Csonka’s Best of WWE: John Cena’s Best WrestleMania Matches Review

Csonka’s Best of WWE: John Cena’s Best WrestleMania Matches Review

– This aired on FS1.

– Evan Mack from the Bump hosts, and welcomes us to the show.

From WrestleMania 26 – John Cena vs. Champion Batista: They lockup and work into counters as Cena grounds things. Batista gets to his feet and backs Cena into the corner, but misses the cheap shot. Cena goes to work with strikes, misses the charge and gets leveled by Batista. The big man takes control, they brawl to the floor and Cena blocks a suplex and hits one of his own. Back in and Cena hits the bulldog for 2. He tries the Attitude Adjustment, gets him up but Batista reverses into a DDT for 2. Batista with a running boot to the face of a seated Cena for 2 again. Batista applies the choke with the hooks in, but Cena just stands up with Batista on his back and powers out of the hold. They trade rights, Batista gets the advantage with a boot to the gut and a neck breaker. Front facelock by Batista, Cena powers out with a back body drop and catches a charging Batista with a boot. A pair of shoulder tackles followed by a Protobomb, but Batista counters back into a spinebuster. Cena counters the Batista bomb attempt into an STF, but Batista makes it to the ropes. Cena gets to his feet and GETS SPEARED for 2. Batista woks him over in the corner, takes Cena up top for a superplex but Cena grabs his hand they fight for position, and Cena head butts Batista down… and follows with the top rope five knuckle shuffle. Batista counters the AA into the Batista bomb for a great near fall. Batista tries another, they wok into a series of really well done big move counters as Cena hits the AA for a great near fall.
Cena heads up top but flies into the spinebuster, shades of the Summerslam match. Cena counters the Batista bomb into the STF and Big Dave has no choice but to tap. John Cena defeated Champion Batista @ 13:40 via submission [****] I really love this match and think it’s great in it’s simplicity. It just comes off as a big time heavyweight clash, where both guys just gout, unload their arsenal and at the end of the day, one man stands tall. They packed lot into the time they have and never teased going too long. The crowd fucking ruled during this match.

From WrestleMania 29 – Champion the Rock vs. John Cena: I swear to God that Cena is wearing a mic, because you can always hear him calling spots way more than usual. In ways the match felt technically better at times than last year’s effort, but the crowd didn’t really care as much , likely since it actually wasn’t “once in a lifetime.” Some token “Cena sucks” stuff, excitement for a finisher, but generally not much reaction and it really just did nothing to help you get into the match. They finally got the crowd into it on a few near falls and when Rock mocked Cena with the five-knuckle shuffle and they teased the finish based off of last year’s finish. They did the big “boo-yay” striking exchange, and then Cena got the Rock bottom for a good near fall. Cena then looked to do the same finish as last year, but knew better; unfortunately Rock also knew better and got Rock bottom for a close 2. Tons of finisher reversals followed, and Cena finally got the AA for the win. John Cena defeated Champion The Rock @ 24:00 via pin [***½] It was like they realized that shit wasn’t working, and after the teases from last year, they just started unloading with finishers and counters to finishers to get the crowd fully back. They were trying to tell this epic tale of redemption for Cena, which no one bought because it wasn’t like he ever stopped being John Cena. At the end of the day I felt that they recovered well and produced a really good match, but as the big main event, with all of the hype, I think a lot of people came away disappointed. I ended up really liking the homestretch and feel they did a great job of getting the live crowd back into things, but again, it’s one man’s opinion.

The 411 on Wrestling Podcast returns to the 411 Podcasting Network for episode 111. On the show, 411’s Larry Csonka & Steve Cook talk the news of the week, breakdown AEW vs. NXT (4.29.20), while Kevin Pantoja joins for a retro NXT Arrival review. The show is approximately 137-minutes long.

* Intro
* News Roundup (Rumored WWE Sale, More Release News, AEW Taping Schedule, More): 2:15
* AEW Dynamite (4.29.20) Review: 36:55
* NXT (4.29.20) Review: 55:55
* The Head to Head Comparison: 1:14:20
* Retro NXT Takeover: Arrival Review: 1:24:43

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– Thanks for reading.

7.6

The final score: review Good

The 411

Overall, the Best of WWE: John Cena’s Best WrestleMania Matches collection is a really good one-hour presentation.