411’s WWE Rivals Episode Seven Report: John Cena vs. Edge

-One of my favorite rivalries of all time. Let’s get to it!

-Teaser has Mick Foley calling John Cena the modern day Hulk Hogan. He continues that Hogan had Roddy Piper, who was one of the most glorious bad guys. Cena had Edge who was willing to do anything to get people to hate him. Edge says he was fully committed to being that villain. Paul Heyman: “There’s sex. There’s violence. What’s not to love about this rivalry?”

-Show opening!

-As a reminder Freddie Prinze Jr hosts a roundtable during this show and we cut back to them between the talking heads and videos from time to time. This week at the table with Freddie: Cody Rhodes, JBL, Kevin Nash, and Beth Phoenix. I mean, having Beth there was a given as Freddie even jokes that someone at the table’s favorite wrestler is Edge. Nash says it clear who saw the face and who was the heel and they defined those roles to a T and produced.

-Edge says they were of the same mindset and they created magic. We get Edge’s back story from brooding loner to off beat shenanigans with Christian. He then became well known for car crash matches like TLC and we get highlights. Prichard calls Edge and Christian one of the greatest tag teams of all time.

-Now to Cena as Edge says when they first met, John was in the phase where he was sucking up to the crowd by wearing the colors of the local sports team. Cena showed up with Ruthless Aggression, but that kind of faded and then his career was saved with The Doctor of Thuganomics gimmick. Cena says he wanted to be the best “me I could be.” The character evolved from kind of one note joke to serious to full-fledged babyface with Hustle, Loyalty, and Respect.

-Edge was still trying to figure out his place after starts and stops with his singles push following the end of his run with Christian. He became a paranoid character that was obsessed with becoming a World Champion and would do anything to get that shot.

-WrestleMania 21: JBL says anyone can do an 8 minute match and JBL was told to push John in 30 minute matches. He told Vince that Cena was his guy and that what he had was God-given. Cena wins is first WWE Championship at WrestleMania. Cena notes he was still far away from hitting his stride.

-The same night Edge wins the very first Money in the Bank Match. Great match and probably still the best MITB match of all time. Just fantastic! Edge was the perfect winner of the match.

-Edge and Lita are are paired up as Lita mentions they blurred the lines. Lita says they were involved personally and decided to put them on screen together. They leave out the whole love triangle with Matt Hardy and cheating and all that stuff, because I guess that is for a different show. Heyman notes that Edge and Lita were perfect for each other on screen and no kidding. Lita was the missing piece that Edge needed to get to that next level.

-New Year’s Evolution: John Cena successfully defends the WWE Title in an Elimination Chamber Match and history is made as Edge hands the briefcase to Vince McMahon and heads to the ring.

-Commercials!

-Rey Mysterio gets the A&E Bio treatment next week.

-Back to New Year’s Revolution as the crowd loses it when Edge cashes in on an injured John Cena and wins his first WWE Championship. This was just absolutely perfect and is still a joy to watch. Besides the pop and sheer joy from the crowd, what stands out is Edge getting lost in the moment looking at the WWE Title and you can see the character drop. Edge laughs as his first inclination when looking at the Title was to headbutt it. Fair enough!

-Edge was determined to make his run as epic as possible and wanted to run with the ball, but instead he dropped the title back to Cena at The Royal Rumble only a few weeks later. Heyman says nobody deserved to be elevated to Mania Main Event more than Edge, except one person, John Cena and that had to burn Adam’s ass. Edge wanted them to change plans as he knew they had something, but it didn’t happen. He knew they would have to touch back on the feud.

-One Night Stand 2006: YES! Just an epic night as Cena gets booed out of the building. I know he was booed in Chicago with Punk but there were some Cena fans there. The ECW crowd just hated Cena and they show the crow throwing his shirt back. Cena: “I could have had a twenty-five minute contest with my t-shirt and that would have been amazing.” Preach! Heyman says the ECW crowd found John the embodiment of everything WWE and not extreme. Cena loses the WWE Title to Rob Van Dam thanks to a run-in from Edge.

-Commercials!

-Cena was excited to work with Edge again as he knew they each brought substance. Edge wins the Title back on RAW due to RVD getting busted for pot (after leaving a house show I attended in Rostraver). It was all about Edge vs. Cena now as they were the main program to close out the summer and Fall.

-Back at the roundtable JBL talks about how hated Edge wanted to be. Nash mentions JBL was one of the few that didn’t want any merchandise because he didn’t want anyone having a chance to support him. JBL notes he didn’t want anyone thinking he was a decent guy. I understand, but Edge made sure he had that merch money rolling in though and I had several of his shirts.

-Edge and Lita travel to West Newbury, Mass to see what makes John Cena tick. Lita note bringing in someone’s family is a good way to get more heat. Mr. Cena is here as a talking head and he wanted to know what the plan was. Lita mentions they wanted it to be organic, but Mr. Cena was having fun performing. Yes, his over-acting was something else. Cena laughs as he says it was one of the greatest moments on WWE TV. He then tells his dad he loves him and learned what to do and what not to do. Fantastic! Edge then slaps the taste out of Mr. Cena’s mouth to make things more personal.

-SummerSlam 2006: This match takes place in Boston which is Cena’s home turf. Mr. Cena says that every fan there expected John to win the WWE Title.

-Commercials!

-Back to SummerSlam as Edge notes their character was so opposed to each other. Cena notes he never gives up and it takes a lot to beat him. Edge says the Rated R Superstar isn’t just Edge, but it is Edge and Lita. Cena says Lita was instrumental as a great performer and by stacking the odds against him. Beth puts over Lita’s role and how well she played her part. She didn’t shy away from the insults from the fans and instead leaned into it. Edge uses brass knuckled to KO Cena and retain his Championship on Cena’s turf.

-RAW Aug 21: Lita tosses Cena’s spinner Title in The Long Island Sound. The same night they brawl through the arena and outside where Cena tossed Edge into The Long Island Sound. Edge notes the LIS is the most polluted body of water in the US and that didn’t dawn on him until the scuba divers pulled him out and they were covered head to toe, while he was in tights. He ended up sick for the rest of the week.

-They agree to one more match and this time it was going to be in Toronto, Edge’s hometown. Edge makes sure it’s a TLC Match as he has never lost one and Cena has never been in a TLC Match.

-Commercials!

-Unforgiven: Wonderful show that gets slept on for some reason. Edge soaked in all the cheers as he was the WWE Champion in his hometown against this generation’s hero. Cena notes they hated him and it was great. He kept telling Edge to take it all in. He was okay with being The Yankees in Fenway or The Lakers in Boston Garden.

-Rosenberg notes it was a chance for Cena to show he could get down and dirty and hang in an environment like TLC. Edge talks about the pressure of coming up with ideas for TLC matches since he help create the match. Edge and Cena both note that John has a fear of heights. Cena just wanted to paint and he wanted to make sure that Adam could be able to paint what he wanted. Edge goes over the spot where he was trapped in the ladder and Cena applied the STF. Because of the extra separation the ladder caused, Cena actually legit choke Edge out to the point he thought he was in his bed and could hear his alarm. That’s amazing and as they show it you can see that he is gone. It turns out the alarm he heard, was a buzzing noise he was making it and he remembers waking up and seeing the Air Canada Center logo at the top of the arena. Cena had no clue and tossed a ladder at his face. Edge doesn’t remember how he even got his hands up to try to block. Cena notes he had no clue Edge was in any jeopardy or that he was choked out. Heyman notes Cena was afraid of heights, but John Cena in front of the camera is a superhero and isn’t afraid of anything. Such a great match! Cena says he learned from Eddie Guerrero: “give them your F’N best every night and if they come back they may bring a friend.” The match builds to a crazy spot to finish and Edge says John wasn’t big on doing it. He had faith he could do it though.

-Commercials!

-Next week on Rivals it’s Rey vs. Eddie! Woo!

-Back to Toronto as Edge takes an AA off the top of a ladder through a stack of tables. Cena’s look of disgust at having to do that is great. Cena says that was Edge’s idea and says it was brilliant and insane. It fit the story as he had to do something crazy to finish this guy. Edge just had a sense of relief that they did it when he heard the pop after crashing through the tables safely. Edge felt it was a fitting end to that part of their story. Cena wins back the WWE Championship and celebrates with his father. Mr. Cena gets a bit emotional thinking about it.

-Meanwhile Edge gets a standing ovation as he walks out and you can see the emotion on his face. Cena was happy that Edge enjoyed it because some people don’t do it because they don’t want to play it off if they are supposed to be a heel. Cena: “you can’t rob yourself of that.”

-JBL talks about the pride he has in seeing what both men became in the business. Beth knows Adam would love to ran that back and do it again with John. Heyman says the feud cemented John as the top attraction in WWE. Edge says they call each other shoe because they are so comfortable with each other. Edge feels they are each other’s greatest rivals. “You put us in the ring today and I know it’s going to be fucking great.” Sign me up for a match between them right now!

-This is one of my favorite rivalries of all time, so I was in the bag for this one. Now I did have an issue with them bypassing the Edge/Hardy/Lita stuff and then not touching on the rivalry being renewed before and after WrestleMania 25. Remember, Edge won the World Title from Cena at Backslash in the last major match between the two. So technically, Edge won the feud. Also, not even a passing mention of The Live Sex Celebration? Not even Outside of those quibbles, I loved this as again, I am sucker for this rivalry. Thanks for reading!