The John Cena Experience (Disc 2)

Disc Two of the John Cena Experience is mostly matches, with a handful of bonus features added in. The total running time is just shy of four hours.

~ Match Results and Star Ratings~

1. Great American Bash, 7/22/2007: WWE Heavyweight Champion John Cena defeated Bobby Lashley at 14:53 to retain the title. ***¾
2. SummerSlam, 8/26/2007: WWE Heavyweight Champion John Cena defeated Randy Orton at 21:18 to retain the title. ***½
3. Royal Rumble, 1/27/2008: John Cena won the Royal Rumble match at 51:45, last eliminating Triple H. (CLIPPED)
4. Night of Champions, 6/29/2008: WWE Heavyweight Champion Triple H defeated John Cena at 19:39 to retain the title. ****
5. Monday Night RAW, 1/26/2009: World Heavyweight Champion John Cena defeated Shawn Michaels (w/ JBL) at 13:09. ***¼
6. Monday Night RAW: Draft, 4/13/2009: John Cena defeated Jack Swagger at 11:30 in a non-title match. ***
7. Judgment Day, 5/17/2009: John Cena defeated Big Show at 14:57. *½
8. Monday Night RAW, 6/29/2009: John Cena defeated The Miz at 13:50 in a tournament semifinal match. **¾
9. Survivor Series, 11/22/2009: WWE Heavyweight Champion John Cena defeated Shawn Michaels and Triple H in a Triple Threat Match at 21:10 to retain the title. ****½

~JZ Says~

WWE had been trying desperately to get Bobby Lashley to the next level for quite some time by the time of Great American Bash 2007 and just leave it to John Cena to get the best match Lashley had ever had at that point out of him. It started out slowly but built and built to bigger and bigger moves. Cena had to hit the Attitude Adjustment from the top rope to get the win. The two men shook hands after the match. To capitalize on the excellent performance, Lashley lost to Mr. Kennedy a week later on RAW and then left the company, not to return until 2018. Wrestling is funny sometimes.

Believe it or not, there was a time that John Cena and Randy Orton hadn’t faced each other on a WWE pay-per-view, and that time was just before SummerSlam 2007. They’d had multiple tag matches earlier in the year alongside Edge and Shawn Michaels, respectively, so it’s not like they were completely unfamiliar with each other. They had a very good for tv but not great for PPV match that ended suddenly after Cena hit the F-U.

In early October 2007, Cena suffered a torn pectoral muscle and was supposed to be out for 9-12 months. He returned less than four months later and entered the 2008 Royal Rumble match at #30, in a huge surprise. The match starts when Cena makes his entrance, so I can’t rate it here, but the MSG crowd went nuts when Cena took charge of the match and eliminated Triple H to win his second Rumble.

John Cena and Triple H wrestled each other in various permutations throughout 2008, but their highest-profile singles encounter was at the (technically) first Night of Champions PPV. Triple H was SO orange here. HHH was defending here, and he spent a lot of the match working Cena’s back. Cena fought up and tried every big move he has. In the end, HHH had to get his win back from WrestleMania 22, which he did after a Pedigree. They did a good job making this feel like a big slugfest, and the crowd was hot the whole time.

Cut to January 2009, and Shawn Michaels had to go through John Cena to get JBL a spot in the Elimination Chamber match. Michaels was working for JBL, a storyline that even the most ardent of WWE fans may struggle to remember. The match was good, just like every other Cena/HBK match, though it felt weird to have JBL just lurking about ringside. Eventually, Michaels got distracted by JBL yelling at him, and Cena hit the Attitude Adjustment for the pin. Really good, fast-paced TV match.

April 2009 saw the return of the draft, and World Heavyweight Champion John Cena faced ECW Champion Jack Swagger for some draft picks or something. Swagger was less than a year into his run at this point and I had him pegged as a future top guy still. I also thought Sheamus would quickly be a top guy, so you win some you lose some. Swagger put up a pretty good showing, but the Attitude Adjustment and the STF were too much for him to overcome.

I don’t remember the context of John Cena and Big Show’s feud of mid-2009. What I do know is that the match between them at Judgment Day 2009 suuuuuucks. Show is on offense for most of it and he’s just so slow and boring. After the longest match ever, Cena ducked a punch and hit the Attitude Adjustment to get the win. I don’t think these guys ever had good matches against each other, but this was particularly bad.

In the summer of 2009, Cena was feuding with The Miz, and the two found themselves facing off in a tournament to decide a #1 Contender. Miz was working his way up the card at this point, and it would only take another 20 months or so from here for this match to main event WrestleMania XXVII. Cena gave quite a bit to Miz in this one, as opposed to their match at The Bash the night before. That being said, Cena still made Miz tap to the STF to advance in the tournament. This was a solid TV match.

The final match on the Blu-ray proper is the famous triple threat between Cena and the two members of D-Generation X – Triple H and Shawn Michaels. The beginning of this match rules, as HBK drilled HHH with a Superkick right as the bell rang, sending him to the floor. These are three of the greatest of all-time, and they put on a banger, even with the foregone conclusion of Cena retaining the title. It was fun to see HHH and HBK go at each other in the name of winning the title, especially since their D-X routine at this time was pretty grating. It’s worth noting that this match was the last time Shawn Michaels competed for a World Championship. A superkick didn’t just start this match – it also ended it. HBK nailed HHH with Sweet Chin Music, and then Cena grabbed HBK and hit the Attitude Adjustment right on top of HHH. Cena pinned HHH to retain. Great beginning, creative middle, and awesome finish make this one of the best WWE matches of 2009.

~Blu-ray Exclusive Matches~

1. Tribute to the Troops, 12/19/2009: WWE Heavyweight Champion John Cena defeated Chris Jericho at 7:53 to retain the title. **½
2. WrestleMania XXVI, 3/28/2010: John Cena defeated WWE Heavyweight Champion Batista to regain the title at 13:30. ***¾

~JZ Says~

Smart Blu-ray owners of this collection are treated to two bonus matches. The first broke my brain a little bit, because it featured John Cena defending his WWE Championship against Chris Jericho at Tribute to the Troops 2009, but he had already lost the title on PPV to Sheamus, so WWE acknowledged that this how was taped ahead of time. Which, I mean, duh, but usually they just never come right out and say it. This was the last year they traveled overseas for this show. The match is paint by numbers, and since we knew Cena lost the title to Sheamus already, there was no drama when Cena hit the Attitude Adjustment to get the pin.

John Cena and Batista were the two biggest stars of their era, and they carried the company for years, so I’m glad they got to have a big-time match at a WrestleMania. Bummer that they were overshadowed by Shawn and ‘Taker, but them’s the breaks sometimes. Batista dominated a lot of the match; every time Cena mounted a comeback Big Dave would bust him back down. When Batista went for the powerbomb, Cena slipped out of it and trapped Batista in the STF for the tap-out. This made Cena a mere nine-time World Champion. This was an entertaining clash between two guys throwing all their big moves at each other and it was a good time.

Overall, the match selection on this set is quite good, with really only the Big Show match from Judgment Day 2009 sticking out as a poor effort with no historical significance.