4 – United States Open Challenge
Now it’s no secret that John Cena hasn’t been the most popular superstar over the past thirteen years since his arrival in the company, but 2015 has probably been the year where the fans have started to change their opinions on the fifteen-time World Champion.
After failing to secure his sixteenth title win at the Royal Rumble in a triple threat match between himself, Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins, Cena ended up facing Rusev for the United States Championship at WrestleMania 31, where he soundly beat the super athlete. What followed was possibly the greatest thing Cena has done with his career.
After debuting back in 2002, when Cena answered an open challenge set by Kurt Angle, Cena switched roles with the Olympian in 2015 and set out his own open challenge. Every single week, the United States title was defended by Cena and answered by up and coming superstars on the roster, and saw debuts from several NXT superstars.
We saw some of Cena’s best ever matches, against the likes of Cesaro, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, and we saw a renovation to Cena’s repetitive move set. The WWE Universe had become used to Cena’s patented “Five moves of doom”, but with the addition of the springboard stunner and the tornado DDT amongst others, Cena became more pleasing to watch in the ring. Maybe it’s also due to him competing with superior wrestlers like Zayn and Owens, but Cena really stepped his game up in 2015.
Who knows what 2016 holds for the leader of the Cenation, but hopefully more good things are on the horizon.