As one of WWE’s greatest ever stars, John Cena’s high profile wins are many and plenty.
To a generation of wrestling fans, Cena was unbeatable and a superhero, toppling all who came before him in the name of good triumphing over evil in the wacky world that is WWE.
Now, Cena barely performs at all, wrestling just once in 2024 as he lines up what’s sure to be a memorable retirement tour ahead of his hanging up the jorts next year.
His time in the ring is now largely focused on helping others shine at his expense – with Austin Theory and Solo Sikoa amongst those who have scored major victories over the multi-time former champion in recent years.
Cena has suffered other big and surprising setbacks in his time – though not all stick in the memory.
In 2005, the leader of the Cenation was still on the way up, transitioning from the mid-card scene in WWE as its United States Champion and into the main event scene that he’d go on to dominate for many a year.
He toppled John Bradshaw Layfield – JBL – to win the WWE Championship for the first time at WrestleMania 21, but there was a bump in the road on the way there.
To cement Cena as a major player, the company needed to take away the US title he was holding at the time, and Orlando Jordan was the perfect foil to help further the feud between the JBL and the would-be challenger to the WWE title.
JBL, then WWE Champ, and Cena were already at odds when Jordan challenged Cena for the gold on an episode of SmackDown from Albany, New York.
At the time, Jordan had been appointed Chief of Staff in the ‘Cabinet’ of JBL who, largely reigned over pretty much everyone else the SmackDown roster.
With a bit of help from his ‘boss’, the New Jersey native pulled off a shock result and toppled Cena to win the US title, his first and only WWE championship in arguably the biggest moment of his career.
“It was great,” the man himself later recalled in an interview. “Being United States Champion is not a small feat at all.
“Anybody that remembers my reign… we [he and JBL] dominated SmackDown during those times and, at one point, I was the only Champion on SmackDown for a while.
“We had a great, strong run and we proved it on paper as far as revenue and attendances… we kicked [rival show] Raw’s butt most of the time.”
Jordan had joined WWE in 2001, spending his formative years wrestling in preliminary matches before a first major match – ironically against Cena – in 2003.
A powerful collegiate wrestler, he’d already lived a life before turning to wrestling. He fought forest fires in the US Fire Service before swapping the hose for the boxing ring in the sports’ amateur ranks.
With wrestling later in his sights, Jordan was trained by Rocky Johnson, father to WWE icon and acting sensation Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
From there, he wrestled on the independents before being snapped up by WWE.
After beating Cena, his reign as United States Champion lasted six months before he was eventually unseated by Chris Benoit in less than 30 seconds at SummerSlam in the same year.
Jordan featured in very few meaningful WWE storylines after that and departed in in 2006 having also faced Brock Lesnar and teamed with The Undertaker, going on to feature in TNA and back on the independent scene.
Wrestling for Italy-based company NWE, he became world champion in 2008 before losing that gold to wrestling legend The Ultimate Warrior in what proved to be the star’s last ever match.
Jordan, meanwhile, has continued to wrestle intermittently over the last decade, and performed at an ASWA show in Australia in June 2024.