The closest thing the WWE has ever had to Captain America, John Cena has stood for justice and hard work for over 20 years of Hustle, Loyalty and Respect. After selling his soul to The Rock with one scowl down the camera lens and a heinous attack on Cody Rhodes, Cena broke a billion hearts by turning heel at the Elimination Chamber. Up there with the Streak being broken and Hogan ing the NWO, Cena instantly became unrecognizable to the audience who knew him best.

But what if we told you there were always signs that John Cena had the devil in him? Through a variety of treacherous, sneaky and big timing actions, the cracks have been there in John Cena's armor from the very first night he arrived in WWE. These are his most suspect actions.

10 An Attitude Adjustment To Jon Stewart

Cena Squashes One Of America's Most Lovable Broadcasters

Politics are always the hottest of potatoes but, no matter your allegiance, Jon Stewart is one of America's finest broadcasters. Smart and ionate without ever being condescending, Stewart is a national treasure and his run on The Daily Show is enough to make some go misty-eyed just thinking about his run on the Comedy Central staple. But not if you're name is John Cena.

In this instance, Jon Stewart struck first in this surreal meeting of celebrity and pro wrestling. Chasing his record-breaking 17th title, US Champion Cena was in a feud with WWE Champion, Seth Rollins. Rollins himself was embroiled in a war of words with Jon Stewart over him leaving The Daily Show, which even included Seth turning up on set. Stewart flipping the script to hit Cena with a chair and cost him the title at SummerSlam 2010 was standard Vince McMahon-lead nonsense, but Stewart is a TV host and Cena is a 16-time World Champion. AAing Jon Stewart on Raw was basically a criminal act, as Cena got his revenge the next night at the Barclays Center.

9 Slapping Kurt Angle On His Debut

Ruthless Aggression Begins By John Cena's Hand

It is an old adage touted by Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, HHH and more, but the mantra "if you don't want to be WWE Champion, go work some place else" is more than just a cool sentence. The WWE roster is always a varied and eclectic landscape in an arms race for the audience's love or attention. There is never a second chance to make a first impression, and John Cena stood out on his debut, mainly by being a dick.

Kurt Angle is more than just one of the greatest on mic and in-ring performers in the history of WWE. He is an Olympic gold medalist who represented America with a broken (freakin') neck and still won at the highest level possible in the most heroic circumstances. He may have been working heel at the time, but John Cena slapped the taste out of Angle's mouth as a rookie on his first night on SmackDown. Plenty of hustle in that decision, but can Cena really say he was showing any kind of respect?

8 Bray Wyatt's Firefly Funhouse

Bray And Cena's Cinematic WrestleMania Match Is WWE's "What If...?"

Bray Wyatt was a creative genius for those who live for life's spookier side. Original, fearless and willing to expand wrestling into new creative horizons, Bray seemed to always be thwarted by an elderly billionaire who you'd wager hasn't seen Insidious. His original backwater vision of horror in the wrestling space was fresh but wasted, his merch felt like it belonged in a Hot Topic store next to Slipknot and My Chemical Romance, and Wyatt's cinematic match with John Cena from WrestleMania 36 is haunting and the most avant grade work of John's career, in wrestling or on screen.

On his 2.0 vision, Bray Wyatt's Firefly Funhouse was a disturbing ode to children's television through the eyes of a monster. At WrestleMania, Cena was taken on a haunted maze tour of his past that was surrealist and smart. Wyatt's Lynchian vision showed The Ghost Of Cena's past with Cena having to feel his Ruthless Aggression line and Dr of Thuganomics gimmick falling flat, have his Vince-approved musclehead physique mocked, be shown the disparity between WWE's haves and have nots, and the glorious NWO image showing Cena as an actual heel. Bray Wyatt was producing "cinema" before WWE made it a regularly used noun.

7 The Promo That Broke Roman Reigns

Cena Makes The Big Dog's Life Much Harder

The lights dimming, the epic drums fill the speakers, the arena rises as one with their index finger held high, and The Tribal Chief walks to the ring with a coldness that only The Undertaker can compete with in WWE history. When all is said and done on his career, it is likely that Roman Reigns will go down as a no-brainer on WWE's Mount Rushmore. This is in absolutely no thanks to John Cena.

At a time when Roman Reigns was public enemy number one with WWE's audience, with Vince McMahon shoveling bad creative ideas into the mouths of his audience via the vessel of The Big Dog who Runs The Yard and other such cliched balderdash, Cena proclaimed "I'm the one dude there ain't no protection from". John eviscerated Reigns on the mic, smashing a young man with the weight of a billion-dollar enterprise on his back, who was being forced to try and win the love of the people via the creative nouse of one of the worst people ever to grace entertainment. As someone who has been maligned and singled out for criticism by that same baying audience, Cena owed Reigns some comion, not this promo.

6 itting He Wasn't Impressed With CM Punk

The Face Of WWE Was Unmoved By Punk's Arrival

Despite leaving the company and causing WWE to try and rewrite the narrative, CM Punk is the man who did more to help indie wrestling at the time he entered WWE. That milestone may (or may not) have been sured by Cody Rhodes's actions cine then, but Punk was never Vince McMahon's guy. He was a man who had to climb a mountain barefooted during this period. A Paul Heyman Guy in a Vince McMahon world, CM Punk needed advocates but he did not find one in John Cena.

During Punk's great WWE-produced Best In The World documentary, notorious people are candid about Punk's plight behind the scenes. Michael Hayes regularly its the office's feelings on Punk's look, Heyman tells stories of how they wanted to cut him before he even debuted on television, but Cena's comments are the most damning of all.

"He built a name for himself like he's the last territorial wrestler. These guys, you usually see the product and it never lives up to the hype. Immediately, I became "eh? That''s it?"

At a time when CM Punk needed someone to see his potential, that was the viewpoint of the face of the WWE. Cena and Punk would go on to become friends and create history-making WWE moments together, but it was a rocky start for the pair.

5 Cena Buries Austin Theory

A-Town Never Recovered From Cena's Disrespect

A lot of this list features legends being spited, but spare a thought for Austin Theory. To say Vince McMahon's radar was off in the last decade of his creative tenure is to say that the Antarctic can get chilly, but that's not Theory's fault. Being given the chance to learn under one of the most underrated people in WWE in Grayson Waller, Theory has had to try to rebuild his reputation following a disastrous run with John Cena.

Much like the above Roman Reigns entry, Cena took Austin Theory to the cleaners on the mic in the run-up to their curtain-raiser at WrestleMania 39. On a card loaded with incidents that had a big part to play in WWE's resurgence, John Cena gave the minimum effort in a match that ended with a Theory victory. Even with that win, Cena's feud with Theory caused more questions of the young superstar, not less.

4 Cena Blackmails Vickie Guerrero

John Goes Too Far In The Name Of WrestleMania

Vickie Guerrero rarely receives sympathy from the WWE Universe, and Vickie didn't deserve any niceties for cheating on Edge with Big Show. During an era when a lot of WWE felt like a mid-afternoon soap opera (and not often a good one), Guerrero was often used in angles where she would come between superstar's romantic relationships. John Cena saw what was going on and leveraged it all for a shot at the WWE Championship at WrestleMania. Some good guy.

Having been appointed Stephanie McMahon's replacement as interim GM of Monday Night Raw, Cena saw his opportunity. John would secretly film Guerrero and air footage of Vickie cheating on Edge with Big Show, and use it to get himself added to the Main Event of that year's WrestleMania. It's every superstar's dream to win the Championship at the biggest show of the year, but there is no deed dirty enough to stop John Cena getting his way.

3 Stealing Zack Ryder's Girlfriend

Big John Macks On A Mid-Carder's Partner's

Of all of the overlooked superstars over the years, Zack Ryder was one of WWE's most unfairly utilized characters under Vince McMahon's creative. A modern-day superstar who understands wrestling fans, the man now known as Matt Cardona has always used every resource he can to maximize the impact of his character. He was finally getting somewhere with the front office, largely due to the success of his independent Z! True Long Island Story YouTube show, until John Cena squashed him like a bug.

With Ryder's "Woo woo woo!" catchphrase taking off, he even earned himself a girlfriend after gaining the attention of Eve Torres. With his every move being the entire focus of WWE television, there was no good reason for Cena to move in on Eve and Zack's blossoming relationship and steal Torres for himself. Before he knew it, Zack Ryder was in a wheelchair and being pushed off a stage by Kane, and his push was over. Cardona is currently the best "free agent" in wrestling and his time will surely come again. Let's hope he sees Evil John Cena before he retires.

2 John Gets Personal With The Rock

Cena Publicly Takes Aim At The People's Champ

Nobody has even come close to enjoying the crossover appeal and post-WWE success of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. In a brilliant twist, Johnson is currently using that fame and achievement to power his Final Boss character and play out one of the most enjoyable runs of his entire career. John Cena saw Johnson's success and wanted to condemn him for it, suggesting that Rock's love for pro wrestling was phony and for his own ego and gain.

As brilliantly covered on the A&E show, WWE Rivals, Cena begrudged The Rock for leaving WWE for Hollywood, taking to radio interviews and social media to take pot shots at The People's Champ. Dwayne has never forgotten where he came from and even at the height of his movie career, would always come back to WWE to use his star power for good. Cena and Rock would enjoy classic mic battles on the road to WrestleMania 28, with some of the best work of John's career, but it all started with John Cena being a jerk.

1 Cena Squashes The Nexus

A Generation Of Superstars Suffer Cena's Big Match Shovel

This entry makes everything else on the list look like John at his purest, because squashing The Nexus is John Cena's lowest WWE moment. Forgetting the humor of this piece momentarily, John Cena is a hero for a million reasons. His character is what every parent wants their children to embody, he can have a beer with the guys and be trusted with everyone but Matt Cardona's girlfriend, and Cena has given WWE fans a lifetime of memories they'll cherish forever. But this was a misfire of biblical proportions.

Containing a man who can talk so well he's now part of SmackDown's broadcast team and a wrestler who can legitimately make a claim to be the best professional wrestler of all time, The Nexus faction contained WWE's brightest crop of new talent. Booked in a match against the locker room vets in one of the great storylines of this period, Team Nexus battled Team WWE at SummerSlam 2010. The Super Cena motif has been an online stick to beat John with, but John used his creative control to power up and squash The Nexus, beating Wade Barrett and Justin Gabriel in the 7-on7 match's finale. Edge and Jericho told him it was a mistake, but Cena went through with it. Though itting it was a misfire, it was the most villainous thing Cena had done before teaming with The Final Boss.