her atrocious behavior, telling her "I lost a Broski to a Hoeski!", and driving her to an utter Villainous Breakdown while the crowd, firmly behind the Man Scorned Ryder, boo her into oblivion. And then she tries to throw herself at Cena:

Cena: For your information, I'm disease-free; I'd like to keep it that way!

• The night before, Cena fought Kane in an Ambulance Match during the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, and decisively defeated the monster, more than likely rising above the hate, rather than embrace it, as Kane has constantly been preaching to Cena during the feud.
• What we didn't know at the time was Cena's promo with Eve was his warm-up, because later that night he delivered a promo that many consider the best of his career or at least the best promo of 2012 to date. With his Wrestlemania opponent The Rock in his crosshairs, Cena came out to his usual mixed reaction and chants of "ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY!" when he brought up that the Rock would be live on RAW next week to talk to him. Cena immediately went on the offensive, claiming that at one point, he was a Rock fan too, until the Rock transformed into "Dwayne Johnson" and made it all about his movie career. Cena reminded the fans that just like when the Rock returned to announce he was hosting Wrestlemania 27 and said he was "Never going away again" and left, that that was exactly what was going to happen after Cena/Rock at Wrestlemania 28, because originally "he had only come back to promote Fast Five and launch his twitter account." Reminding the crowd that he was here to stay, Cena delivered perhaps the most shocking moment to smarks everywhere when he said he was looking forward to this match for the dream of every person in the back who had a dream of making a career being not a "WWE Superstar" as the talent is expected to call themselves, but a PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER, then concluded with a guarantee that the headline will read John Cena defeats the Rock in his hometown at Wrestlemania 28. He then said "I'll see you next week, movie star." into the camera, and walked out of the ring. And then Smark Wrestling marks everywhere looked at each other and said "Wait...I think I might like John Cena..."
  • Watch the promo here.
• Four words: "Carry on. Continue trending."
• March. 12. 2012. It wasn't enough that the Monday Night RAW broadcast started with Jerry Lawler announcing the return of "Thuganomics" and Cena coming out in his original theme and wearing the chain, cap, and throwback jersey combo of his original gimmick. No military salute, and wearing an obvious snarl on his face. But then Cena lived up to billing, winding back the clock nine years and delivering one of the classic battle rap promos that helped catapault him to superstardom..not to mention leaving the PG image (of which he has become a symbol) battered, bruised, and bloodied in his wake - all in less than five minutes. Short as it was, it had everything. Visual Puns, (he threw his nuts at the camera), words that couldn't air on television, and even a few words that did air on television that were downright shocking for anyone who know what they meant. (And if you don't, do NOT google "Cleveland Steamer." You Do NOT Want to Know.)
• Cena interrupted John Laurinaitis and Brock Lesnar, walked right up to the middle of the ring and slapped the latter in the face. Without prior provocation (at least on the night). He then persisted in seeking him out during the almighty brawl that followed - all while sporting a bloody mouth. That took guts and he was still smiling. After being Low blowed and later F5'd, he tweets after it ends "that was an interesting Raw."
• Whatever people think of Cena's workrate, let it never be said he won't take a real ass-whoopin for the company. Case in point: Brock Lesnar's return match at Extreme Rules. 30 seconds and 3 clean elbows in, Cena is busted open hardway from the head. He then eats more elbows, stiff clotheslines, getting dumped off the turnbuckle upside down while his feet was chained...and still pulled a win out of his ass thanks to an opportune chain shot to the head of Lesnar followed by an Attitude Adjustment ON the steel steps. Even the Chicago crowd, which had the usual Cena split, were firmly behind Cena at the end with the damage he was wearing at the hands of Brock's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that blurred the line of stiff work and shooting.
  • The best part of Cena's win over Lesnar? Not only did he defeat a man brought in with the sole purpose of taking him out, but he got the most venomously smarky crowd in the US on his side. He finally did what he had set out to do, he had finally risen above the hate.
• On May 14, 2012, he verbally tears John Laurinaitis apart. He starts with a major Shut UP, Hannibal to Laurinaitis calling him a loser, but listing how every plan he's had since Wrestlemania had utterly failed, and calling him out on his It's All About Me mentality and on firing Big Show for mocking his voice. It gets better as when Laurinaitis tries to cheat and add some unfair stipulation to the match, the board of directors cut him off at the pass, cutting off every conceivable way for him to cheat, the announcement of which John pulls out of his hand and reads to the entire crowd. The entire crowd was behind him on this one.
  • Three words: (to Laurinitis) Go puck yourself.
• Crosses over with Heartwarming. According to Brodus Clay, they were gonna cut his dance sequence at Wrestlemania, John Cena who were nearby heard, and said if Brodus weren't going out for his bit, neither would he. And thus Brodus got to dance.

1. ↑ For those of you out there, the match that got that five stars was Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels in the first ever Hell in a Cell match (which was also, surprisingly, Kane's debut in the WWF)