Reel in Place

  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...

  We've chronicled most of this feud up to this point. Edge cashed in the Money in the Bank in January, and Cena reclaimed the title at Royal Rumble. We didn't see Edge winning the title on Raw in a triple threat with Cena and RVD in July, but Cena had RVD beat until Edge stole the pin. After that, our last installment, Edge got Disqualified at Saturday Night's Main Event. Since then, Edge had sex on TV and slapped Cena's dad, bringing us here, Cena challenging Edge in Boston and if Edge gets DQ'ed, he loses the title.  Cena comes out ultra-confident and Edge is not, he knows Cena has his number and that, in some ways, the deck is stacked against him due to the stipulation, on top of this match being in Cena's backyard. All Cena early until Edge throws him into the ring post and takes over. Edge seems to think his best chance of winning is to have Cena counted out, and he attempts that feat twice to no avail. On the second 9 count, the Anti-Cena crowd really sho...

  John Cena dispatched Triple H and Edge in a post-Mania triple threat and was left without an obvious opponent. Enter Rob Van Dam, the holder of the Money in the Bank briefcase, to challenge John Cena for the WWE Title at the upcoming ECW One Night Stand. John Cena was no stage to hostile crowds, people have sided with Triple H rather than cheer for him, but this is something different. This crowd is visceral, this crowd is ready for war, this crowd, for this one match, on this night, it's as real as it's going to get. The interplay between Cena and this crowd is legendary at this point. The shirt being thrown into the crowd and then thrown back is iconic. You can tell right away, this is just one of those nights. Something special is going to happen here. Cena takes charge, all while being showered with 'You can't wrestle chants.' RVD hits an enziguiri and Cena bails to the outside. We get some of the really bad 'boo' and 'yay' punch exchanges, and...

John Cena beat Triple H at Wrestlemania, but only because Triple H underestimated him, at least according to Triple H. He wants a rematch, but Edge won at WrestleMania, so he wants a shot at Cena. So, they both get a match with the champion at Backlash. Edge dips out early to let Triple H and Cena fight it out, and they are happy to oblige. Cena gets the advantage early, covers HHH, but Edge slips in the ring to break it up, and then pops right back out. The same thing happens when Triple H goes for a cover. Triple H and Cena are slugging it out, with Edge cheering them on from the apron. Eventually, they grow tired of Edge's shtick and team up to go after the Rated R Superstar. From here, we get a series of the guys coupling off, first Triple H and Edge, then Cena and Edge, and then Triple H and Edge. typical triple threat fair, with nothing much of note except for Cena hitting a top rope splash on Edge. Edge grabs Triple H is a sleeper and Cena slides in the rings, picks both up ...

At Royal Rumble, John Cena beat Edge to regain the WWE title. Because the Royal Rumble winner was challenging for the Smackdown title, they had a tournament to determine Cena's opponent at WrestleMania. Triple H won that tournament, and we got the ultra helpful angle of Triple H continually pointing out that John Cena can't wrestle. Now, Triple H is a heel, and even at this point, John Cena has proven to be a perfectly fine wrestler, at the very least. But, wrestling fans want to view things in the way they want to view them, and so Triple H saying these sorts of things, well, they're not so hellish and they're especially not too helpful if you're John Cena. On commentary, JR points out that everyone in the arena cares about the outcome of the match, they either love Cena or hate Cena and from the early going that is obviously true. The crowd is firmly anti-Cena, cheering even the most trivial bit of Triple H's offense. There's not a ton going on early, but ...

  The customary lacuna between John Cena PPV main events featured another Angle/Cena match at Survivor Series, this time with a crooked special referee. Cena won, after angle bumped the referee, Shawn Divari, causing a Smackdown referee to run into the ring and count the subsequent Cena pin. This displeased Ray GM Eric Bischoff, and determined to get the title off of Cena, announced an Elimination Chamber for New Year's Revolution. After a bevy of qualifying matches, the field became John Cena, Kurt Angle, Carlito, Chris Masters, Kane, and Shawn Michaels.  Cena and HBK start things off, and we get a heavy chorus of Cena Sucks chants, a first here for this project. Pretty standard stuff here. Chops punches, spots to get over the physicality of the chamber match; standard fare. Shawn does some overselling of kicks while draped over the corner. Goofy stuff and the sort of thing that his worst detractors are always keen to point out.  Carlito is in next, and the crowd is more...

This match is a continuation of the Unforgiven match between John Cena and Kurt Angle, but this is Taboo Tuesday and the fans get to vote on a third wrestler to make our main event a Triple Threat Match. In the weeks leading up to this show, Eric Bischoff set up an angle for Shawn Michaels to get involved with Cena and Angle, stacking the deck in HBK's favor, especially considering the other options for the poll were Kane and Big Show. It is also worth noting that this match follows a very good, and incredibly bloody cage match between Ric Flair and Triple H. Cena is still over like crazy at this point in 2005, but having to follow a bloodbath cage match isn't exactly an envious position.  Shawn Michaels, predictably, wins the poll and at one point in the show we are shown Angle approaching Michaels, proposing a deal of sorts; He and Shawn take out Cena and wrestle each other for the title. The posture before the bell seems to indicate that Angle and HBK have a deal, but as soo...

  Coming into this show, it has been four months since John Cena has main-evented a PPV. So, let's run down what has happened in the interim. Shortly after the JBL match, John Cena gets drafted to Raw, where he'll spend over a decade as the centerpiece of that show. And to celebrate that momentous occasion, Cena was given the poisoned chalice of Chris Jericho wanting to put him over, which really never works except if you're Chris Jericho. Already tasked with overcoming that, John Cena's gimmick also now has come to include the fact that he can't wrestle. Fans took this bit of storytelling to heart to such a degree that ten years after this, a lot of fans still believed it, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. At Vengence in June, Cena beats Jericho and Christian in a triple threat and at SummerSlam he beats Chris Jericho is a singles match. This leads us here to Unforgiven, and the continuation of the John Cena can't wrestle saga, this time up against...

  I got the idea to watch every John Cena PPV main event and rank them. I don't know what the general consensus on Cena is anymore, but I'd say generally I'm pretty high on him, although there are matches of his, the Umaga one comes to mind, that I don't love as much as most. So here goes nothing. Cena just beat JBL for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania the month before, so this is his first defense in his first PPV main event, so it's a big spot for Big Match John. Things start slow but escalate quickly. JBL chokes Cena with a belt, JBL takes a massive back body drop through the announce table, JBL brains Cena with a chair, and Cena comes up just gushing blood. JBL is great here playing a giant prick. He's eating the shit out of Cena, but he knows Cena won't quit, certainly not from any sort of pain Bradshaw is going to inflict, so he basically tries to reason with him. Cena won't quit but maybe he will if Bradshaw's gonna end his rap career, his...