(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Seth Rollins vs. John Cena – WWE SummerSlam 2015

There’s this laughable notion among some pockets of wrestling fans that if a certain wrestler can’t or won’t do certain things then they “can’t wrestle”. This decades-old claim has been used to describe a myriad of different wrestlers: Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, Triple H, and countless nearly-immobile giants to lumber their way through WWE. Whether these people actually deserved those claims is a matter of opinion. But few wrestlers have endured these claims as consistently and for as long a time as John Cena.

Having lived through the ‘we hate Cena era’ I recall how many times the guy had to deal with that argument. It was everywhere during the mid-to-late 2000s and the first half of the 2010s. Despite putting on some great matches during his prime (his matches with Umaga, Bryan, and Punk in particular), many people simply didn’t want to recognize that Cena was at least somewhat capable in the ring.

Whether they argued that he couldn’t wrestle because they didn’t hated being told who and what to like, saw him as inferior to other and allegedly more deserving wrestlers, or simply out of spite, varied from person to person. For Cena, these claims persisted for years on end and didn’t really slow until well into 2015. But were his matches during that year really that great or were they adored simply because they were different and not necessarily better? Read on to find out.

The story

After winning the US title at WrestleMania 31, John Cena wanted to elevate that title into something far more prestigious. The best way to do this, Cena concluded, was to defend the title against a different challenger every week, following the notion that more successful title defenses = a title worth pursuing and defending. Wrestling fans and commentators can argue ad nauseam over which mindset – more defenses on a more regular basis against different people even those not usually deemed worthy of a title challenge or limiting title defenses to fewer occasions and a smaller pool to protect a title’s prestige – is better, but in this case Cena figured that defending the title as regularly as possible was the right choice.

It was also around this time that Cena started turning around in many fans’ eyes. It had been ten years since Cena first became a world title-level competitor in WWE and in that time he amassed more than his fair share of detractors. The ideas that “Cena couldn’t wrestle”, that he was clumsy, and that he was a Hulk Hogan ripoff with a different coat of paint, all took root in WWE’s fanbase. And while he was far from the level of someone like Angle, Bryan, Jericho, or his opponent here, he did have some great matches during that decade that showed that he could wrestle…he just chose to save this for when it mattered most.

This storyline, however, required him to show his grappling chops on a weekly basis. Over the course of his weekly open challenge series, Cena defeated Neville, Dean Ambrose, Stardust, Kane, Bad News Barrett, a debuting Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Kevin Owens, Zack Ryder, Rusev, and, in his last live TV defense, Seth Rollins. And since Rollins was the defending WWE Champion, Cena earned a shot against Rollins’ WWE Championship.

In doing so Cena earned the wrath of Seth Rollins…and John Stewart.

Wait, what?

Stewart, the longtime host of The Daily Show, was and apparently still is a longtime wrestling fan. Even though wrestling had long since fallen out of public view and became contained within its own bubble, there were still attempts at creating crossover appeal and so Stewart decided to get involved in this feud. He was first introduced as the “guest host” of SummerSlam, whatever that meant. And in the lead-up to the Rollins/Cena match he also expressed his disappointment with Cena as a wrestler. He loathed the idea of Cena tying Flair’s world title record as much as he loathed Rollins as a character in general.

Speaking of Rollins, he had some notable successful title defenses against the likes of Randy Orton, Dean Ambrose, and Brock Lesnar, but he was getting upset that Cena was stealing his thunder. By rights he should’ve been RAW’s centerpiece as its top champion yet it was Cena who was getting more airtime and positive attention for his US title. So Rollins faced Cena for the US title in a match on RAW, and while Rollins lost he left Cena a parting gift in the form of a broken nose. While Cena healed up going into this match, it was hard to gauge whether he was 100%. Given Cena’s injury history and Rollins’ craftiness, would Rollins be able to end Cena’s streak of impressive matches, or would Cena tie Flair’s world title record?

The match

This match took place on August 23, 2015. It was rated ****1/2 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer. It’s a winner-takes-all match for Rollins’ world title and Cena’s US title.

The fans chant “let’s go Cena/Cena sucks” as the two wrestlers lock-up. That becomes a “let’s go Rollins” chant as Rollins escapes a side headlock, and does a classic duck down/leapfrog/hiptoss/dropkick sequence effortlessly. Cena hits back with a punch and grounds Rollins with another headlock. A side belly-to-belly gets Cena a one-count. Rollins fights out of another headlock and hits a Blockbuster out of a corner. Rollins follows with a knee that sends Cena through the ropes and then hits two dives through the ropes then a third one over the ropes.

The crowd boos as Cena goes for his copy/paste comeback sequence but then they cheer when Rollins counters with a headlock takeover. A slingblade gets Rollins a two-count. Cena dodges a corner charge to send Cena to the apron and then counters a springboard knee with an STF attempt, only for Rollins to reach the ropes. Cena lands his Proto-Bomb and goes for the five-knuckle shuffle but Rollins blocks with a kick. Cena blocks a Pedigree and hits a springboard Stunner which gets monster boos. Cena connects with the fist drop and tries an AA, only for Rollins to elbow out and hit a Meteora. Rollins follows with a running shooting star splash but only gets a two-count.

Cena elbows out of a corner suplex but Rollins hits back with the needlessly convoluted corner double stomp spot for another two-count. Rollins starts trash talking but then Cena magically fires up and hits an AA for a close two-count of his own. A yay/boo strike exchange turns into another Pedigree attempt by Rollins. Cena counters with a corner catapult toss. Rollins avoids hitting his face so Cena drops him with an electric chair facebuster for another two-count. Cena ‘connects’ with a Kobashi diving leg drop but only gets two. Cena tries the super AA but Rollins escapes and hits a bucklebomb in the opposite corner. Rollins hits a frog splash for a two-count and Cena rolls over and hoists Rollins up for another AA. Rollins escapes, hits a high kick, and counters a crossbody with the same Cena lifting spot. But unlike Cena, Rollins connects with the AA. One, two, Cena kicks out.

Rollins misses a Phoenix Splash and lands on his feet but Cena locks in the STF. He pulls Rollins away from the ropes and tries another AA but Rollins blocks it. Cena blocks a Pedigree and locks in a Figure-4 leglock. Rollins rolls over to reverse the pressure forcing Cena to the ropes. Cena goes back to the top rope but Rollins cuts him off with a superplex/Falcon Arrow combination for another two-count. another Phoenix Splash misses. Cena gets Rollins on his shoulders for an AA but Rollins grabs the ropes. Cena pulls back and the momentum causes Rollins’ feet to kick the ref, knocking him out. Ah shit, here we go.

Cena gets a visual eight-count but the ref is down because he’s held together by tissue paper. Cena calls for a doctor to attend to said ref (why did he have to make that call?) and goes back to Rollins knees Cena’s nose. Now here comes Jon Stewart with a chair. Stewart teases hitting both Rollins and Cena with the chair and then chooses Cena. Big pop for that. That sets Rollins up to land a Pedigree onto the chair. The original ref finally wakes up and crawls into the ring (instead of a new and fresh one coming down) and counts one…two…three! Rollins beats Cena and becomes a dual champion!

Winner and STILL WWE Champion and NEW United States Champion after 19:25: Seth Rollins

Review

I’m sure you’ve read and heard these next words before but this was great UNTIL THE FINISH! It started off simple and competitive. The crowd was rabid throughout. It had a simple story of Rollins out-doing Cena at every turn and Cena struggling to find an answer for Rollins with either his usual move-set and whatever new tricks he busted out. Then it all came crashing down with that bullshit ending. Maybe I’ve been spoiled from watching too many matches from elsewhere that have clean finishes and the wrestlers were creative enough to build stories from those alone. But using the ultimate wrestling cliché to shoehorn in a John Stewart cameo that would ultimately have little payoff put a damper on this. Not enough to ruin it, but enough to make those final moments disappoint in a major way compared to what took place prior.

It’s not like there weren’t other creative avenues they could’ve taken to get to this conclusion. If Cena wasn’t going to lose clean then they could’ve built the entire match around Rollins targeting his nose much like how Eddie Guerrero wrestled The Undertaker at WWE house shows and made the unique choice of going after ‘Taker’s eye (itself copying Misawa/Taue from 1995). Anyone who’s ever had nose trauma knows that the slightest touch causes one’s eyes to water uncontrollably. They could’ve built the entire match’s story around that and it would’ve accomplished the same thing without the unnecessary interference and without needing the referees look like incompetent props that crumble into dust with the slightest touch.

But aside from that downgrade of an ending this was a solid match from both guys. Nothing groundbreaking – they traded big moves and finishers with a few surprises here and there – but that was enough for them to get their point across. It was about Cena relying on his power and Rollins using a wider array of option to try and break Cena down. If anything this was an opportunity for Rollins to show the world that he deserved to be on Cena’s level. He showed that he could do different things, play a character well enough, and work the crowd enough to generate whatever response was needed of him. In those simple regards he succeeded, but I wouldn’t call this a classic by any means.

Final Rating: ****

This is a solid match but nothing out of this world. It’s worth watching if you want to see Rollins at his physical and creative best before he got hampered by knee problems and started turning into a strange cartoon character with bad lines and the worst laugh in the world. It’s also worth watching to see “Big Match John” in action: even though he was a bit awkward doing all these ‘new’ things, he did put in the effort to make these later matches of his compelling and competitive, which is what many people wanted out of him years earlier.

While it was far from Cena’s or Rollins’ best match it was still good enough to warrant a re-watch. It’s also one of the last good Cena matches before his career started winding down so it’s nice to see him actually pull off something compelling and prove that he could, in fact, wrestle.

Thanks for reading.