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The Shimmy 06.01.09: The John Cena Report Card (Part Two)
A little over three years ago the John Cena Report Card debuted, taking a look at all of Cena’s PPV matches and grading his overall body of work. This was done to combat the notion that Cena couldn’t wrestle or only depended on better wrestlers to carry him in a match. Since then I’ve brought back the Report Card gimmick a number of times for various wrestlers and it has become as seemingly popular series for this column. This week I’m going back to where I left off with Cena back in 2006 and reviewing the rest of his PPV showdowns. The stigma against Cena has largely died down over the past three years so it will be interesting to see what reaction these matches receive now.
WWE Title, Triple Threat Match: John Cena© vs. Triple H vs. Edge (Backlash 2006)
Cena, Triple H, and Edge had a great chemistry leading up to this Triple Threat Match and it followed through here. Cena and Triple H picked up exactly where their WrestleMania match had ended, crowd reaction and all. Edge, who has made a strong case for 2006 MVP, managed to actually be the pure heel of the match and helped add more to his feud with John Cena and gave us a potential preview of things to come with Triple H (should they manage to get a romance-free PPV opportunity). All three men busted their asses out there and helped to put on one of the best matches of the year. Any three of them could have walked away with the WWE Title and the crowd was into it from the get go. This was a tremendous effort just a few short weeks after WrestleMania.
My Grade: A
WWE Title, Extreme Rules Match: John Cena© vs. Rob Van Dam (One Night Stand 2006)
This match was made largely on crowd reaction, which isn’t always a bad thing. Hell, Hogan-Rock was made on crowd reaction so it at least has some good company. Cena wasn’t afraid to heel it up, and perhaps he was legitimately pissed. You can see Cena’s role as an entertainer evolve right before your eyes here. Where Cena was content playing the face role against Triple H at WrestleMania 22 (a match I actually like more than this one) he was not afraid to embrace the hate on this night, and that made the match all the better. It helped that Rob Van Dam knew that this was his golden moment and he made sure to soak it all in and put his best foot forward. The crowd was hot, the match was good, and it had as big of a title change as there was all year.
My Grade: A
Extreme Tables Match: John Cena vs. Sabu (Vengeance 2006)
This match went second from the top on this PPV but it was better served as a midcard garbage match. There was not nearly the same kind of heat for this match as their was for Cena-RVD, and for good reason. Charlotte is hardly an ECW stronghold and Sabu’s stint in WWE, save a few matches, was pretty tedious. Lumberjack Matches are always kind of sketchy considering the massive amounts of jobberdom usually present, and when you throw in Sabu’s spotty offense you don’t get a main event quality match.
My Grade: C
WWE Title Match (Title Change on DQ): Edge© vs. John Cena (SummerSlam 2006)
I had my reservations about this match being the main event of the second biggest show of the year. The Cena-Edge feud was hot enough, but I thought the stipulation was kind of lame. While I still think the stipulation a tad on the lame side, the match itself really delivered. This match surpassed my expectations and I think the expectations of a lot of people. Not only did it help make SummerSlam a really good PPV but it also helped save the Cena-Edge feud after the DQ-ending at Saturday Night’s Main Event left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths.
My Grade: A+
WWE Title, TLC Match (Cena Goes to SmackDown for 3 Years with a Loss): Edge© vs. John Cena (Unforgiven 2006)
There was a lot of skepticism as to whether Cena could hang in a Ladder Match. Guess what? He thrived. Cena has done a tremendous job of starring down adversity (both in kayfabe and real life) and this match was a testament to that. That’s not to say that Edge didn’t do his fair share of the work. He’s wasn’t 2006’s MVP for nothing, but this match was also a good springboard for Cena to become 2007’s MVP. Not only was this an excellent match all around, the finish was absolutely crazy. Edge is one crazy bastard for taking that FU off the ladder and it was a perfect way to cap off a great match and pretty much end a great feud (until it was revisited earlier this year, providing even more great matches). Cena’s regret at having to stoop to such measures to put Edge away was an interesting touch at the end as well.
My Grade: A+
World Heavyweight Title, Champion of Champions Match: Booker T© vs. John Cena vs. Big Show (Cyber Sunday 2006)
For the first Champion of Champions Match this had a rather bad dynamic between these three. Big Show was really the one sticking out here as he was pretty worn down physically at this point and spent a large majority of the time outside of the ring. Had Rob Van Dam been ECW Champion at this point the finished product would have been much better. In the end what should have been an epic showdown of World Champions came off as more of a half-speed free TV match that served to advance the Cena-Kevin Federline feud (which was admittedly pretty entertaining but shouldn’t have really overshadowed this match) instead of pushing any actual wrestling feuds.
My Grade: C
Survivor Series Elimination Match: John Cena, Bobby Lashley, Rob Van Dam, Sabu, & Kane vs. Big Show, Umaga, Test, Finlay, & MVP (Survivor Series 2006)
Survivor Series Elimination Matches are always at least a little fun just because of their structure, but this one was pretty clunky with a number of styles clashes. This match had two key goals: 1) get Bobby Lashley over as a bigger star considering he was due to win the ECW Title in a week, and 2) transition Cena into his feud with Umaga. For his part Cena did a good job leading his team in this match and ended up being one of the final two survivors along with Lashley, but the match itself was nothing to write home about.
My Grade: C+
John Cena & Batista vs. Booker T & Finlay (Armageddon 2006)
This match would be a perfectly acceptable SmackDown main event. In fact a few weeks prior to this show a similar match was the SmackDown main event. How anyone thought that this was a good idea to close a PPV is beyond me. Sure the crowd went home happy with the two face champions emerging victorious, but the match was adequate at best and impacted absolutely nothing. OK match but far from a PPV main event.
My Grade: C-
WWE Title Match: John Cena© vs. Umaga (New Year’s Revolution 2007)
Going in to this match I don’t think people had high hopes. Cena still carried the stigma of not being a good wrestler despite having a great 2006 with the likes of Edge, Rob Van Dam, and Triple H. Umaga had not shown any signs of having a good match since he came in to WWE less than a year ago. And yet these two went out there and shocked everyone by having a great underdog-big man match that culminated with Cena ending the undefeated streak of the Samoan Bulldozer. They would go on to shock us even further later in the month, as we’ll see in the next match.
My Grade: A-
WWE Title, Last Man Standing Match: John Cena© vs. Umaga (Royal Rumble 2007)
When this match was initially announced I really had no desire to see this matchup. Sure, Cena and Umaga had a surprisingly good match at New Year’s Revolution, but was Umaga really deserving of getting two WWE Title shots in a row? And how was Cena going to defeat Umaga in a convincing fashion without making him look bad in the process? Well, we found out. This match wrote the book on Last Man Standing nearfalls and we’ve seen a couple of the spots first done in this match in subsequent Last Man Standing Matches (like tossing the steel steps out of the ring directly at an opponent).. Both men went full throttle to give us an incredible, brutal, emotional match that managed to make it through the course of 2007 still fondly remembered. For the record this was my 2007 Match of the Year.
My Grade: A+
The Shimmy Likes it Raw!
What’s on tap for tonight’s show?
That’s it for this week’s column. See you next week for another installment of the Cena Report Card. Until next time, don’t die. Clark…out.
