At the height of John Cena's popularity during the year 2004, he was the reigning WWE United States Champion and was on a journey to headline the next Wrestlemania and face the WWE Champion. In October, he was scheduled to go shoot his first movie, The Marine and to account for his absence, he moved into a feud with debuting newcomer Carlito Caribbean Cool. 

For weeks, WWE played vignettes on SmackDown hyping up the debut of Carlito. An obnoxious heel who spat apple in the faces of the people he didn’t think were cool. On the October 7, 2004, episode of SmackDown, he made his debut to face John Cena in the ring. In his first match for WWE, Carlito pinned John Cena to capture the WWE United States Championship. Winning the championship on his first night was a big deal, Carlito has discussed facing John Cena and the pressure of competing in WWE. 

“I was nervous for a little bit of course. Also, I like it when you have no choice. You have to go out there and perform. When you realized it’s like that, it kind of takes the pressure off you. It’s like, number one, I’m not going back to Puerto Rico, number 2, I’m not going to fail in front of a live audience. So, you just kind of lose those nerves and do what you do.”

“He was really cool, he was actually too nice. It’s funny, I thought he ribbed me, I thought he was tricking me because, you know, you’ve met John, right? He’s just one of the nicest guys you’ll meet. And the first thing we do is we lock up, and he kicks me in the stomach. And I looked at him, and my stomach, and I couldn’t breathe.”

“I was like ‘Oh okay, this must be a welcome to the big leagues type of thing.’ But no, it was just the way he was at first. When he first started, he would just kill you. Since then, he’s gotten so much better, but those first couple of matches, and he was a big boy. When he hit you, he hit you.”

The conclusion of their United States Championship match saw Carlito hit Cena with John Cena's own chain behind the referee's back. Carlito left with his opponent’s chain and Championship. Carlito continued to wear Cena’s chain for several weeks as an insult to the Doctor of Thuganomics. A week later, in the opening segment of SmackDown, Teddy Long addressed the whole SmackDown roster. He told them that John Cena had been attacked in a nightclub where he was stabbed in the kidney which put him out of action indefinitely. Carlito said that it was due to happen sooner or later to Cena. 

On the October 28th edition of SmackDown, Josh Matthews interviewed Carlito and asked him about the rumours that Carlito was present at the nightclub the evening Cena got stabbed. Before Carlito could answer, a debuting Jesus grabbed Matthews and pushed him up against the wall. Carlito stated that he was at the nightclub that evening but left before anything happened. Carlito spat apple in Matthew’s face before leaving. 

With Survivor Series approaching, it was announced that John Cena would return and both he and Carlito would compete on opposite sides in one of the Survivor Series elimination matches. Before the match began at Survivor Series, John Cena attacked Jesus and Carlito. They brawled all the way through the fans and into the parking lot. Carlito and Jesus jumped in a car and sped off, avoiding Cena. 

The following SmackDown, John Cena opened the show and challenged Carlito to a match to see if he was man enough to face him. After stealing his chain and trying to end his career, John wanted to see if Carlito could handle business, man to man, inside the ring. Carlito complained he had a bad shoulder and was unable to compete, but General Manager Teddy Long made the match anyway. 

John Cena pinned Carlito in thirty seconds to regain the WWE United States Championship. The reason the match was so short was that Carlito was legitimately hurt and unable to compete in a full match. 

After the match, Jesus got in the ring with Cena’s chain and struck him in the kidney. Jesus stood tall over Cena as he was stretched out of the arena. 

In September, Carlito spoke about the stabbing angle and seemingly did not want any involvement with it.

''The Cena stabbing, of course. They always ask that. I think it turned out we didn’t stab him, something happened. I think somebody else did, I don’t know, I forgot how it all ended. I think that’s the main one, that one with Cena. Apparently, I tried to kill John Cena. I think it was [my old bodyguard] Jesus that ended up trying to kill him? I don’t know, anyway, I ended up being innocent.” 

Teddy Long booked Jesus to face John Cena at Armageddon in a Street Fight for the WWE United States Championship. Ultimately, Cena retained by pinning Jesus then proceeded to knock out Carlito with his chain. 

With John Cena triumphant, Jesus quickly disappeared from television and found himself released from his WWE Developmental contract on April 12, 2005. 

This feud remains memorable for featuring Carlito’s impactful debut within WWE along with the infamous stabbing angle. Unfortunately, the similarities are drawn to the tragic murder of Bruiser Brody in Puerto Rico where Carlito’s father was an owner, further supports how the stabbing angle wasn’t properly vetted, nor does it age well. 

Perhaps most importantly, this was John Cena’s final feud before nearly winning the 2005 Royal Rumble and officially becoming the new face of Sports Entertainment by claiming the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 21. 

Every ending is a beginning.