#9. John Cena vs Randy Orton | ‘I Quit’ Match for WWE Championship | Breaking Point 2009
If Randy isn’t Cena’s greatest rival, he’s the second-best. The matches these two athletes had were just pure brilliance, especially with Orton in his unhinged phase of his career. An I Quit match was apt for three things; the PPV name, Cena being the ever-valiant babyface and Orton being the despicable champion with the odds stacked against him, interference from Legacy would give Cena the title.
Cena starts off hot but Orton takes control and quashes any comeback Cena mounts. They head outside where chaos ensues, Orton stomps on Cena’s head whilst he lays on the stairs, sold brilliantly by both men. Orton would handcuff Cena to the ropes and around the ring post to torture Cena with kendo sticks and chairs. What I love about this is Orton would play with the keys, hung around his neck, mocking and teasing Cena, whilst Cena screams in pain, struggling to say no to the referee. Cena would get out and handcuff himself to Orton, beating Orton down. A tug-of-war would ensue reaching for the key until Cena counters and chokes Orton into submission with his own arm. Resilience personified; John Cena wins his sixth WWE Championship.
#8. John Cena vs Shawn Michaels | WWE Championship Match | Wrestlemania 23
I have a weird love for this match, it was the main event of the first Wrestlemania DVD I owned. The story of this was simple, Cena could not get the better of Michaels, while HBK used his experience and ring psychology to gain the upper hand.
Michaels controlled the early portions, ducking and diving to infuriate Cena into making more mistakes. Michaels hits a beautiful moonsault onto Cena from the apron to ringside, before targeting the knee of Cena to keep him off balance and take away his power game. That, however, wouldn’t work as Cena would use his strength advantage to take over. We’d get a ref bump midway through, giving Michaels the chance to hit a piledriver on Cena onto the steel steps. More back and forth from both men, hitting their comeback sequences and finishers but to no avail. This match took it out of both men completely, they were using each other’s bodies to keep the other up before Cena would trip Michaels into the STFU, cranking it in and causing HBK to submit, Cena would salute the camera to his dad, who was watching at home.
#7. John Cena vs Brock Lesnar | Extreme Rules 2012
RAW after Wrestlemania 28 and Cena suffers a crushing loss to The Rock, calls him out to shake his hand. The well-known guitar chord strikes throughout the arena and returns The Beast Incarnate, eight years after departing the company. He lays out Cena with an F5 with John Laurinaitis claiming Brock is back to bring legitimacy to the WWE. Cena coming out at Extreme Rules with the retro padlock and chain around his neck meaning he’s here for a fight, Brock hot off his UFC run changing his look from the trunks to the MMA shorts brings such an aura of realism to his character.
Brock would target Cena’s arm with the Kimura Lock and launch Cena arm first around ringside, before hanging Cena by his feet, upside down with Cena’s chain and batter the arm against the apron. We’d get two ref bumps from Charles Robinson, Brock taking out the replacement referee. Brock would launch himself from the steps onto Cena, who was on the apron. First, taking a nasty spill over the ropes, second time around, he’d jump straight into Cena’s fist wrapped in his chain causing the Beast’s head to bust open. Cena would hit an Attitude Adjustment on the stairs for the win, just like that. He took every single ounce of punishment from Brock and still came out on top.
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