John Cena’s Top 5 U.S. Open Challenge Matches

John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose – Mar. 30, 2015

There weren’t a lot of clean finishes when it came to the U.S. Open Challenge that John Cena put out, but the first one included one of the cult favorites in the WWE in Dean Ambrose. The thing about this match was that it was the first challenger and it help set the bar for the other who would follow had to meet.

Ambrose has that sort of in-ring style where he allows some of his unorthodox movements and quirks show, whether it’s scrambling to get to a pin after the devastating Dirty Deeds DDT or when he’s climbing the ropes to leap off the top rope to the outside of the ring to cause some major damage to the champion.

There were plenty of reversals and counters during the match as well to get the crowd interested – even if they feel Cena is likely going to walk out with the gold. It’s good to have a match that makes you, even for a moment, start to think “Hey, it’s possible that Ambrose is going to get the upset.”

One of those moments was when Ambrose applied his own version of the STF submission move after making a decent counter to the Attitude Adjustment. The crowd was cheering loudly as Ambrose could be seen grabbing onto Cena’s hand back from getting to the bottom rope. But alas, the Lunatic Fringe would get caught in Cena’s finisher for the successful title defense – the first of many in this open challenge series.

Next: Match No. 2