John Cena and Randy Orton are arguably two of the greatest rivals in WWE history. They have had numerous matches with each other since the pair first locked up in 2001 for an annual Brian Pillman Memorial Show.
The Viper and the GOAT hold a joint 31 world championships between them, and for the eleventh time on a premium live event, the pair will lock up again at Backlash this Saturday night in Orton’s hometown of St Louis.
No other main event tier rivalry has consisted of more premium live event matches than the duo of Orton and Cena, more than both the Rock and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, or even Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar.
For the first time, JohnCena will be wrestling Randy Orton, and their usual roles will be reversed as Cena will be a heel and Orton will be the babyface. One of them will also have the chance to take the lead in their PLE singles matches as the duo is currently split at five wins apiece.
In preparation for this highly anticipated encounter, I have rewatched and ranked all ten Cena vs Orton PPV matches.
To clarify, this list will only include their singles matches, any multi-man matches such as the WrestleMania 24 triple threat match with Triple H, or their Backlash 2007 fatal four-way with Edge and Shawn Michaels are sadly not included.
10) Unforgiven 2007
This was the second meeting between the two future greats; however, it was easily their worst. The rivalry was intensified as Orton had punt kicked Cena’s father in the build-up to this match.
A rage-induced Cena was one day short of completing a full year as WWE Champion, and he would successfully retain his championship after getting himself disqualified by pummelling a defenceless Orton whilst he was in the corner of the ring.
This was not the last time that a Randy Orton vs John Cena PLE match would end in disqualification. However, it ranks as their worst match because it only lasted about seven and a half minutes and was focused more on Cena Sr than it was on the WWE Championship.
The match was used to set up a cancelled Last Man Standing match at No Mercy, which never took place because Cena would unfortunately tear his right pectoral muscle on the go-home episode of Raw.
It is hard to justify that this match is better than any of their other matches, considering the execution of the finish was weak, and it did not lead to anything.
9) SummerSlam 2009
This match was the first of what would be a tetralogy of matches in late 2009 between the Leader of the Cenation and the master of the RKO. However, it was the least memorable of the four.
Whilst it was for the WWE Championship, it did not main event the show like it did two years prior. That honour was instead given to Jeff Hardy and CM Punk, who battled it out in an intense TLC match.
There was no prior video package to hype the bout, which made it feel like a regular match on the card, and that was very fitting as the match itself was messy.
The story of the match was that Orton was trying to get himself disqualified to retain his championship. Mr McMahon ordered the match to be restarted, and then Orton would instead intentionally suffer a count-out loss. McMahon ordered another restart, which would then lead to a poorly executed finish.
A “random fan” would attack referee Scott Armstrong whilst Cena had Orton trapped in his signature STF submission, which should have resulted in an Orton loss by disqualification.
Instead, the match continued, and Orton struck Cena down with two RKOs to earn his first pinfall victory over his rival.
That fan would later be revealed as Brett Dibiase, the younger brother of Orton’s Legacy stablemate Ted Dibiase Jr. Brett would never be seen on WWE television again after the reveal on Raw, which retroactively made the SummerSlam finish way worse than it was initially perceived.
8) Royal Rumble 2014
The Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, would play host to what at the time would be the last match that the pair would wrestle each other in singles competition for the WWE Championship.
The match itself was fun, with numerous finishers and kick-outs. It also contained the standard Orton cheating as he planted Cena across the face with the championship, although Cena did get his shoulders up, unlike Cody Rhodes 11 years later.
The match ranks low on this list because of the Wyatt family interference at the end of the match. Similar to their SummerSlam 2009 encounter, Orton was trapped in the STF before the lights went out and the Wyatts appeared on the ring apron.
A distracted Cena would then be hit with a devastating RKO, as he would lose to Orton for the fifth time. The match was used to transition Cena into a feud with Bray Wyatt that would result in a match between the two at WrestleMania XXX.
At least this time, the scheduled interference in the match led to something, and it allowed Wyatt to earn legitimacy, even though he did suffer a loss at the Showcase of the Immortals.
7) Hell in a Cell 2014
This match was the first and only time that the pair wrestled each other on PLE, and it was not for a World Championship. Instead, it was a Number One Contenders match for Brock Lesnar’s WWE Championship.
The Hell in a Cell PLE has notoriously resulted in matches that do not deserve the stipulation, and this was one instance in which it was definitely not needed. The company relied heavily on the pre-existing rivalry to sell the match.
This also was not the first time that the two men had stepped inside the monstrous caged structure against one another, and they recycled certain spots from their 2009 affair. This included Orton escaping the STF by pressing Cena’s neck against the ropes, as well as Orton dodging steel steps being darted at him.
The match itself was fine from an in-ring standpoint, and the middle-rope Attitude Adjustment through a table was a very neat finish.
Hilariously, despite this being a Number One Contenders match, Cena would have to wait three months until the Royal Rumble at the end of January 2015 to get his championship match.
He also never got Lesnar in a one-on-one match, as Seth Rollins was involved in what would be a positively received triple-threat match.
In hindsight, this match between Cena and Orton was extremely unnecessary.
6) SummerSlam 2007
WWE had always earmarked Orton to be an integral part of the main event scene, but it was not until 2007 that the company decided to pull the trigger on the Legend Killer.
Although he was a former World Heavyweight Champion at this point and the youngest in history to do so, he only held the belt for four weeks before dropping the strap to his former Evolution mentor, Triple H.
The third-generation superstar was also eclipsed by his OVW 2002 classmates Batista and John Cena, both of whom had numerous World Championship reigns by mid-2007 and had both main evented WrestleMania.
This highly anticipated encounter between Orton and Cena was supposed to be Orton’s coronation as he was going to be the man to dethrone Cena, who at this point was 11 months deep into his third WWE Championship reign and had been champion for 24 of the last 27 months.
The match itself was a good showcase of the two men’s talents and was a worthy main event. The New Jersey crowd was electric and split 50/50 between the pair.
Even though Orton did not come out victorious, this was a really good match and set the tone for what would later become one of WWE’s greatest rivalries.
5) Hell in a Cell 2009
This was the better of their two Hell in a Cell matches, and the stipulation was deserved given the intensity of their feud in late 2009.
Orton was seeking to reclaim the WWE championship that he had lost to Cena a month prior, and was informed that if he did not win, then he could not challenge for the title again.
The match itself was not as brutal as some of their other matches, nor was it as intense as previous Hell in a Cell matches. That, however, can be attributed more to the fact that the PG era was in full swing and there were company policies in place that prevented things such as blading.
At the finish of the match, Orton choked out Cena while he was stuck in the ropes. Then, he finally struck him with his vicious punt kick to regain his championship. This was the only time in his career that Orton managed to kick Cena in the head.
4) Tables, Ladders, and Chairs 2013
This was a match where the stipulation was forced because of the name of the PLE. Nonetheless, it was a well-done match that focused on the unification of the World Heavyweight Championship and the WWE Championship.
Orton and Cena’s prior history was used to sell the match, and it worked as this would be the first time that the two men had met in singles action on a PLE in over four years.
The match had some nice moments, including Cena being pelted with a steel chair like a piñata while hanging from the two belts.
There was also a nice callback to the pair of handcuffs that were used in their Breaking Point match. This time, Orton made sure to get rid of the keys.
Cena undoing the bottom rope to break free was ingenious; however, the finish to this match was not executed as intended. Rather than Cena crashing through a table set in the corner, he slipped and slightly headbutted it.
From a visual perspective, the spot slightly negatively changes the perception of what a really good match was.
This was also the only real clean win that Orton has had over his longtime nemesis.
3) No Way Out 2008
Like any good story, the finish to a match can make or break the way the fans receive the match. For a match to end in a disqualification and still be thought of highly is a testament to how perfect the finish was.
Randy Orton retained his WWE Championship after he intentionally slapped referee Mike Chioda, and the Las Vegas crowd erupted in joy. Although fans were excited to see Cena return from injury to win the Royal Rumble, nobody wanted to see him beat Orton.
The lead-up to the finish was executed extremely well, as Orton was feigning an injury to get himself counted out and managed to hit Cena with an RKO on the outside of the ring.
Cena managed to beat the 10 count just in time, at which point a shocked Orton decided to take matters into his own hands.
This was one of the rare occasions where a disqualification worked as it created a memorable moment and fit Orton’s character at the time perfectly.
The match also did its job of setting up a triple-threat match at WrestleMania 24 after Triple H survived the Elimination Chamber later that night to become the new number one contender.
Fans on X are worried that a heel John Cena may repay the favour and get himself disqualified against Orton at Backlash. That goes to show how incredible that moment was.
2) Breaking Point 2009
This “I Quit” match showcased the vicious side of Orton and was the perfect embodiment of everything “Super Cena” stood for.
The use of handcuffs to restrict Cena from doing anything. The use of the kendo stick to lash a defenceless Cena and turn his stomach red. Yet Cena still managed to find a way to win.
This was the first time that the two men could play with weapons, and it did not disappoint. If the match had taken place two years earlier, it would have been a safe bet that the two men would have put on a blood bath.
Cena managed to set himself free and then handcuffed himself to Orton so that the Viper could not run away, which was typical of the babyface that Cena was.
The visual of Orton reaching for the key to free himself, only for Cena to choke him with his arm while in the STF, was an iconic way for Cena to win his sixth World Championship.
1. Bragging Rights 2009
An anything-goes Iron Man match was the most flawless way to end one of the most heated rivalry programs in WWE history. Cena said it himself. “John Cena/Randy Orton has become THE rivalry.”
Civil Twilight’s “Letters from the Sky“ was the soundtrack to one of the most underrated hype packages that WWE has ever produced. The video package that aired prior to the bell ringing documented absolutely everything from the past two years and did a good job of emphasising that this was the end (at that point).
Whilst 60 minutes for any match is way too long, Cena and Orton managed to keep the match interesting by transitioning to different parts of the arena as if they were different scenes in a movie.
The fact that there were 11 falls meant that fans were kept on their toes whilst the clock slowly made its way to zero. The anything-goes stipulation helped significantly as Orton and Cena were given the freedom to do anything literally, and this match had everything.
From John Cena being busted open hard way, an RKO/AA that led to a double pinfall, Orton being AA’d through the announcer’s table, Cena being thrown through the stage, as well as one of the most heinous acts in wrestling history.
There is a reason that 2009 Randy Orton is considered by many to be an incredible TV villain and it was because he was a sicko. He attempted to murder Cena by using pyro to blow him up. This match genuinely had it all.
The match was also extremely poetic because it ended exactly how it started, with Orton tapping out to the STF. The use of juxtaposition in a wrestling match is what made it perfect, as early on Orton tapped quickly in order to preserve himself, whereas in the final minute, Orton was hanging on for as long as he could before he bit the bullet.
Surprisingly, this was the only match of the 2009 tetralogy that main evented a PLE. The saving grace is that the best match of the four was the one that did. This match was the perfect way to cap off their feud in 2009 and remains the best match that the duo has ever had with each other.
That could change Saturday night at Backlash.
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