John Cena has been the face of the company for about 11 years now. However, his first year as WWE Champion showed what WWE could do when they build their stars up the right way.
Heading into 2005, Cena was at the top of Smackdown's midcard holding on to the United States Championship. He would enter the Royal Rumble and be the last person elminated by the winner Dave Batista. Smackdown would then hold a tournament to find a number one contender for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania 21. Cena defeated Kurt Angle in a stellar match at No Way Out.
He would then move into a feud with JBL and his Cabinet (Orlando Jordan and the Basham Brothers). Cena, still holding on to the United States Championship, would go on to drop the title to Jordan, freeing him up for his chance to win the WWE Championship. John Cena would go on to defeat JBL for the Title at Wrestlemania, which would set the stage for WWE to book Cena as the new face of the company. He continued his feud with JBL and won a vicious I Quit match.
During the WWE Draft, he was moved over to Raw and was moved into a feud with Chris Jericho. His first title defense ad a Raw superstar would be a Triple Threat Match with Christian and Jericho at Vengeance which he would leave victorious. After refusing to help Raw GM Eric Bischoff in his feud with ECW, Bischoff would then try to do anything to help Jericho get the title from Cena. Cena would go on to defeat Jericho at Summerslam and again in a You're Fired match, sending Jericho away for a hiatus.
Cena then moved into a feud with Kurt Angle, losing to him at Unforgiven by DQ(he still retained the title), and then beating him and Shawn Michaels in a triple threat match at Taboo Tuesday before pinning him at Survivor Series.
What I liked most is WWE never overwhelmed Cena or gave up on him. JBL played the role of veteran putting over the young star and it led to one of the best I Quit matches in history IMO. They moved him to the A Show and put him in a feud with a proven champion in Y2J. Jericho also would do his best to put over Cena, going as far as to let Cena be the one to end his first stint with WWE so he could tour with his band Fozzy. Cena and Angle picked up where they left off at No Way Out. Although their matches this time around weren't as great as past encounters, Cena was finally able to get over the hump and defeat Angle 2/3 times on Pay Per View (not counting the triple threat match at Taboo Tuesday). Cena showed them a glimpse of what was to come with him being the face of the company and the WWE hasn't regretted it since.
-Ameen
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