Orton v Cena...for the first time (in singles, on PPV, maybe)!

John Cena v Randy Orton (Summerslam, 8/26/07)

I thought this was great when I last watched it way back whenever the hell. Like, 2009 maybe? A ways back. I can happily report that I thought it was great these many years later, in the present day of 2022. It's wild to me that this match, the first big Cena/Orton encounter, is only six years prior to that segment on RAW where they were hyping up their title unification bout and everyone in the crowd was trying to hijack it with the Daniel Bryan chants, while we're now almost nine years removed from that unification match itself. What the fuck?! I think this was around the point Orton started using the punt as one of his finishers and they were treating it as a bit of a death move, having put RVD and Michaels out of action in recent weeks. I don't know if he'd hit it on Cena leading into this, but Cena comes in "concussed" and they play off it really well throughout. That thread comes into play early when Orton clocks him with one of the best punches he's ever thrown, and from there Cena sells being dazed and groggy pretty amazingly. Lots of Orton's cut-offs involved him just clubbing Cena in the head which was pretty great. My favourite example was when he clotheslined him right in the back of the head off a reversal. This is also some of the best headlock/chinlock work Orton's ever done, and he's someone who had a really good headlock/chinlock for a while there so that's not a terribly low bar. I mean I just got done watching a ton of 1986 New Japan so I've seen the likes of Tatsumi Fujinami and Yoshiaki Fujiwara work the absolute GOAT chinlocks and I would say Orton's here were about 70% as good as Fujiwara's, which effectively makes them 80% better than most chinlocks in the history of wrestling. There was also one bit where he did the Garvin stomp and really planted those stomps on Cena's ankles and wrists. It was a really good Orton performance, basically. Cena's timing was great, he sold well, it was a very 2007 John Cena performance. Finishing stretch was nuclear and I thought they did Big Match Spectacle really well without it ever feeling manufactured. Cena catching Orton in the STF then Orton hitting the RKO ("do the joke!") outta nowhere ("wahaaaaay!") but not being able to follow up immediately because the knee was hurt made for an amazing nearfall that actually made sense. I liked this way more than the Cena/Punk MitB match, more than something like Orton/Foley from Backlash, and it might be top 5 for both of their careers. I'm glad I re-watched this on a whim.