Welcome to the WWE Podcast, the most passionate and authentic wrestling analysis on the web. We've got you covered with every Raw, SmackDown, and n x T show, giving you a no bulleted opinion. We know you love wrestling. We do too, so let's get this show underway. And that's the bottom line. What costocoup? Hey guys, what is going on? And welcome back to WWE Rivalries with your host, yours truly, Anthony DeMarco. You can find me at a DeMarco twenty five on Twitter if you guys want
get in touch. And I hope you guys are doing well. We are September tenth when I'm recording this Thursdays ten or tenth, but you will be listening to it most likely on September eleventh. So back by popular demand, or should I say brought to you by popular demand? We have this week's feature rivalry of Edge versus John Cena, and I'm going to focus on there. They're one that really ran through the better part of two thousand and six.
I don't want to make this huge storyline rivalry when it's spilled into the World Heavyweight Championship picture leading up to wrestling in twenty five when they had the triple Threat match with the Big Show that was mainly a part of SmackDown. I'm going to focus mainly on the two thousand and six version of Edge versus John Cena, because, as I've said before, I wasn't too in touch with the product in the year two thousand and nine or two ten, whenever
that was. But to be quite honest, I think their rivalry in two thousand and six was the best part of it, as it was a catapult for Edge and it was one of the first big rivalries for John Cena as a main event star. But before we get to that, I'm just gonna give you a few of my thoughts on the current WWE product at hand. So we'll start firstly with the talk of the Town, and that is a heel Roman Rains, who was set to go one on one with his cousin
Ju Som. Look, there's no way Jos's gonna win. This is clearly a means to an end type of storyline and program, and that end being solidifying Roman Reins as a true top heel. Look, I think that it's going to be a slow burn with Rains going to a full heel mode, and I think there's no better way to start that off by make him go up against his family member and a crowd favorite in one of the Uso brothers.
I'm interested to see how they play this out over the coming weeks, how the interactions between Jay Usso and Roman Reigns are, because look, for all intensive purposes, Juso has no business being in this match, has no business, had no business being in the Number one Contenders match, just no business being around the Universal Championship picture. Like, I don't even think he's had a one on one opportunity for a singles title at all, including the
Interconnetal or United States Championships. So look, we're gonna throw logic to the wayside and just look at it for the betterment of this program and this storyline, which it is. To be quite honest, I can't think EVE of a better first one on one guy to go up against the Roman Reigns then a family member to really push home the narrative that he is a true top heel. So I'm really looking forward to that, and, to be quite honest, SmackDown as a whole I think has been doing very very well of
late. I love what they're doing with the Intercontinental Championship picture bringing back Sammy Insane and you know he comes from the same place in Montreal that I do, so I got a kick out of him speaking French. Just overly obnoxious type of character. I really missed him on television and that to him involved with Jeff Hardy and aj Styles. I just think it's a great mid card type of feud for SmackDown right now, and I just think as a whole
they are doing very well. The Bailey turn on Sasha Banks, I didn't know they were going to do it that fast. I thought they're gonna let it drag on for a bit longer, but hey, they did it excellently. I'm here for it. SmackDown as a whole is really doing well, and I think I touched on it last week, but I'm enjoying it a lot more than Monday Night Raw as of right now, and even the Tag team division, like I know that we haven't really seen Czaro and Nakamoa engage
in any type of feud strictly on SmackDown. Obviously, they showed up on Raw this week to come face to face with the Street Profits, but the way that they've given Nakamura and Czarro screen time to kind of push home the fact of, you know, the Champions Lounge and the Champions Champagne. I think it's been really cool. I like Cesaro and Nakamura. I think they've just fit like a glove with one another for a tag team. So as
a whole, I am really intrigued on what's going on on SmackDown. As for Monday Night Raw hasn't been bad, but I'm starting to get a bit tired. Like I'll just say it, Mysterial family cannot stand them, cannot take any more of it. Dominick coming out there looking like Power Ranger beating up Murphy, which I don't understand what the point of that was. I think Murphy becoming a jobber to the Missiro family is a joke, quite honestly.
As for the main event feud, look, I'm still invested in Orton versus McIntyre, but at the same time, I feel like the injection of Keith Lee into that into that program has really hurt Randy Orton in particular. It's always like he has two foes right now. I know that they had Keith Lee say like that Drew Barnot interfere in his match again and whatnot. But I just don't think that's where Keith Lee needed to be. And I love Keith Lee, he has a bright future on the main roster, but
just any other type of program would have been better did for Keighley. I thought they were doing an excellent job with pushing Randy Orton as the true top heel in the company and in professional wrestling as a whole, maybe rivaled by MJF in ae W, but they I don't know, they cool them off the back to back losses in the same week by the roll up and then the power bomb by Keith Lee or I forget what his version of the power
bomb is called. But I don't really like what they've done with Orton in the past few weeks, even drew getting the three claim wars on him this week. I just I feel like they've really halted the momentum of Randy Orton and kind of disappointed there, to be quite honest. Then the biggest positive though of Monday Night Raw is the herb business. I love it absolutely great.
They've taken three I would say obscure and random and insignificant guys in MVP and Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander. And we can't lump Bobby Lashly into that mix because he did have a solid run going on even before the her business showed up. But they have really taken Raw by the horns and in my opinion, are the most entertaining part of the show right now. I really
love what they're doing. I really hope to God that on two of the two of the members tag team together and take the Tag Team Championships away from the street profits. I think that's what this faction needs. Hopefully it would be Shelton and Cedric Alexander or MVP and Cedric Alexander. Just Cedric Alexander would have to be involved. I love him joining the group, but I'm hoping that they get more gold around their waist, as Bobby Lashley is already the
United States champion. So look, all positives across the board for SmackDown, not so much for Monday Night Raw, but it isn't awful by any means. I just think that for whatever reason, it's kind of become a bit redundant on Monday Night Raw, especially the mysterio thing. And I don't mean to keep coming back and rehashing and whatnot. But my god, I am just so done with that whole mysterio set, the Rawlins thing and Dominic.
I don't know, there's something unlikable about them. Maybe it's the Power Ranger costume. Not too sure there, but certainly has not been my cup of tea. But look, let's get to the reason why you guys are here, and that is WWE rivalries and brought to you by popular demand. I know a lot of you guys email the Matt at Real WWE Podcast at gmail dot com to express your interest in me taking a episode to focus on Edge versus John Sina, And look, I had that one sitting in the back
pocket, and I was gonna do it anyway. No, I'm just kidding. I know, I definitely thought about doing it for a couple weeks now, but figured I might as well do it right now, seeing as though so many of you wanted to hear about it. So, like I said, I'm going to concentrate on their feud in two thousand and six that culminated
at the Unforgiven pay per view following SummerSlam. So to bring you back to two thousand and five a bit to really set the stage for where these two guys were coming from and how they led to be how they ended up being
against one another. Rather in two thousand and five WrestleMania twenty one. This was a big pay per view for setting the stage as to where John Cena and Edge were heading for the succeeding year, year and a half even two years so at this time, John Cena was the number one contender for JBL's WWE Championship over on SmackDown, And at this time SmackDown was really going through a changing of the guard for who their top face was going to be and
their top heel for that matter. As you may have recalled, brock Lesner
had left the company the year before. They had just gone through the Eddie Guerrero WWE Championship run that ended at the previous Great American Bash in June of two thousand and four, and JBL was on a nine month run as WWE champion, and he faced off against guys like Eddie Guerrero, Booker, t Undertaker, Big Show, and he fought them all off and blow and behold John Cena, who was fresh off of a year of being the US Champion on and off, having a lengthy feud with Booker t the debut in Carlito
ended up losing it to the Chief of Staff to JBL Orlando Jordan and had never been a champion other than the US Champion to this point in his career, so following the No Way Out pay per view of two thousand and five, John Cena faced off against or embarked on a program with John Bradshaw Layfield, his first ever main event feud, which he ended up winning the ww
Championship from him at WrestleMania twenty one in two thousand and five. Meanwhile, over on RAW, RAW was enjoying some of its best time during the Ruthless Aggression era in my honest opinion, because at this time Batista and Triple H were entering their inaugural feud in the main events scene, as Batista had just turned on him and hence just ending evolution as we knew it for the time
being. But while they had a strong upper car a main event scene, the other great part about RAW during this time was the fact that they just had a such a strong mid card, and you saw guys in the mid card like Shelton, Benjamin, Chris, Jericho, Christian, Chris ben Wah and Edge and just other people who I'm missing, but Raw at this time,
Kane. They just had a very very very strong mid card. You could even make the case that Randy Orton had slid back into the upper mid card at this point as he faced off against the Undertaker at this WrestleMania. So essentially what happened at WrestleMania twenty one was the inaugural Money in the Bank
ladder match. And at this time, if you guys remember, the Money in the Bank Ladder match was held annually at WrestleMania did not yet have its own pay per view, and at this WrestleMania it was a raw exclusive match. So what we saw here was basically all the upper mid card guys get thrown together in a ladder match for the money in the Bank contract. And
it was such a foreign concept. We didn't even know how this would work, how you would cash it in. The match featured Edge, Christian, Chris, Jericho, Chris Benwa, Kane, and Shelton Benjamin, who was the Intercontinental Champion at that time. Throughout the match, very good match. I suggest you guys go back and watch it. And it ended up with Chris Benwa on the ladder seemingly ready to win the first ever money in the Bank ladder match. But during the match he had really got his arm messed
up, so he's climbing the ladder very gingerly on one arm. Edge comes in the ring, smashes him in the bad arm with a steel chair, climbs the ladder and unhooks the first ever money in the bank briefcase. And this set Edge on a very strong year as he really came into his own in two thousand and five as a top heel, because in two thousand and
four he was a baby face for much of it. Had a program with Randy Orton over the Intercontinal Championship in two thousand and four, So it was clear that following wrestling at twenty one, giving him the money in the Bank contract was a way to really push forward with Edge as a top heel. Because you gotta remember, at this time on Monday Night Raw, Triple h had reigned supreme atop the heel part of the mountain. At least of Monday
Night Raw for almost three years running. He had been the world heavyweight Champion. I would say at least eighty percent of the time, save for a few short brief runs by Ben Wall and Sean Michaels and Randy Orton, and Batista had just won the World Heavyweight Championship at that same pay per view, so they worked they had to start looking towards the future, and two thousand and five was their first step in doing so in the main event, specifically
with Edge. Now, to be quite honest, it took Edge quite a long time to get to the main event picture, even following that money in the Bank, I keep saying championship. Sorry, guys, It's just it's habit for me at following his money in the Bank contract victory. So following this pay per view, he obviously had a short brief feud with Kane where he aligned himself with Alita. Then he had the What I Love, one
of the most underrated feuds that I guess it kind of fell flat. But his feud and program with Matt Hardy in the summer of two thousand and five playing off real life events was pretty damn cool, even though it was kind
of lackluster in the end. So while Edge was on the ascent in two thousand and five, John Cena was doing much of the same He closed out his program with John Aghall Layfield on SmackDown, and then he was drafted over to Raw as him and Batista swap swapped places, both world championships, swapped the brands, and it was a pretty big shift in the landscape of w WE. Personally, I think it's because Vince McMann and company saw John Cena
as the top guy ahead of Batista. That's why they've made him switch to the flagship show, Monday Night Raw, and right out of the gate he engaged in a feud with Chris Jericho. I believe. He defended the WWE Championship at Vengeance two thousand and five in a triple threat batch with Christian and Chris Jericho, his first title defense as part of Monday Night Raw. Then
he embarked on a program with Jericho just up until Summer Slammed. Jericho ended up getting fired AKA pursuing his fossy career and he was away from WWWE for about two years after that, and then afterwards he had a had a program with Curt Angle which lasted much of the fall of two thousand and five, culminated at Survivors Series, and he ended up defending his WWE Championship in an elimination chamber match at New Year's Resolution two thousand and six, and this match
included the likes of Chris Masters, Carlito, Kane, Sean Michaels, and Curt Angle along with John Cena. And if you guys don't remember, Carlato and Chris Masters were really kind of getting pushed as as top young guys on one in a Raw. They were part of Team Raw in the inaugural Raw
Versus SmackDown Survivor Series match. Then I think I'm gonna do a Rivalries edition on that as well, Raw Versus SmackDown in two thousand and five, because it's not kind of like the forced version as we see in today's WWE. It's more so it was more of an organic program. But nonetheless, so we saw Kane in that match, who was one half of the World Tag Team Champions with Big Show, Sean Michaels and Kurt Angle. So what we saw in this one is Kurt Angle went out first, Shawn Michaels and Kane
followed, and it came down to Carlito Masters and John Cena. And John Cena started this match with Sean Michaels. So he was a bloody mess and he was just getting double team by Carlito and Chris Masters. Carlito turned on Chris Masters, got the pin, and then John Cena pinned Carlito for the roll ups, seemingly closing out the night as WWE champion, overcoming the odds.
And by this point, John Cena was well, he was ww champion for going on ten months at this point, you know, he had won it back in I believe it was in March that year, WrestleMania or April, so it was almost a year. It was coming up on a year of John Cena being the WWE champion. But while we thought that John Ceno is gonna walk away from that pay per view as w w E champion, and just when we thought the show was over and John Cena would live to
fight another day as w w E Champion, Vince McMahon appeared. This individual is cashing in. There's money in the bank, privilege already earned in WrestleMania championship match. We'll take place right here, right now. My defense again, well, I thought, and I said it earlier tonight. Are you kidding me that he would use it a WrestleMania. Chia get in big time with just Sena. Get that his weakent. Oh, turn around to any boy, turn around. It's over. Edges just waiting on the wu Wu
eat Chimp. It's waiting on him. Chick out hit the spindle. Two. Did he get it? No, he didn't towel in the world to just Sena kick out him. That wasn't a three or two. It was a two. It was a two and Edges and total disbelief. I don't think Edge is the only one in disbelief after all that Seena's gone through. Look at Edge now, he can't believe it. But disbelief now turned into frustration and anger. You can see the face of Edge changing. Oh no,
not another spirit that But I guess that's figures. That's what it's gonna take. Edge was spirit j We're gonna oh my god, what has happened here tonight? Are you? I can't believe it. I can't believe it. This was a data his cardinal nights. He had stuck the world. So there you have it. Edge, with the inaugural money in the bank, Cashion takes the championship away from John Cena the first time the WBE Championship had changed hands and close to ten months, as I just said, And
fun fact, and I believe you guys already knew this. Uh. Matt was in the crowd for that, for that uh, for that match and that pay per view. So a pretty cool bit of info there. I'm pretty sure Matt did a whole wrestling nostalgia based on this. So this was the kickoff to the Edge Verse John Cena feud. But while it was the
kickoff, it didn't really last long. The following night on Raw, Edge had the infamous live sex celebration, which, man, you want to talk about rated our superstar that is just about as rated R as it gets. John Cena interrupted, and they embarked on a program that led to Royal Rumble two thousand and six and Love and Behold. John Cena won back the WWB
Championship less than a month later. And I guess if I look back at this objectively, I understand why they put the belt back on Cina right away, because if you think about it, I know we think of John Cena now as being forced down our throats for the better part of ten years and never losing paper matches and just basically a WWE version of Superman. There was still a lot of juice to be squeezed from the initial John Cena push at this time. And I know that may be crazy to say, because he
had just been on a near year long run as WWE champion. Why put the belt back on him right away? But there was still a lot of runway to go with John Cita because even though he had only been in the main event picture, or that he had already been in the main event picture for a year, they really hadn't gotten him involved in very high level feuds
to this point. Like I said, on SmackDown, it was a four month long program with John Bradshaw Layfield, he came over to Rob, he had a two month long program with Chris Jericho, who was no longer on the Monday Night Rob Brand. Then he went tote toe with Curt Angel for three months, who by this time in January two thousand and six, had jumped back over to SmackDown and once again had reclaimed the World Heavyweight Championship.
So John Cena had yet to really engage in a few that stuck. It was all kind of one and duns, and you saw what they did following him regaining the w Championship at the Royal Rumble, as he went into a pretty good and underrated program with Triple H leading into WrestleMania twenty two, and maybe they thought it was premature to put the strap on edge. If I had to give an objective take on it, I think it's because they saw
the potential by booking John Cena versus Triple H at WrestleMania twenty two. And at this time, not to say that that Triple H had little runway left because he competed as a full time competitor for about four years after this, but he wasn't a spring chicken, so you only had so many years left of Triple H in his absolute prime to go one on one with John Cena
and main event a WrestleMania. And even more so, it's clear that they had plans to bring back Degeneration X in the summer of two thousand and six, which we saw succeeding the WrestleMania in two thousand and six. So look, they clearly wanted to strike while the iron was hot, and they put the strap back on John Cena to go into a feud with Triple H heading into Mania twenty two, and while this was also the case, I'm sure that there was still a bit of hesitation to push forward with Edge as the
top heel and arguably the top guy on Monday Night Raw. And you know, I think by this time Edge had done more than enough to prove that he was by and large a main event player on Monday Night Raw and in the WWE. But I could see the hesitation possibly so they made him engage
in a feud with Mick Foley heading into WrestleMania twenty two. And I feel that the feud with Mick Foley and the match in particular at wrestle At twenty two with Mick Foley was the final test for Edge to see if he could actually be a legitimate main event player for Monday and a Raw and the WE, because like I said before, there was there was a spot at the top of the mountain for Edge to take. You know, Randy Orn had made the jump to SmackDown by this point, Curt Angele was on SmackDown as
well, Ray Mysterio, the Undertaker all on SmackDown. When you looked at the raw side of things, it was John Cena Triple H. I guess you could make the case Shawn Michaels, but he was never really involved in the title picture at this time, had just started a feud with Vince McMahon. After that, there was a whole lot of nothing. You know, Ben Wall had gone back to SmackDown as well, so Jericho had just retired. So when you looked at Raw, it was just a whole lot of
nothing in the mid card. And as we had seen in as I just talked about in two thousand and five, that Raw had a very strong mid card that really evaporated for numerous reasons by the time two thousand and six rolled around. So it was there for the taking for Edge because after Sena and
Triple H there was not a lot of big time players there. So he had the match with Mick Foley, which match also reviewed on Wrestling Nostalgia, and that was just what a gory and just crazy hardcore match that was go back and watch it one that Edge ultimately won, and at this point he
still had a perfect record at WrestleMania. So John c and An Edge really stayed apart from one another for quite a few months after they started the ECW relaunching as a permanent brand, fore in the late spring of two thousand and six, which ended up with Rob Vandam challenging John Cena in June. I believe it was June eleventh, two thousand and six. At the One Night Stand pay per view, Rob Vandam had won the second ever money in the
bank briefcase. I want to say championship. I'm sorry, guys. He had won the second ever money in the bank briefcase at wrestling at twenty two, and unlike Edge and unlike the majority of money in the bank winners, he booked a date foreign advance to challenge Sena for the wf WWE Championship. We saw Van Dam win at the One Night Stand pay per view against John Cena at the Bingo Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and I remember there were
signs saying that if Sina wins, we ride. And by this time we really started to see the everyday crowd go against John Cena. I know this was a special special case scenario with the ECW Championship or the ECW pay per view, so it was a very ANTIWWE crowd, but just on the regular it became kind of common place to boo John Cena out of the building for even when he was against full fledged heels. So Rob van Dam walked out of the One Night Stamp pay per view as WWE champion and taking that title
belt to the ECW brand. At that same pay per view, Edge was tagging with Mick Foley to go in a hardcore match versus Terry Funk and Tommy Dreamer, one of which him and Mick Foley won. And this is again a reason why he was the rated R superstar. He actually speared Buella, mckilla Cutty and Pinnder in the most offensive way possible to win that match because right before the match started they actually made it a six man hardcore match,
adding Bulah and Leda into the match. So go back and watch that. That was a gruesome match as well. Mcfoley got laid on fire, Terry Funk had his eye almost got gouged out by the barbed wire. It was just a a that was a great match. That was a great pay per view all in all. I remember Sabu and Raymondsteo had a really intense extreme rules match for the World Heavyweight Championship as well. So while it seemed that Rob Vandam was going to get the push to be potentially the face of the
company. Although he was on the ECW that recently relaunched ECW brand, some personal things happened. I believe he got stopped for a duy and w W quickly pulled the shoot, pulled the plug on that. So ultimately what happened is that they had a triple threat match between Edge, John Cena, and
Rob Vandam on a Monday night raw for the w W Championship. And I'm reading this off of the WWE dot COM's title history page, so if you think you've heard this before, I am reading this verbatim, so full disclosure there. John Cena was able to hit RVD with an attitude adjustment, but before he could make the cover, Edge came from out of nowhere and leveled Sina with the championship. With both men already knocked out, Edge covered RVD
and stole the w W Championship from John Cena. So once the belt got put back on Edge at the beginning of July, this is when we got the first real program with Sina and Edge for a lengthy period of time. And I know that they had a month long program at the beginning of the of the year after Edge cashed in and then they had the match at the
Roal Rumble. But like I said, that seemed almost premature. It seemed like w W back pedaled on their original plans because how often do you see a guy win the championship, his first ever Watch championship win and lose it at the succeeding pay per view. We never see it. We never see that, so I felt like they weren't quite sure if Edge was ready, but by the time this ruled around, they were ready to run with Edge.
They brought the championship back to Monday Night Raw from ECW Raw vand m also lost the ECW Championship shortly thereafter to the Big Show, so his push, or seemingly seemingly main event push, was completely halted due to personal reasons. So then we saw Edge and John Cena basically main event Raw for the whole summer. They had a match at SummerSlam which Edge won and hitting John Cena in the back of the head with brass knocks, retaining the championship.
And on a side note, this was a very very good summer for wrestling. It was obviously the return of Degeneration X and they had that lengthy program with the mcmah ends which ended up culminating at Unforgiven two thousand and five,
which coincidentally was the culmination of John Cena Versus Edges program. So to give you a bit of a backstory here, or a bit of a setup rather, is that Unforgiven was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which, as most of you probably know, is the hometown of one Edge, So you could be sure, like between the hometown of Edge and just almost the universal hate for John Cena at this point that the ground would be strongly behind
the heel and vastly against the top baby face in John Cena. And to make matters worse for John Cena, the match for the WWE Championship was held in a t LC format, which is the bread and butter of Edge and always has been. And just some of the things leading up to this match, like there was John Cena throwing Edge into the Long Island sound. Edge actually rebranded the w Championship because it was the strim the Spinner at that time instead of the w w elogo in the middle. He had the rated Our
Superstar logo that spun in the middle. So Edge was really playing the heel character well and was really coming into his own at this point. So they go into unforgiven. The big blowoff to this feud, the w W E Championship match in a TLC match in Edge's hometown, all of all of the momentum swinging in Edge's favor, and let's take a listen to how that match ended. He did grab a thing right now the water and when the doing I took the camere for John the Kingdom winder. Do we love to see
a pleasing that ladder Rother. This is the smartest thing that seeing the new It's this history. When this thing staying wrong, they find gonna come. Wait a minute and wait a minute, there's a w W champion Edge Edge back in the prey. Here came back in the equation the champion ladder. I don't gather about to go cola co the coble the ladder. The danger
stare is the real danger for murder. This is step the fine career ending both men bridging with the w W. I don't who got it, but there's something Oh my god, don't do this job the cold clean yeah tonight. So as you heard, John Cena reclaims the w W Championship, handing Edge his first ever loss in a TLC ladder match. And if you guys couldn't make it out over just the audio, John Cena stacked a table,
two tables, one on top of each other. They both climbed the ladder and John Cena was able to beat Edge at his own match in Toronto in his home crowd to claim his third WWWE Championship on route to getting a total sixty. And if you combine that and the World Heavyweight Championship, so following this rivalry, John Cena went on to have a short program with The Big
Show. He also had a relatively short program with Umauga faced him at that following Royal Rumble and then Main Event did Wrestle me at twenty three with Shawn Michaels, while Edge aligned himself with Randy Jorton and formed the inaugural version of Rated RKO as they went on a lengthy program with Degeneration X for the remainder
of two thousand and six. And look, it took Edge about just about another ten months, I would say maybe a bit shorter to get back into the main event title picture, because even though he at least in my mind, proved himself to be one main event player during the summer of two thousand and six with his great program with John Cena. It still took a little less than a year for WWE to further fully pull the trigger on him. And what ended up happening is that he took the Money in the Bank briefcase
away from mister Kennedy. He cashed in on The Undertaker in June of two thousand and seven and became the World Heavyweight Champion for the first time in his career and made the jump over to SmackDown. And that's when Edge really kind of caught fire as a true main event player when he went over to the Blue Brand as the World Heavyweight Champion. Obviously, he main evented Wrestling at
twenty four with The Undertaker. The following WrestleMania, he was in the triple threat match with the Big Show in John Cena, which surrounded the whole Vicky Guerrero La Familia angle. But this, this story and this program between Edge and John Cina, it was important for a lot of ways. And first off, I think it was very important for John Cena because it was the
first true main event personal rivalry for Sina. I know originally it was John Bradshaw late Field, but that always kind of just seemed a bit forced for me, like John Cena was the only top baby face left on the SmackDown roster at that time, and SmackDown lacked a lot of true top heels. In late two thousand and four early two thousand and five they had already gone down that road with curt Angle. Then through the summer of two thousand and
five he had various rivalries with Jericho and curd Angle and whatnot. Had that short program with Triple H building up to Man two thousand and six. Mind you wrestle me at twenty two, but the one with Edge that started at New Year's Resolution, the cash In, they put on the back burner on
the bit and then revisited it in the summer of six. I truly believe was John Cena's first top feud because if you look back at John Cena, obviously you think of Randy Orton more recently ag Styles the Rock, but you rarely think of Triple H and JBL. The first big rivalry you think of when you think of John Cen as a main event player is against Edge, and as we know they revisited it several times in the following few years. And as for Edge, it was his first program as a main event guy.
I think we could argue that his best main event run and his best program in a main event scene was with The Undertaker. They had many classics with one another. Also, him and Chris Jericho had a few good matches. But again, John Cena and Edge I really feel used each other to propel one another as into true main event players. Obviously, John Cena was much more of the main event player beforehand, and Edge was the much more
beneficiary of the rivalry. But you can't diminish what Edge meant for the John Cena character either as legitimizing him as a top baby face in WWWE for the succeeding decade. I know a lot of people don't like John Cena. I'm not the biggest fan of John Cena. I don't hate him as much as most do, but you have to admit that he is one of, if not the biggest star the company has ever seen, especially when you consider since two thousand and five. So listen, guys, that's just about it for
rivalries this week. Be sure to send in your request to Matt at REALWWE Podcast at gmail dot com, or you can hit him up on Instagram, or you can follow me on Twitter and send me at DM like a few of you have already had at a DeMarco twenty five. So I hope you guys enjoyed it. Feel free to reach out and I'll catch you next week. Thanks for listening to the WWE Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss a show, or head to WWE podcast
dot com. And for all of these shows ad free head over to Patreon dot com slash WWE podcast. Until then, we'll see you next time.