[09-17-2006] John Cena vs Edge (TLC Match)

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We are in Toronto, last time we were in Boston. This is a TLC, so theoretically, the deck is stacked against Cena, and so is the crowd. The previous match saw Edge win by hitting Cena with a foreign object, so you can see why the elevated stipulation, plus Edge has now defended the title against Cena twice and won, so if Cena's going to get another shot, it is on Edge's terms. I've sort of been lukewarm on these matches, especially because they have this reputation of making Cena, or being Cena's best feud, and up to this point, I'd say JBL did more for Cena in one night than Edge has done for him. 

So, of course, we're going to get a lot of plunder here, a lot of setting up of spots here, that's par for the course, but in a tag match, or especially a three-way tag match, you have a lot going on while someone is setting up some big spot. In a singles match, things have to stop to a certain degree. It changes the flow, but I think both guys do a good job of using that time to recover, and not just lie there for way too long. If a guy spends a minute or two building, when he comes back he is usually going to get hit with some big offense. Edge kills Cena with two big chair shots over the early part of this match. As we get to the closing stretch, this becomes more of a rock fight, with guys trading big moves. Edge hits a shitty looking spear off a ladder, Cena hits a grizzly looking powerbomb onto a ladder. It appears Cena has it won after he hits Edge with a thudding chair shot. As he gets to the top of the ladder, Lita appears, tips over the ladder, and Cena crashes through a table on the outside. All things would seem to be in Edge's favor as he slowly climbs the ladder, but Cena is alive enough to push over the ladder, even after absorbing a chairshot to the back from Lita. This all builds to the big moment of the match, an FU from the top of the ladder through two tables, and John Cena is back in his rightful place as WWE Champion.

When it's all over, the crowd cheers, and no one is booing Cena anymore. This doesn't quite feel the same way the JBL match, as a match that cements Cena, but his win here, and the match tonight, show that this is the guy, that he can have big matches, that he can win over a hostile crowd, that the WWE Championship just kind of belongs to Cena. This isn't a blowaway match, but it is a pretty good one, and a moment in the Cena cannon. 



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