Once in a blue moon, comes a rivalry in a sporting discipline that gets etched in the pages of history. In the 21st century, it is The Rock vs John Cena face-off that takes centre stage in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
One of the greatest rivalries in the history of professional wrestling, these two go way back. The duo went head-to-head against each other for the first time in 2012. Any WWE event featuring The Rock and Cena is a treat to fans, for they are excellent wrestlers. Their fame in Hollywood only propels the popularity of this face-off in the wrestling ring.
One of the greatest WWE wrestlers of all time, Dwayne Johnson, better known by his ring name ‘The Rock’, was integral to the WWE’s overall growth in popularity in the 1990s and the early 2000s. For context, this time period is also referred to as the Attitude Era. A 10-time world champion, The Rock has headlined WrestleMania, WWE’s flagship event, on six occasions.
Possibly the greatest professional wrestler of all time, John Cena is a living legend. His trademark entrance theme, My Time Is Now, is one of the most popular wrestling-themed songs ever. Cena has been the world champion on a record 16 occasions and has headlined WrestleMania five times in his career.
With such widespread success, both wrestlers promise enthralling action sequences every time they take the stage. Naturally, their face-off at WrestleMania 40 was a blast from the past for many WWE fans. As such, join us in settling The Rock vs John Cena debate once and for all as we look at their head-to-head fight stats, who won the WrestleMania 28 and WrestleMania 29 matches, their filmography and more.
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In the history of WWE, very few wrestlers share rivalries as fabled as the one between The Rock and John Cena. But what gave birth to The Rock vs John Cena feud in the first place? Let’s find out.
Cena was famous for his rivalry with Edge in the late 2000s. As a matter of fact, the John Cena vs Edge competition was named the Feud Of The Year in 2006, and in 2010, it was named the Feud Of The Decade. In 2006 and 2007, Cena became the Wrestler Of The Year. By virtue of such accomplishments, he was, at that time, the most sought-after wrestler in WWE.
On the other hand, The Rock left the professional wrestling circuit in 2004 to focus on his acting career. By 2008, he had done several films such as The Mummy Returns, The Scorpion King, Walking Tall, Doom, Southland Tales, Gridiron Gang, The Game Plan and Get Smart, among others.
In 2008, Cena was candid when asked about his take on The Rock in an interview. “He (The Rock), at one point, loved wrestling and wanted to do this all of his life. Explain to me why he can’t come back for a 15th Anniversary show or why he can’t make an appearance at WrestleMania. Simply put, it’s because he wants to be an actor,” Cena said. He further explained that he couldn’t respect The Rock because wrestling was never a priority to him but just a means to get into acting.
Cena’s comments sent shockwaves across the WWE fraternity. What surprised the fans more was to see The Rock keep his lips pursed in this context. Well, he did stay mum… till 2011.
On 14 February 2011, The Rock made his first live appearance in Raw in seven years. While he was announced as the host of WrestleMania 27, to be held later that year, the highlight of the show was him waging a war of words on Cena and giving birth to the feud.
WrestleMania 28
At WrestleMania 27, The Rock attacked John Cena after the latter ended his main event match with The Miz in a draw. The Rock put Cena down and allowed The Miz to pin him and claim the WWE Championship.
This was an insult too big for Cena to take. The next night on Raw, Cena and The Rock shook hands on facing each other formally for the first time at WrestleMania 28. This was one of the rare instances when the main event of a WrestleMania was set a year in advance.
The Rock and Cena were engaged in several verbal confrontations on Raw leading up to WrestleMania 28. In fact, in March 2012, The Rock hosted his first ‘Rock Concert’ on Raw since 2004 to mock Cena in his songs. Every act of the duo contributed to the hype around their WrestleMania bout.
Given Cena’s performance heading to the fight and The Rock’s long absence from professional wrestling, fans and experts were of the opinion that the former was likely to emerge as the winner. However, on 1 April 2012, The Rock made their predictions look like an April Fool’s joke as he pinned down Cena in a little over 30 minutes.
The main event at WrestleMania 28 broke the then-record for the biggest professional wrestling pay-per-view buy rate. Therefore, regardless of the result in the ring, wrestling was the biggest winner that night!
Winner: The Rock
WrestleMania 29
On 27 January 2013, CM Punk seemingly defeated The Rock at the Royal Rumble after the arena’s lights went out and someone attacked the latter from behind. However, Vince McMahon, who back then owned WWE, took matters into his own hands and disqualified Punk. But The Rock insisted for the match to be restarted. This time, The Rock got the better of Punk, fair and square, to claim his eighth WWE Championship.
While Punk went head-to-head against The Rock for a title rematch at the Elimination Chamber the following month, the latter successfully defended his crown.
With the WWE Championship in his bag, The Rock challenged John Cena for a rematch of the WrestleMania 28 main event at WrestleMania 29. However, he put his championship on the line this time.
The two wrestlers gave their all at the main event of WrestleMania 29. At the end of an edge-of-the-seat fight, it was Cena who exacted revenge on The Rock. As was promised, Cena claimed the WWE Championship by virtue of his win, thereby putting a period mark on The Rock’s reign as a champion at 70 days.
Winner: John Cena
Fans have witnessed The Rock vs John Cena moments in WWE on multiple occasions. The most recent instance happened at WrestleMania 40, when The Rock put down Cena when the latter was trying to help Cody Rhodes by taking care of the members of The Bloodline. However, there have been no formal fights between these two wrestlers apart from the ones mentioned above, so the honours are shared at one each.
The Rock vs John Cena: Who commands a heftier net worth?
While The Rock vs John Cena debate ends on level terms with regards to their head-to-head fight records, when it comes to their wealth, the competition is rather one-sided.
Second only to Vince McMahon in the list of the richest WWE wrestlers of all time, The Rock has an astounding net worth of USD 800 million, according to a report by Celebrity Net Worth. Given his sporadic appearances in WWE, is The Rock’s wealth puzzling you?
While he might not be a regular on wrestling promotion shows, The Rock is one of the most popular faces in Hollywood at this point. He is one of the highest-paid actors in the world and earns in excess of USD 20 million per movie on average. His business ventures include the likes of Seven Bucks Productions and Teremana Tequila.
In January 2024, he was appointed to the board of TKO Group Holdings following the merger of UFC and WWE by Endeavor, the parent outfit. As a part of this deal, the wrestler was granted USD 30 million worth of TKO stock. Additionally, he also received the trademark rights to his iconic moniker, ‘The Rock,’ previously owned by WWE since 2000.
Now, take one zero out of The Rock’s net worth, and you have John Cena’s wealth. Even though his USD 80 million net worth enables Cena to rank among the wealthiest WWE wrestlers when it comes to a comparison with The Rock, the 16-time world champion falls short by several miles.
Cena is a New York Times bestselling author — in 2018, he introduced a line of children’s picture books named the Elbow Grease series. Additionally, he has also authored inspirational books like Be a Work in Progress: And Other Things I’d Like to Tell My Younger Self and Do Your Best Every Day to Do Your Best Every Day.
Winner: The Rock
The Rock vs John Cena: A look at their filmography
While John Cena criticised The Rock for choosing a career in Hollywood as an actor, he also joined the bandwagon a few years later. Many have labelled Cena as a hypocrite owing to this decision. And while we are not here to fan such comments, the duo’s filmography certainly makes for an interesting final chapter in this The Rock vs John Cena debate.
His brilliant performance as the host of Saturday Night Live in 2000 made Hollywood take note of The Rock. Soon after, he made his debut as an actor in The Mummy Returns (2001). He subsequently reprised his role in the spin-off The Scorpion King the following year.
After drawing the curtains on his wrestling career in 2004 (or so we thought back in the day), The Rock set out on a mission to expand his repertoire by establishing himself as a prominent actor in both action-packed blockbusters and comedic roles. Movies such as Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Hercules, San Andreas, Central Intelligence and the Jumanji franchise cemented his place as one of the leading men in commercially successful potboilers.
On the other hand, John Cena made his first prominent appearance in films with the 2006 release The Marine. He made occasional appearances in movies for the next decade to balance his wrestling career. However, the success of Trainwreck in 2015 paved the way for Cena to follow in the footsteps of The Rock and Dave Bautista and enjoy a successful career in Hollywood.
Cena eventually made a name for himself in the comedy and action genres with movies such as Sisters, Daddy’s Home, Ferdinand, Daddy’s Home 2, Bumblebee, Blockers, Dolittle and most recently Argylle and Ricky Stanicky.
However, this discussion is incomplete without focussing on the two iconic roles of The Rock and Cena in popular franchises. These are:
The ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise
The Rock’s character, Luke Hobbs, made his debut in the Fast & Furious franchise with the 2011 blockbuster Fast Five. Since then, the wrestler has become a prominent figure in the action film series. He appeared in Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7, The Fate of the Furious and Fast X. If reports are to be believed, The Rock is set to appear in the Fast & Furious franchise one final time in the untitled Fast X sequel.
Meanwhile, the character of Hobbs became so popular that the studio decided to release a spin-off film titled Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw in 2019 where The Rock starred opposite Jason Statham.
If you go through the Fast & Furious franchise, The Rock missed a solitary movie since Fast Five. Coincidentally, John Cena made his maiden appearance in the series as Jakob Toretto in the 2021 film. In 2023, Cena reprised his role in Fast X. While we saw Jakob Toretto sacrificing himself to save the son of his brother, Dom Toretto, in Fast X, we never saw a body.
Given that this series has brought people back from the dead — Sung Kang’s Han and Gal Gadot’s Gisele being the perfect examples — we cannot write off Cena’s appearance in the Fast X sequel. If he does come back in the supposedly final film of the franchise, we will get to see Cena and The Rock together on the silver screen for the first time. Will our wishes come true? Only time will tell.
The DC Extended Universe
The DC Extended Universe, or DCEU, saw The Rock portray one of DC’s most powerful and notorious characters, Black Adam, in 2022. With a buff physique owing to his wrestling days, The Rock surely looked like a million dollars as the titular character in this film. His most memorable moment in the DCEU? Standing in front of Henry Cavill‘s Superman at the end of Black Adam.
James Gunn, the director of the popular Guardians of the Galaxy series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), decided to help the Disney-owned studio’s counterpart in 2021. The result? An enjoyable product in the form of The Suicide Squad that was praised by many. While he worked with Dave Bautista in the MCU (Drax), Gunn decided to work with another WWE wrestler in his maiden DCEU voyage. This time, he picked John Cena for the role of Peacemaker.
Cena’s performance as Peacemaker was commendable to the point where the studio decided to produce a television series named after the character. Interestingly, this spin-off from The Suicide Squad is the only television series in the DCEU.
With both the WWE wrestlers in the same superhero universe, there are chances (no matter how remote) of witnessing The Rock vs John Cena on the silver screen, only this time in spangly outfits. A fight between Black Adam and Peacemaker will be relished by both WWE and DCEU fans. Will that day come? We hope it does!
Winner: The Rock
The Rock vs John Cena: Our verdict
Everything said and done, we do not have a verdict for settling The Rock vs John Cena debate. While The Rock has a higher net worth and more expansive filmography, Cena has focused more on the ring and is not far behind.
Both have enjoyed successful careers in wrestling and films. Most importantly, both these individuals have entertained us for years. Therefore, we find it best to respect both of them for their achievements and for showing tremendous dedication towards catering to the audience in whichever capacity they can.
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(Main and Featured Images Credits: WWE)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
– Who won The Rock vs John Cena match at WrestleMania 29?
John Cena won against The Rock at WrestleMania 29.
