John Cena hoped that his 2015 open challenges for the United States Championship would help showcase the talents of those who faced him.
After capturing the gold from Rusev at WrestleMania 31, Cena’s weekly open challenges saw him defend against the likes of Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Kevin Owens, and others.
Speaking in a retrospective of his most legendary matches, Cena shared what he was hoping to achieve with the weekly title matches. He said,
“The theme of the US Title Open Challenge, for me was for the performers to showcase what they could do. And I wanted to make it a little commercial, for the person challenging me, because if you were to answer an open challenge, that’s kind of how I got my start. So, I wanted to give the same opportunity back, and I think this was no different. Although, Kevin [Owens] had great success in ‘NXT,’ this was a chance for him to show what he could do as a performer and on a high-level stage. He can do great things. He has such a library of athletic things that he can do. He very much brought the best out of me in that perspective, and I thought this is a really cool moment.”
Cena would lose the title to Seth Rollins at SummerSlam 2015 before regaining the gold the next month. He would lose the title to Alberto Del Rio at Hell in a Cell 2015.
