Minus-Star Match Reviews: The Miz vs. John Cena – WWE WrestleMania XXVII

Two weeks ago I did my first Minus-Star Review in quite a while and enough of you seemed to like it so I figured I’d do another one. And staying on the topic of bad WrestleMania events that coincidentally involve John Cena we’ve got what is quite possibly the most predictable and disappointing main-events in WrestleMania history.

I remember WrestleMania XXVII being, well, ass. Top to bottom, there wasn’t all that much to crow about with only one match being all that memorable in a positive way. Though there were a few others that ranged from okay to good, most of the card wasn’t worth the price of Pay-Per-View, much less however many thousands people would’ve spent for flight tickets, hotels, meals, merchandise, and of course, seats in this enormous venue. But there was something particularly bad about this show’s main-event. It was a patchwork of bad creative, poor hype, and misplaced priorities. I know we’re still far away from the next WrestleMania season but considering how frustrating 2025’s WrestleMania main-event was, it’s important to remember older stuff so that we, as fans, are a bit more prepared for worse shit should it come about.

The Story

Throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s the two most important stars in WWE were John Cena and Randy Orton. They were the ones winning the most titles, headlining the biggest and highest number of shows, and were being featured in the most prominent feuds. Their presence brought the company financial stability but that wasn’t going to last forever since wrestling fans get bored easily, especially when the same feuds and matchups are repeated ad infinitum. WWE’s bookers, in their infinite wisdom, decided to do something drastic and elevate someone new to the scene by way of Money In The Bank briefcase cash-in.

Enter The Miz.

There are many words you can use to describe the Miz: “reliable”, “good with PR”, and “useful as an undercard shithead heel” are the first that come to mind. But one word that doesn’t is “headliner”. Simply put, Miz was no Edge. He couldn’t take a MITB cash-in and use that as a vehicle to now rub shoulders with the company’s biggest stars. He was a career midcarder who exceled as the sniveling rat that usually cheated to win. The best comparison I can think of for him is AJPW/NOAH mainstay Yoshinari Ogawa if somehow Miz gained all of Chris Benoit’s and William Regal’s mat skills.

Anyways, for almost two years the WWE title – the most important thing in the company – was passed around in a long game of hot potato between Cena, Orton, Batista, and Sheamus. And then Miz entered the fray. One of these things just doesn’t belong here. Miz cashed in his briefcase on an exhausted Orton on a random episode of RAW to become WWE Champion.

Now, despite Miz’s obvious lack of credibility, he was still a heat magnet. He was a good talker and had a natural ability to piss people off, which is why he continued his cheap winning ways as he retained his title usually thanks to interference. One time it was from Michael Cole while on other occasions it was from Alex Riley. Still, through the end of 2010 and into early 2011 Miz was still racking up wins. Even if you don’t believe that a single thing in wrestling is real, the story of someone winning more and more does, at least on paper, improve his credibility.

Then along came Dwayne.

On February 24^th Rock made his big return and the pop for him was enormous. Everyone was excited to see him back. And what was his purpose? To be the “host” of WrestleMania. And in his promo he singled out John Cena, who hadn’t yet been officially figured into any plans for ‘Mania. Okay, so Rock is teasing a feud with Cena. Makes sense, and it makes money. But if that was the intention, why was Cena then booked to win the 2010 Elimination Chamber match six nights later to earn a shot at the Miz’s WWE Championship?

Oh, that’s right, because no one gave – to quote Rock himself – a monkey’s nutsack about The Miz. Cena set his eyes and mouth on Rock and proceeded to cut promo after promo on the host of the show…and not his opponent, the champion. Even with Miz trying to forcefully insert himself into the program that he, by virtue of being the company’s purported most important champion, rightfully earned, Cena and Rock remained focused on each other. Hell, Cena and Miz won the tag titles together and then lost them less than ten minutes later as Miz turned on Cena, giving Cena the dubious distinction of having one of the shortest title reigns in WWE history. Yet Cena still wouldn’t treat Miz as his equal, much less as the challenge he had to overcome.

Depending on how you looked at it Miz was either serving as a de facto placeholder for Rock in this match or he was simply the third wheel. Either way expectations for this main-event were pretty low. People were drawn by The Rock being host (because of course they were) and he probably helped move some tickets. But if there’s one thing that I’ve learned over the years of watching wrestling events both live and in person is that the quality of the show doesn’t always match the price tag.

Sure enough, by the time this match rolled around everyone watching had already been through what was largely being considered a mediocre show at best. The high point was Undertaker/HHH, Orton/CM Punk was fine, Rey Mysterio/Cody Rhodes was average, and Edge/Alberto Del Rio was pretty fun but not deserving of jerking the curtain. There were, of course, several notable low points as well. The Corre, some bad spinoff of the Nexus, lost to a thrown-together team of veterans in less time than it took for all eight men to walk down the entrance ramp. A mixed tag match that involved someone from Jersey Shore wasted three minutes and ended up contributing nothing positive to the show. And of course, Michael Cole the announcer had a match with Jerry Lawler that was so bad Vince McMahon told him afterwards it was the worst thing he had seen in 60 years of wrestling.

So with the show already on course to be one of the most disappointing Manias in years, how would John Cena, a guy who still had the perception of needing a more capable wrestler to hold his hand through big matches, fare against an underhanded slimeball who was good on the stick but not necessarily with everything else?

The Match

This took place on April 3, 2011. Before the match there’s an excellent pre-match video summarizing Miz reaching the top and all the hate he got for being champion. “I’d rather you all hate me for everything I am than love me for something I’m not”. Great line. This is followed by…Miz coming out first. Then a Gospel choir delivers a soulful rendition of Cena’s My Time Is Now theme and it gets a very mixed reaction, as does Cena himself.

This is for The Miz’s WWE Championship. Typing that feels unnatural. Miz headlocks Cena but Cena powers out. Basic sequence ends with a hiptoss. Miz gets Cena in a corner and lands a cheapshot followed by a hard irish whip. Corner clothesline gets two. some people in the crowd are so bored they try starting a “Miz is awesome” chant. Not even drunken chant is funny. Cena counters with a gutwrench suplex out of nowhere for two and the crowd boos. Cena charges and runs into a Side Effect from Miz but kicks out. Miz attempts another corner clothesline but this time Cena dodges and lands his diving leg drop for two.

Miz avoids a corner charge which causes Cena to take the Bret bump. You can clearly see Cena visibly moving himself into position as Miz lands a running kick to the face for another near-fall. A big boot gets Miz another near-fall as even Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler call this match with a pedestrian pacing and a gold game’s cadence. Miz lands some punches and ducks down to avoid Cena’s shoulderblock on a comeback. Miz lands a dropkick followed by a kneelift against the apron. It’s at this point that the commentators allege that Cena is “addled”, meaning “possibly concussed”. But then Cena escapes and completes his superstar comeback sequence effortlessly. Cena attempts an AA but Miz counters with a kneeling DDT for two. Single-knee backbreaker/neckbreaker combo for another near-fall. Miz removes a turnbuckle pad which distracts the referee. Cena gets a small package but the ref takes too long counting so Miz escapes. Miz attempts an exposed turnbuckle smash and an AA but ends up trapped in the STF. Miz gets a ropebreak and as the ref focuses on him Alex Riley comes up from ringside and smashes Cena’s face into the exposed turnbuckle. Skull-Crushing Finale. Cena kicks out at two.

Miz attempts his finisher but Cena throws him off and into the referee. Fucking ref bump! AA lands and Cena gets the visual pin. Riley comes in and smashes his briefcase into Cena’s head. Miz covers. Cena kicks out. Miz tries using the briefcase. Cena gets him on his shoulders. Miz survives another AA and bails to ringside. Cena charges and clotheslines Miz over a piece of barricade. Miz starts escaping further into the crowd. Cena chases him down and clotheslines him over another piece of barricade. This time Miz’s head bounces off the exposed floor. Dude definitely has a concussion. Both guys remain unmoving as the ref begins his ring-out count…and actually gets all the way to ten. THIS WRESTLEMANIA MAIN-EVENT ENDS IN A COUNT-OUT!

But wait, it’s swerve city here in Georgia as The Rock comes out. But before Rock can say anything we get that wretched notification sound. It’s everyone’s least-favorite gimmick, the Anonymous RAW GM. God, I forgot about that shit. Except this time there’s no Michael Cole to read it so Rock goes over. He starts doing Cole’s shtick but then does his Rock-speak instead and demands the match be restarted, this time with no count-outs and no disqualifications. Either this crowd is completely dead from the undercard or the Georgia Dome has worse acoustics than the Tokyo Dome because Rock’s doing everything he can to give this place an electric atmosphere and the crowd still sounds like they’re half-asleep.

Coincidentally, as if all according to script, Miz and Cena make it back into the ring just as Rock’s speech ends. Cena goes for an AA but Miz ends up on the apron. Cena turns around, and eats a Rock Bottom! Miz crawls over to capitalize. One, two, three! Miz pins Cena to retain!

Winner and STILL WWE Champion due to a count-out/draw after 15:04: The Miz

But wait, there’s still more. Miz, still reeling from a concussion, tries to make the most of this win and have his WrestleMania moment. But then The Rock ruins that as he beats Miz up and lands the People’s Elbow.

Review

Jesus Christ, I feel sorry for anyone who went to this show live or ordered it on PPV because that it one of the worst ways to conclude such a big show I’ve ever seen. It was like a main-event angle from RAW when RAW sucked. The ending was historically bad and it was preceded by both a nasty injury and a completely uninteresting performance from both guys. The ref bump was stupid and inconsequential. Miz was clunky and out of place for Cena’s biggest spots. His offense was pitiful. He drew absolutely no heat and Riley’s interference spots were more groan-inducing than anything else. Cena looked to be either drunk or apathetic to the whole thing, wrestling a paint-by-numbers match that was significantly worse than expected. Absolutely nothing of note happened for a good ten minutes. It’s hard to believe this Cena and the guy who wrestled CM Punk at MITB 2011 were the same person, such was the contrast between these two matches.

As for everything with The Rock, well I think he did way more harm than good. He stole the spotlight from The Miz, the guy who had that great pre-match video who was trying to prove that he belonged. Instead, Miz’s accomplishment ended up being completely overshadowed with no one caring about him whatsoever. And then he beat Miz up afterwards and left him – THE FUCKING WWE CHAMPION – looking like one of the many jabronis Rocky beat up during his Atittude Era heyday.

I know the word “burial” gets thrown around a bit too liberally among wrestling fans but in this case it’s more than appropriate. Miz was left for dead by a part-timer when he was supposed to be in the most important feuds and storylines going into the new season post WrestleMania. People entered this match barely caring about The Miz in the before this match started and once it ended no one could possibly want to buy a ticket to see him in headlining slots. It was as if he was a golf caddy getting a short moment to hold up Tiger Woods’ driver while the actual star was drinking water and measuring distance to the pin.

Final Rating: -***

Even though there was some passable action in the ring and the heels tried to get this crowd excited, this match was an overwhelming and critical failure. Nothing the Miz did garnered any reaction from the crowd. Cena, usually a live-action superhero capable of getting great reactions out of his fans, didn’t fare much better. Even if you take the crowd noise aspects out of it you can see from the video that the audience barely reacted. The few people in front of the hard camera weren’t anywhere close to animated, much less interested. It was a dead crowd watching a lifeless match between two athletes with minimal chemistry and not caring about their circumstances whatsoever. And while the Rock did liven things up somewhat – but that’s a pretty low bar in this case – his involvement here was a net negative since he left not one but both participants in the biggest WWE match of the year insignificant compared to himself.

Now why is this match important? Because history tends to repeat itself, even in the controlled world of professional wrestling. We’ve had an echo of this match repeat itself this year as an outsider got involved in a main-event involving John Cena and ended up making a bad situation worse. Even though Vince McMahon is long gone it seems like he’s still around in spirit because both this match here and Rhodes/Cena from WrestleMania 41 have one thing in common: an underwhelming and in some ways aggravating main-event that doesn’t justify such an inflated ticket price. I don’t know how many of you reading this are planning to buy tickets to WrestleMania 42 when they go on sale on September 24^th, but if I were you I’d hold off on that, at least until the show’s card starts to actually take shape.

Thanks for reading.