411’s WWE Rivals Report: John Cena vs. Randy Orton

-This week a rivalry that the WWE went to over and over again. The two men from The Ruthless Aggression Era/OWV that carried the company while Brock and Batista would come and go and come back again. Fun fact, I went to two PPVs in Pittsburgh that were years apart and both had Cena/Orton for a World Title. Let’s get to it!

-As a reminder, Freddie Prinze Jr. is our host/producer and is joined at his table by Booker T, Natalya, Devon Dudley, and JBL.

-We start with Cena Family Home Movies: Little kid Cena with his wrestling belt, and wrestling with his brothers. Mr. Cena talks about how John was exposed to pro-wrestling. 2002 John Cena is beaming as he talks about when he told his father he was signed to WWE and how excited he was.

-Orton Family Home Movies: Randy says he was asked all the time as a kid if he would be a wrestler. He was asked so much that he just lied and said yes. He always felt he could never do what his father did. He runs down his family history in the wrestling business. 2002 Randy Orton (man that haircut) says his father made a call to Stamford Offices. He was 19 and they saw potential so sent him to OVW.

-Peter Rosenberg tells us the history of OVW and how WWE purchased it and turned it into a developmental territory. Cena runs down the crazy talent in OVW at the time: Shelton Benjamin, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, and Dave Batista. We get some Orton vs. Prototype footage! Sweet! Mick Foley says everyone knew that OVW class had potential, but nobody knew it was the future of the WWE.

-Randy makes his debut on SmackDown. Hulk Hogan mentions he wrestled Bob and that Randy has the instinct of his father and it has to be genetic. HHH says he told Randy early he could be a huge star and the only thing that could stop him: Himself. Randy Orton becomes the youngest World Champion as he defeats….someone.

-Batista brings up that Randy was Champion in the ring, but wasn’t ready for it. We see Randy at a signing behaving immaturely. Sam Roberts mentions that Randy lost the Title after holding it for a month. Randy admits he was an asshole and hard to work with in his younger days because he wasn’t ready and it was too much too soon. Cena remembers telling Randy he was the best ever and didn’t understand why he couldn’t see what he had.

-John Cena makes his debut and wore tights that matched the home sports team. We jump quickly to the rap gimmick that saved his career. JBL at the desk mentions he was WWE Champion for a long time, and they were looking for someone to run with it and Cena was that guy. Orton says Cena may be a little too cookie cutter, but the kids love him.

-Cena mentions they were both introduced at nearly the same time, traveled their own paths, and you knew they was going to be a point their paths collided. They finally crossed paths on RAW in July 2007 when Orton dropped Cena with The RKO and was named the new number one contender.

-Commercials!

-SummerSlam 2007: Cena mentions it is not about what they do in the ring, but what they do between what they do. He calls Orton the best at it. Cena gets a desperation AA and gets the pin.

-The next night on RAW, Randy Orton attacks Cena during a match he was having with King Booker. Orton teases the punt, but instead bails to the floor and pulls Mr. Cena over the railing and punts him instead. AWESOME! Mr. Cena: “I was kicked in the head. I was knocked out.” Cena: “When you do it to an old man, you’re an asshole.” Nice little cut on Mr. Cena’s head. Not shocking, but JBL thought what Orton did was brilliant.

-Unforgiven 2007: Cena gets disqualified for kicking too much ass, but keeps his Title. Orton attacks Mr. Cena again, but not punt this time as Cena makes the save. Mr. Cena punts Orton in the head as JR is losing it on commentary. Austin Theory compares Cena/Orton to Batman/Joker.

-RAW the night after Unforgiven: Coach makes a match between Randy Orton and Mr. Cena. I don’t remember this at all. John is handcuffed on the outside to make sure he can’t interfere. Mr. Cena eats the RKO as John can’t make the save in time.

-The rivalry stops as Cena tears his bicep in a match against Mr. Kennedy. Cena: “It hurt. I didn’t know what was wrong, but I knew something major was.”

-Commercials!

-After the Kennedy match, Cena gets attacked by Orton. Cena gets caught with the RKO on the announce table and notes he was already hurt, so this didn’t do any further damage. Interesting footage of Cena with the doctors as they get him to walk out the arena.

-Surgery Footage as he tore the bicep clean off the bone. Dr. Andrews! The recovery was supposed to be a long one. Cena says it was hard for him as it was the first time he had such a long layoff. He was told 6-7 months away, but this is SuperMan! “Try and slow me down.” The table talks about time off being your worst enemy and the pressure to get back quick comes inside.

-No Mercy 2007: Randy Orton becomes WWE Champion after HHH held it for about 2 hours and defended against Umaga.

-Royal Rumble 2008: Yep, SuperMan Cena is #30 and blows the roof off MSG. He returned from injury in 4 months and gets his first Royal Rumble win. JBL refers to Cena as SuperMan as well and says he knows Cena had the idea that he would be back faster than anyone.

-WrestleMania XXIV: It’s a HHH vs. Cena vs. Orton for the WWE Title because Cena used his Rumble shot the previous month, and Orton got Disqualified on purpose. That’s not covered here though as they make it seem like Cena won The Rumble and just took the shot at Mania with HHH involved as well.

-Commercials!

-WrestleMania XXIV: HHH and Cena put over how great Randy is inside the ring. Cena notes that Randy was born to do this. Freddie says he was at this match and had $1000 on Cena, but Orton hits the punt and pins Cena. They talk about how nobody had Orton winning and it shocked a lot of people.

-Randy Orton shows up on RAW the next night: “Expecting someone else.” The rivalry continues into the Fall and that leads to Breaking Point.

-Breaking Point: Sept 2008: I Quit Match! Orton was just ripped and lean here. Bald Orton looked eviller as well. Orton cuffs Cena’s hands and hangs him on the ring post and lights him up with kendo stick shots over and over again. Cena unlocks the cuffs and puts on on Orton, so they are cuffed together. Nice!

-Commercials!

-Back to Breaking Point as Cena makes Orton say I Quit. Roberts says Orton and Cena are amazing to watch rise together because both men want to be the top performer in WWE.

-Hell in A Cell 2008: I told you they ran a lot of PPV matches between the two. Orton is proud they had a different style of match with each PPV and they traded the WWE Title back and forth. Orton gets the win inside Hell in a Cell to become WWE Champion.

-RAW: Oct 2009: Cena cuts a promo and challenges Orton to an Iron Man Match.

-Bragging Rights 2008: Iron Man Match! I was there for this one! Lilian Garcia talks about how intense it was to see them in that match. Interesting fact, Pittsburgh has had 4 of the televised Iron Man Matches in WWE History and I was there for three of them (Benoit/HHH on RAW, Cena/Orton, and Ziggler/Rollins). I missed the Charlotte/Sasha one from Roadblock as I didn’t go to that show. They smartly had a lot of falls in Cena/Orton and even teased Orton trying to blow Cena up with pyro. Creative! Cena gets Orton to tap with five seconds left to win 6 falls to 5 and regain the WWE Title.

-Commercials!

-Five years later and they decide to unify The World Title and WWE Title and wouldn’t you know it, Cena and Orton are the Champions. Cena: “We performed together a lot.” No kidding!

-TLC 2013: Cena and Orton have a TLC Match to unify their Titles. Cena notes how huge those unification matches are. Orton notes they came up together and they have a feel for each other. “It’s easy to do a little and it go a long way.” He says it was always fun being in the ring with Cena. In a nice call back, Orton handcuffs Cena to the ropes and Cena has to rip the rope off again, but goes face first into a table. Orton claims both Titles and is the New WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

-They don’t touch on their match the following month at The Royal Rumble, but that is the other one I attended.

-The talking heads put over Orton and Cena with KO noting that Orton doesn’t always get the credit he deserves. Foley puts over the magic the two created and how impressive it was to face each other that much on top of the card and make it work.

-Cena and Orton both say they love the other one and Orton says he misses John. One more match?

-This was fine, but I wasn’t as invested as previous episodes. Probably because I don’t have the nostalgia yet for Cena/Orton. As mentioned they had a lot of matches together, but never hit the great match like some other rivalries had. Like they had all the ingredients to be each other’s greatest rival, but they both had rivalries with others that I enjoyed more. With that said, I wouldn’t mind seeing Orton/Cena again today just to see what they could do twenty plus years after their debuts. Thanks for reading!