Back in 1995, Steve Austin was fired by WCW because it was believed he was not a marketable wrestler. However, he was brought in by WWE, giving birth to Stone Cold, and would eventually secure the company's future in winning the Monday Night Wars. His firing effectively changed the course of WWE history forever.

It's very rare a wrestling company comes across a superstar that has the ability to be one of the greatest of all time. WWE probably didn't recognize it when they stumbled upon Stone Cold, and they almost didn't realize what they had in John Cena back in 2002. 

The Leader of the Cenation was almost fired by the company 15 years ago, meaning he wouldn't have become the 16-time world champion he is today. The reason why he stayed? Stephanie McMahon. 

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According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Radio, Cena was called up too soon to the main roster back in 2002, and was almost let go because of it, but Vince McMahon's daughter lobbied to keep him in the WWE. 

Meltzer said, according to Still Real To Us: “[John Cena] worked OVW for a while which is where he really learned his craft. He was called up too soon, which everyone knew, and there’s political reasons why that happened, and it nearly cost him his career. If it wasn’t for Stephanie McMahon taking a liking to him after they’d just about decided to let him go, he could’ve been gone.

“Imagine that. Imagine this business in the last 11 years with John Cena as the top guy and John being out of the picture. Obviously, they would’ve gone with Batista as the top guy, and Batista wouldn’t have been as good in that situation as John Cena, and he wasn’t as versatile as John Cena. He would’ve been okay, and it’s not like the business would’ve collapsed, but it would’ve been a lot worse off.”

WWE certainly would have looked a lot different with Batista at the top and without John Cena. He might have gone to a rival company like TNA and then who knows what might have happened. We might have been given Cena vs AJ Styles a lot sooner than expected!

There's no doubt Cena has played a big part in the success of the WWE over the past 10 years, and it definitely would have been strange if that never happened. So be sure to thank Stephanie McMahon for avoiding that outcome.