WWE Rivalries: Edge vs John Cena

you by popular demand? We have this week's feature rivalry of Edge versus John Cena, and I'm going to focus on They're one that really ran through the better part of two thousand and six. I don't want to make this huge, story long rivalry when it spilled into the World Heavyweight Championship picture leading up to wrestling at 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, 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 Reigns, who was set to go one to one on one with his cousin jay Uso. Look, there's no way Juso is going to win. This is clearly a means to an end type of storyline and program, and that end being solidifying Roman Reigns as a true

top heel. Look, I think that it's gonna be a slow burn with rains going to a full heal mode, and I think there's no better way to start that off by making 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 Uso and Roman Rings are, because look, for all intents and purposes, ja Uso has no business being in this match, has no business being 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 intercon Nettal or United States Championship. 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 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 Zain, 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 then 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 gonna 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 a but 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 Cizarro and

Nakamura 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 Nakamora and Cizarro 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 Cizarro and Knackamora. I think they 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 and them cannot take any more of it. Dominic coming out there looking like a power Ranger beating up Murphy, which I don't understand what the point of that was. I think Murphy becoming a jobber to the Missterio 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 almost like he has two foes right now. I know that they had Keith Lee say like that Drew Barer not 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 to did for Keith Lee. 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 and AEW, 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 Hurt business. I love it, absolutely great. They've taken three I would say obscure and random and

insignificant guys in MVP and Shelton, Benjamin, Cedric Alexander. And we can't lump Bobby Lashley into that mix because he did have a solid run going on even before the herb 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 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 ways, 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 seth Rawlins thing and Dominic. I don't know, there's something unlikable about him. 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 WWEU rivalries and brought to you by popular demand. I know a lot of you guys email the Matt at REALWWE Podcasts at gmail dot com to express your interest in me taking a episode to focus on Edge versus John, 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, Brocklesner had left

the company the year before. They had just gone through the Eddie Guerrero w W Championship, a 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 Bautista and Triple H were entering their inaugural feud in the main event scene, as Bautista 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 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 Crisp and Wah and Edge and just other people who I'm missing, but Raw at this time Caine. 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 WRESTLEMANA 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. 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 Benoit, Caine, and Shelton Benjamin, who was the inter Continental 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 Benoit 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 babyface for much of it. Had a program with Randy Orton over the Intercontinental Championship in two thousand and four, so it was clear that following wrestling in 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 Wah and Sean Michaels and Randy Orton and Batista just won the World Heavyweight Championship at that same pay per view, so they had to start looking to 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 its habit for me. Following his money in the Bank contract victory. So following this pay per view, he obviously had a short brief

feud with Kine where he aligned himself with Leda. Then he had 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 of 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 Adshaw 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 mcmahnon company saw John Cena as the top guy ahead of Batista. That's why they 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 SummerSlam. Jericho ended up getting fired AKA pursuing his Fozzy career and he was away from WWE for about two years after that, and then afterwards he had a see had a program with Kurt Angle which lasted much of the fall of two thousand and five, culminated at Survivor Series, and he ended up defending his WWE Championship in a elimination chamber match at New Year's Resolution two thousand and six, and

this match included the likes of Chris Masters, Carlito Cain, Shawn Michaels, and Kurt Angle along with John Cided. And if you guys don't remember, Carlito and Chris Masters were really kind of getting pushed as top young guys on Monday Night Raw. They were part of Team Raw in the inaugural Raw Versus SmackDown Survivor Series match. Then I think I'm going to 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 so of an organic program. But nonetheless, so we saw Cain in that match, who was won half of the World Tag Team Champions with Big Show, Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle. So what we saw in this one as Kurt Angle went out first, Shawn Michaels and Cain followed and it came down to Carlito Masters and John Cena and John Cena started this match with Shawn Michaels. So he was a bloodied 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 up, seemingly closing out the night as WWE champion, overcoming the odds. And by this point John Cena was he was w W 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 Wrestlmingia 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 was gonna walk away from that pay per view as WWE 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.

did a whole restling nostalgia based on this. So this was the kickoff to the Edge versus John Cena feud. But while it was the kickoff, it didn't really last long. The falling night on Raw, Edge had the infamous live sex celebration, which, uh, man, you want to talk about rated R 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 le and Behold, John Cena won back the

WWE 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 Sena 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 seen a 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 Sieda, because even though he had only been in the main event picture for or that he'd already been in the main event picture for a year, they really hadn't got 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 to Totoe with Kurt Angle 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's stuck. It was all kind of one and done's And you saw what they did following him regaining the w W Championship at the Roe 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 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 with mcfoley heading into Wrestling at twenty two. And I feel that the feud with mcfoley and the match in particular at Wrestling at twenty two with mc foley was the final test for Edge to see if he could actually be a legitimate main event player for Monday Night Raw and the w w E, 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, Kurt Angle 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 roled 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 won. That Edge ultimately won, and at this point he still had a perfect record at WrestleMania. So John Con and Edge really stayed apart from one another for quite a few

months after they started. The ECW re launching as a permanent brand for w WE in the late spring of two thousand and six, which ended up with Rob Van Dam challenging John Cena in June. I believe it was June eleventh, two thousand and six. At the One Night Stand pay per view, Rob Van Dam had won the second ever money in the briefcase. I want to say championship.

I'm sorry, guys. He had won the second ever money in the bank briefcase at Wrestling of 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 w WF WWEE 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 that it was a very anti WWE crowd, but just on the regular. It became kind of commonplace to boo johnsena 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 ar superstar. He actually speared Bulah McGillicutty and Pinner 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 Beulah and Lida into the match. So

go back and watch that. That was a gruesome match as well. McK foley got let on fire, Terry Funk had his eye almost got gouged out by the barbed wire. It was just that was a that was a great match, That was a great pay per view all in all. I remember Sabu and Raymondsdeo had a really intense extreme

rules match for the World Heavyweight Championship as well. So while it seemed that Rob Van Dam was going to get the push to be potentially the face of the company although he was on the ECW, the recently relaunched ECW brand, some personal things happened. I believe he got stopped for a dui and WWE 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 Van Dam 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 Sena 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 Sena and Edge for a lengthy period of time, and I know that they had that month long program at the beginning of the of the year after Edge cashed in, and then they had the match at the Roll Rumble, But like I said,

that seemed almost premature. It seemed like WWE backpedaled on their original plans because how often do you see a guy win the championship, his first ever WACH 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. Rob Van m also lost the ECW Championship shortly thereafter the Big Show, so his push or seeming the 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 knucks, 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 McMahon 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 crowd would be strongly behind the heel and vastly against the top babyface in John Cena. And to make matters worse for John Cena, the match for the WWE Championship was held in a TLC 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 Strimp the Spinner at that time instead of the w WE logo in the middle. He had the rated R 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 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.

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 Umaga, faced him at that Following Royal Rumble and then Main Event did Wrestling at twenty three with Shawn Michaels, while Edge aligned himself with Randy Yorton 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 a 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 A 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 story and this program between Edge and John Cena. 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 Latefield, 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 Kurt Angle. Then through the summer of two thousand and five he had various rivalries with

Jericho and Kurt Angle and whatnot. Had that short program with Triple H building up to Mania two thousand and six, mind you Wrestling 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 Johnson 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 Ciena 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 babyface in WWE 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 requests to Matt at REALWWE Podcasts at gmail dot com, or you can hit him up on Instagram, or you can follow me on Twitter and send me a 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.