Minus-Star Match Reviews: John Cena vs. Randy Orton – WWE Unforgiven 2007

Now that John Cena has announced that he will be retiring in the coming year or so, this is a great opportunity to reflect on what he has done throughout his career…both good and bad.

It’s often said that time heals all wounds, that things get better with time, that nostalgia changes how we perceive the past and blah, blah, blah. Cena, like many wrestlers to stick around for so long, has been turned into this legendary, almost mythical figure.

But Cena wasn’t always so universally admired. There was a time when he was loathed just as much as the guy he’s always compared to in Roman Reigns, and in some ways he was hated even more. Cena had garnered such a negative perception among vocal and diehard WWE fans that he changed how fans behaved. Instead of splitting chants as “Let’s go X/Let’s go Y”, Cena would get crowd to chant “Let’s Go Cena/Cena Sucks”. Yes, he was such a lightning bolt for both positive and negative attention that sometimes people forgot he even had an opponent.

But was all this hostility truly deserved, or was Cena, like everyone else in WWE, at the mercy of bad decisions over which he had no control?

The Story

Orton lost his WWE title match at SummerSlam and demanded a rematch but then-RAW GM William Regal denied it. In response, Orton went on a rampage which led him to attack John Cena’s rather who was at ringside and punt his head in. this one action was apparently enough for Regal to change his mind and sanction a title match for Unforgiven.

But Cena didn’t take all of this lightly. Like any levelheaded person whose elderly father was hospitalized, Cena pummeled Regal for basically rewarding Orton for his unconscionable actions. In response to this, Vince McMahon’s stooge Jonathon Coachman banned Cena for ringside, but a bunch of scrawny indy guys cosplaying as security weren’t enough to keep Cena from getting revenge on the man that hurt his family.

The Match

This match took place on September 16, 2007.

The bell rings and Cena hulks up. Not like Hogan but like the Incredible Hulk: shaking and simmering with rage until he takes Orton down with punches. Cena lands a big clothesline for an equally big pop. Cena launches Orton from corner to corner and lands another clothesline ringside. He chokes Orton with his foot and then in the ring tries an STF but Orton slithers away. Orton tries escaping ringside but Cena chases him down and sends him back into the ring. But when Cena re-enters Orton uppercuts him as he’s between the ropes.

Orton follows with a big draping DDT and some mounted punches. Cena no-sells, fires up, and takes Orton down. He sends Orton into a corner but misses a splash. Orton locks in a sleeper and Cena tries powering out but Orton keeps it cinched in. Orton switches to a chinlock as the crowd splits chanting between both guys. Because even though Cena’s the undoubted babyface in this match some people still need to cheer his opponent.

This resthold goes on FOREVER until Cena powers out. Cena fights back and gets Orton in a corner. He rains down with punches and clotheslines as the referee warns him to get out. Cena doesn’t care and shoves the referee aside three separate times leading to a disqualification. Wait, what? Disqualification for kicking too much ass?!

Match Result: Disqualification after 7:33 (John Cena remains WWE Champion)

Post-match the crowd boos heavily. Cena goes for more punishment but Orton hotshots him on the top rope. Then Orton goes after John Cena Sr. again but this time Cena Jr. tackles Orton before he can do anymore damage. Then Cena Jr. locks in the STF at ringside and Cena Sr. punts Orton in the head. Sweet revenge. But doesn’t this also make Cena the heel in a certain way?

Review

This was an enormous disappoint thanks to a rotten and unfortunately overused finish. It started off promising with Cena doing exactly what he was supposed to which was demolish Orton out of blind rage. It was refreshing to see goody-goody John Cena show intensity and aggression and it set the tone for what was meant to follow. But then things went downhill fast. The action grew more disjointed, the intensity died down, and the pacing became more inconsistent. Cena tried to keep things on track by hammering Orton in a corner, but then we got the king of bad finishes with the DQ-because-asskicking decision. The match was already dying at that point as Cena corner strikes looked to be losing the emotion behind them, but that decision deflated whatever goodwill was left in the building that came when this match started. Fans wanted to see Cena get his revenge or maybe see Orton make some kind of slimy comeback to justify another rematch. But this was creative laziness at its finest. Sure the ref could’ve argued that he may have been concerned for Orton’s wellbeing, but it’s not like Cena’s asskicking had looked all that damaging. And when the referee shifted the focus onto himself it didn’t do anyone any favors. Cena’s catharsis was cut short and Orton didn’t really do anything to generate heat to justify a rematch. And given the post-match angle this came off as the conclusion to the story, what was the actual point of all of this?

Final Rating: -*1/4

If this was the plan the entire time then the match should’ve been left on RAW as some kind of show-closing angle to build to something better. This was not PPV worthy and certainly not worth whatever price fans paid for it. And to make matter worse Cena would end up getting injured soon afterwards so whatever big payoff this was supposed to build towards happened later on when there was much less excitement for it.

This was one case where neither Cena nor Orton really did anything bad on their own yet they were hamstrung by bad creative. And hopefully, when Cena finally does retire bad ideas like this one will retire with him.

Thanks for reading.