The 8 best John Cena matches you've never seen: Hidden gems ahead of WWE legend's retirement

On Saturday, John Cena is ending his 26-year wrestling career. An undeniable WWE legend, Cena has had more than 2,000 matches and main-evented dozens of pay-per-views and premium live events.

To honor his retirement, I wanted to dig into the crates a bit and find some hidden gems — great matches most people haven’t seen, wild gimmick brawls, classic tags and long world title bouts. Matches that really demonstrate the variety of skills that made the 17-time WWE champ such an all-time great.

Without further ado, let's get into it.

1. John Cena vs. Eddie Guerrero

WWE SmackDown: Sept. 11, 2003

Tremendously fun parking lot brawl here, with Eddie Guerrero and Cena surrounded by parked cars. This was heel Cena at his most compelling, a loud-mouthed Southie punk with a Brian Urlacher jersey and Timberlands, like a bit-part street thug from "Gone Baby Gone."

There's a lot of big near-misses, which makes the whole match seem extra dangerous, including Cena grabbing a spade out of the trunk of a car and swinging it so hard at Guerrero that he digs a slice into a nearby vehicle's hood. Some nasty bumps are taken by both wrestlers — suplexes on the hoods, with windshields cracking, both guys going headfirst through windows.

Guerrero hitting a frog splash off the roof of a truck onto Cena, who's prone on the hood of a car, is a heck of finish. Really great use of an unconventional space — and a surprisingly violent brawl for a TV match.

2. John Cena/Eddie Guerrero vs. Brock Lesnar/Big Show 

WWE SmackDown: Feb. 12, 2004

This was a TV main-event tag before 2004's No Way Out pay-per-view, and is a classic southern tag match, where the all-star babyface team of Cena and Guerrero take on possibly the most intimidating heel team of all time. 

This was Big Show when he had the perfect mix of enormous size and agility — 100 or so pounds heavier then during his WCW tenure, but he could still move. 

2004's Brock Lesnar was a breathtaking athletic phenom. He was like watching Duke-era Zion Williamson, or South Carolina-era Jadeveon Clowney — athleticism that seemed extraterrestrial.

Cena is master at selling damage and bringing the crowd with him, and he gets his ribs popcorned by a Lesnar body-scissors and then having Big Show land on him. They build to a big hot-tag — and few things in wrestling are more electric then an on-fire Eddie Guerrero cleaning house.

The finish involves a Kurt Angle run-in and a chain-assisted Eddie low-blow, all to set up the pay-per-view matches the following weekend. The whole thing is just such a great job of wrestling television business — an edge-of-your-seat match that makes you want to reach into your wallet for the next show.

3. John Cena vs. Sabu 

WWE Vengeance: June 25, 2006

Cena vs. Rob Van Dam at One Night Stand is the more famous match of the Cena vs. ECW feud, for sure, but this is the most fever-dream-ish.

Sabu and Cena seem like two guys who should've never shared a ring, and watching them do exactly that feels like one of those Twitter threads of Patrick Ewing in a Magic jersey or Pete Rose on the Expos. Cena is the icon of big-time major-league pro wrestling — the talk-show guest, the guy who holds the Guinness Book of World Records award for most Make-a-Wish visits. Sabu, by contrast, belongs in the shadows — a scarred, violent freak who made his legend in bingo halls and VFW halls, encircled by barbed wire, fire and tables. 

This was an Extreme Rules Lumberjack Match, with the ring surrounded by a weird pupu platter of ECW expats like Balls Mahoney and Amish Roadkill, and forgotten "Raw" footnotes like Lance Cade, Rob Conway and Viscera. Cena had been put through a table by Sabu on the previous "Raw" and was sporting a nasty shiner, adding to the chaotic atmosphere. 

This one is full of full-force chairs to the skull, lumberjack brawling, and a nasty finish where Cena F-U’d Sabu over the top rope through a table, which looked like it shattered Sabu’s coccyx. Not an all-time great match in either man’s Hall of Fame careers, but an awesome thing to have happened nonetheless.

4. John Cena vs. The Great Khali 

WWE One Night Stand: June 3, 2007

One of the things that makes a truly great professional wrestler is the ability to problem-solve. The mark of greatness isn’t how good of a match you can have with a skilled opponent in a comfortable style, but rather — what can you do when placed in an uncomfortable position? 

The Great Khali is a very large (both literal and metaphorical) problem. He is a spectacle — 7-foot-4, bodybuilder's physique, menacing aura — but he can’t really move or bump, and his offense doesn’t always look great. This, however, was Cena maximizing Khali’s strengths and minimizing his weaknesses perfectly. 

Cena builds the match toward a couple of big, spectacular moments — a chop which sends him flying off the top rope to the floor, and a Cena F-U off a forklift ostensibly onto the concrete (clearly onto a crash pad, but they did a great job with the magic trick). Everything else was Cena making every Khali shot look like cannonball to the skull. Incredible spectacle all around and a true feather in Cena's cap.

5. John Cena vs. Rey Mysterio 

WWE Raw: July 25, 2011

This one comes from the "Raw" a week after Cena lost the WWE Championship to CM Punk at 2011's Money in the Bank. Rey Mysterio had captured the held-up title earlier in the show, and Punk would return post-match to set up the rematch. The entire story felt like a speed-run that would've worked much better if WWE had dragged out Punk quitting for longer than a week, and given Mysterio longer then two hours with the World Title before dropping the belt.

Despite the questionable booking, though, this is a tremendous match.

Cena isn't exactly working as a heel, but he is a little morally grey here — he's jumping the line, going after a friend who already had a grueling title match earlier that night, and doing so more aggressively than you might expect. Cena throws a little more sizzle on every strike and Mysterio takes some hard, violent bumps, which put him in real peril, while spending most of the match chopping at Cena’s leg to try to even up the odds a bit.

Mysterio is the greatest David in wrestling history, and it's cool to see Cena play the out-of-character Goliath.

6. John Cena vs. CM Punk 

WWE house show: Feb. 22, 2013

Punk is arguably Cena’s greatest rival, and this is a chance to see them work a house show match against one another — and see the differences between a match designed for cameras and posterity, and a match designed for the crowd at that show and only that crowd.

This one is from Qatar and is among the last matches between the two — they had a match in Turkey the next night, a "Raw" match the following week, and finally their match this past year. But here, they have the comfortable vibe of long-time dance partners. 

Punk really breaks out some old-school heel work early. Eye-pokes, stalling, cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die offering of a handshake — everything is played to the back rows in a real '80s way, including Cena doing a great-looking all-punches comeback that channels 1986 Jerry Lawler. 

We get a traditional near-fall and reversal-heavy finish run, but it's all built on the foundation of the ballyhoo which came before, which makes the final triumph even more satisfying.

7. John Cena/Daniel Bryan/Sheamus vs. The Shield 

WWE Raw: Jan. 27, 2014

Six-man tag matches against The Shield had an incredible hit-rate in the mid 2010s. You could put those three guys against nearly anyone and the match would be super compelling.

Sheamus, Daniel Bryan and Cena were really tailor-made foils for the Shield formula. Sheamus is a perfect innings-eater early in a match, landing everything with such bass behind it that he invests you in the build. Then Cena is one of the all-time great tag-team face-in-perils, leading to the explosive dynamite of Daniel Bryan on a hot-tag heater. 

Then, the final stanza, where all the fireworks go off at once. And all six guys of these guys are nothing if not great at setting off fireworks.

8. John Cena vs. AJ Styles 

WWE house show: July 16, 2016

In the latter half of the 2010s, during his feuds with Styles and Kevin Owens, there became a running narrative that Cena “showed he could wrestle,” as the matches leaned more into big-impact moves and near-falls.

That was a always a ridiculous talking point, based on a very limited way of defining a great wrestler. 

Those matches were undoubtedly exciting though, and this is Styles and Cena matching up in the main event of a house show at Madison Square Garden. It's a splendid mix of Cena’s traditional babyface work, fighting off the Good Brothers' interference, and the big-bomb-throwing style which Styles bring to the table.