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

Dean Siemon

WWE.com

John Cena has faced a number of superstars during his run as United States Champion. The following are the five best matches of his U.S. Open Challenge.

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The concept of an open challenge in front of thousands of fans and millions watching at home is what helped give a young John Cena his chance to show what he has against Kurt Angle back in 2002. So it makes sense that the leader of Cenation would want to have an open challenge of his own more than 13 years after his debut in World Wrestling Entertainment.

Ever since Cena defeated Rusev for the United States Championship back in March at WrestleMania 31 in Santa Clara, Calif., there have been a number open challenge matches held as a regular segment on Monday Night Raw.

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There have been some interesting match-ups that included established names who have been on the main roster for some time and then it allowed a chance to help build even more of an awareness for the NXT development brand that has brought created more of a buzz for who is currently standing out from Full Sail University.

What was interesting about the series of matches that have been held during Cena’s time as champion for the majority of 2015 is that we’ve seen glimpses of how the veteran has been able to add a few new moves to his wrestling repertoire – which has been a big sticking point among the fans who are the most critical of his in-ring skills.

Maybe it’s the fact that the younger talents have helped bring out the best in Cena, but there were a number of great matches held during Cena’s U.S. Open Challenge – even if a good portion of those matches ended with a disqualification because either Rusev or Kevin Owens wanted to maintain their ability to be the one to take the U.S. Championship from Cena’s hands themselves.

The following matches showed how some WWE superstars wanted some and got some. But considering the rumors of Cena taking time off from television after the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, maybe the end of the U.S. Open Challenge is coming to an end.

Next: Match No. 1

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

John Cena vs. Dolph ZIggler – Oct. 12, 2015

It’s no shock to see the “Show Off” Dolph Ziggler on this list and for good reason. Considering that these two have had several matches over the past few years, there’s no denying that these two have built up a report with each other in the ring. In fact, if you gave Cena and Ziggler an hour for an Ironman match, fans might see the full potential of what these two can do together to put on a show.

In one of the more recent matches for the United States Championship, they had a few moments where the crowd cheered because of the flawless execution of something like Ziggler reversing Cena’s Attitude Adjustment into a Famouser for a close two-count. There was also a moment when Ziggler was able to reverse a second-rope “AA” to set up a DDT from that same height.

And let’s not forget how Ziggler can connect with the Superkick or the Zig Zag. But this was one of those matches where Cena’s resiliency was showcased – like many times he has done before against stars like Ziggler and the others mentioned on this list.

The match had a pretty good pace where the two had plenty of their signature moves come at the right time to get the fans into the match – which is always important in having a good match on your flagship television program. It’s a shame this match couldn’t have gone longer, but there’s always that chance as both are likely to be with the company for years to come.

Next: Match No. 3

John Cena vs. Rusev – July 13, 2015

Look at the following script for a championship match on Raw without the names being mentioned – champion has multiple challengers wanting to face him, so he lets them battle in a grueling triple-threat match to decide the number-one contender for said championship. A winner has been decided, but his title shot has to be held immediately after winning the triple-threat.

Without knowing who was who and looking at it on paper, one would think that the champion was an evil heel wanting to get an easy title defense against a babyface challenger. The funny thing about the entire thing on the July 13, 2015, episode of Monday Night Raw was that the challenger was the evil Rusev and was wanting to regain the United States Championship from Cena. To get that shot, he had to defeat Kevin Owens and Cesaro in a match that could have easily been booked as a title match in its own right.

This match makes the list because it was interesting to see a confident Cena impose his will against a very tired Rusev. As he held Rusev on his shoulders moments before attempting his finishing move, you could see Cena stare towards the television cameras and shrug as if to say “Well, that wasn’t long at all.”

However, Rusev countered the Attitude Adjustment in mid-air and pretty much came crashing down onto Cena’s back to set up his submission – the Accolade. You could see the champion looked shocked and scared and for a moment, it looked like Rusev was going to get his title back before Owens ran in to cause the disqualification as part of continuing his storyline with Cena.

This was one of those matches in the challenge that put over a superstar while showing fans that the veteran champion is not 100 percent unbeatable.

Next: Match No. 4

John Cena vs. Cesaro – June 29, 2015

Speaking of Cena looking like a champion who could be defeated on any given night, Cesaro gave him a couple of good runs for the United States Champion. The first of two open challenges was a match that provided some extra depth to a larger story that involved not just Cena and Cesaro, but also Kevin Owens, who became obsessed with defeating Cena for the championship.

The Swiss Superman had plenty of offense in this match, including a pop-up European uppercut that was an instant highlight in the match. That uppercut that was once made famous by William Regal was starting to become the new signature strike from Cesaro, who was showing that he too could be a power player in the WWE.

There was a lot of give and take that allowed both strong strikers to show their full capabilities – from Cesaro doing lifting Cena from outside the ropes into a vertical suplex in the ring and to Cena’s springboard leap into a stunner neckbreaker. The pace was fast and even included some exchanged punches before Cesaro unloaded several uppercuts before a Cesaro Swing and a Sharpshooter.

The match didn’t end cleanly however, as Owens ran in and caused another disqualification. But this led to more depth in the story with Cesaro confronting him next week and getting another shot at Cena on July 6, 2015 – this was also a classic match worth mentioning on this list, even though the first was little better due to adding story depth.

Next: Match No. 5

John Cena vs. Sami Zayn: Raw – May 4, 2015

There’s something special about having someone wrestle in front of the fans in their hometown. Now let’s add to that with someone making their debut on the main roster on Monday Night Raw with millions around the world watching live – oh, and it was for the United States Championship.

And if all of that wasn’t enough, let’s have a living legend in Bret “the Hitman” Hart make the introduction for a young star coming out of NXT to answer Cena’s open challenge and you have Sami Zayn entering the scene in a memorable fashion. Now there was a problem early on as he seemed to have injured his left should while he was hyping the Montreal crowd and it may have made some fans worry about whether the doctors at ringside were going to put an end to this feel-good debut.

But maybe that added some intrigue to the match as we saw Zayn and Cena trade blows and signature moves where one would worry if Zayn’s shoulder was going to hold up. In one key spot, Zayn hit his DDT outside of the ring after doing a suicide dive through the corner ropes – he held his left shoulder wincing after landing the move on it.

A few minutes later, Zayn caught Cena in his Blue Thunder Bomb – a spinning sit-out powerbomb – where his left arm and shoulder had to carry Cena through the move. But through all the grueling spots, Cena traded his own that included the ending where he hit the springboard stunner and quickly hit Zayn with the Attitude Adjustment for the pinfall victory.

Zayn hasn’t been on the main roster since due to his shoulder injury and yet some can hope that maybe he’ll get a chance to build on that debut with a rematch with Cena.

Next: 5 Non-Wrestlers Who Could Face John Cena at Hell in a Cell

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Dean Siemon

After graduating from Valparaiso University, I have been working at various newspapers in the Pacific Northwest as a sports and features journalist.