John Cena vs. Randy Orton from WWE Championship

Whenever a big show is approaching, like this weekend at WWE Backlash 2025, it’s beneficial to go back with an introduction to the event and see older related matches (not to mention fun). There are as many different ways as wrestling fans, but here at Wrestling Inc., we love cutting and rearranging wrestling history in an interesting and unique way, connecting them in some through-line, and choosing the different matches to place them side by side. With the WINC watchlist, in this case I would recommend a study of most of the history of two main eventers in Backlash, Randy Orton and John Cena.

Simply narrowing down Orton/Cena’s long list to just five was a difficult effort and some tough decisions had to be made. Do you stick to a single match between the two, or do you also include a multiman match involving others? What about TV matches (like the latest in 2017) as opposed to the matches that took place in PPV? And what era did we need to immerse ourselves in to get a truly representative five-match sample of Orton/China rivalry?

Ultimately, we decided on one standard more than anything else. Like most PPV matches, the main event of Backlash 2025 is a world title match, and with an astounding 31 world titles ruled among them, I feel it’s pretty much wrong to include an Orton/Cena match that is not contested for the WWE or the World Heavyweight Championship (and sometimes both). As a result, five world title matches contested between John Cena and Randy Orton will prepare for their final one this Saturday!

Backlash 2007 took place at Phillips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, and was the first pay-per-view featuring all three brands: WWE Raw, WWE Smackdown and WWE ECW. Rumble. Their first one-on-one match took place in the November 2005 episode of “Raw” and it took almost two years for the future Megastars to join the ring together in PPV. With the backlash, WWE champion Cena defended gold against Orton, Edge and Shawn Michaels in the evening’s main event.

This was a fast-paced game that didn’t seem to be slowed down at any point, lasting over 21 minutes. In the end, it’s Michaels who hit sweet chin music in Cena, who fell to Orton to get the pin and maintain the spinner belt championship. Michaels couldn’t get to Cena quickly enough to get his shoulder off the mat after realising the referee counting the fall.

The match included fans from 2007 out of their seats and the crowd was generally very hot. Fans are only debating who should win the match, but many agree that it is for a history book, and some praise it with the deadliest four-way match in WWE history. Dave Meltzer rated 4.5 stars out of five with a five-star rating, making it the highest rated match between Orton and Cena’s by journalists. The match was also the highest rated match between Cena and Orton by Cagematch fans, with a total rating of 8.91. In comments, fans praised the exciting finish as fun and different, making the most of Michaels’ ability in the ring than anyone else.

It’s not the last time in a fatal four-way match. A year later, again in the backlash, the man took on Triple H and JBL, but at the time Orton was the WWE champion. Backlash 2007 will face each other against Orton and Cena’s first pay-per-view match, but now they’re staring at the last time of Saturday.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Many would see the 2009 “I Quit” match as a classic example of John Cena’s “never give up” attitude, but do you think Summerslam 2007 might have been the original?

Heading towards August 2007, John Cena hosted the WWE Championship for nearly a year, successfully completing title defenses such as Great Hari, Shawn Michaels, Umaga, Edge and Randy Orton. However, Orton and Cena’s first single title match (and their first single on pay-per-view) didn’t make it to Summer Slam when WWE authoritarian Coachman pointed out “The Legendary Killer” as the no. 1 contender.

Similar to the breaking point, Orton controlled several minutes of action (in this case almost the entirety of each first half) and weakened the defending champions, particularly with power slams, collisions to the announcement table, and tight chokeholds. Finally, Cena shifted momentum to his favor by plunging Orton into the turnbuckle to counter the latter. From there, the competition went back and forth, with both men lying in the signing move. Orton spiked Cena with a rise in DDT, and Cena surprised Orton with a five-knuckle shuffle. Conversely, Orton and Cena also countered each other’s signature moves. However, it turns out that Cena’s resilience is kicked out of RKO, then forced Orton to the mat with FU (aka posture adjustment) and then to the mat for victory, making him stronger.

In the weeks following Summerslam, Cena and Orton continued their feud and met in a ruthless rematch. There, Cena repeatedly attacked Orton, and the judge disqualified him. The coachman then ordered Orton and Cena’s final standing match for the WWE Championship on October 7th at No Mercy. Unfortunately, this exact match couldn’t compete for months as it tore apart the muscles in its chest during the October 1 episode of “WWE Raw.”

Written by Ella Jay

It is no secret that John Cena and Randy Orton’s careers have continued closely with each other over the past 20 years. Believe it or not, WrestleMania 24 marks the first and only time they’ve met each other in the ring in “The Assest Stage of All” in all kinds of matches.

Cena revives the infamous surprise surprise from the PEC that was torn at Royal Rumble 2008, eventually causing Triple H to crash into the top rope and onto the floor, bringing the entire match home. Unlike most cases, Cena chose to challenge Orton for the WWE Championship in 2008, as a result of disqualification, rather than technically winning a match with Wrestle Mania. Nevertheless, Cena still returned to the WrestleMania match when she defeated Orton in the title singles match on the episode of “Raw” on February 18th.

WrestleMania’s action begins with Orton clocking Triple H on the WWE Championship belt to pursue Orton and Triple H directly, with Orton’s face bouncing off the announcement desk. Back inside the ring, Orton dominates the match for a while, landing a double-hanging DDT on both Cena and Triple H. Orton, but Cena crashes him over Triple H and begins to control the match. Triple H ultimately gains the advantage for the first time in the match, but Orton delivers RKO to him. Cena and Triple H lock their submissions in sequence with Orton, but each splits holds and the others are locked, keeping themselves alive in the match. At the end of the match, Triple H hits the pedigree with Cena and pastes the pin, but Orton delivers a punt to Triple H to break the fall, and Cena himself passes the pin to retain the title.

Following WrestleMania 24, Orton last defended the WWE Championship in a fatal 4-way elimination championship match at Backlash 2008 with Cena, JBL, and the man who put an end to his reign.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Don’t expect anything like this on May 10th, as it’s been nearly 16 years since John Cena and Randy Orton “end their rivalry” in one of WWE’s infamous PG era.

Up to the 2009 pay-per-view of bragging rights, there were only seven Iron Man matches aired on seven TV TVs in WWE history, only four of which lasted an hour. It was designed and billed as the toughest match in WWE at the time. It’s tougher than the removal room, more physically demanding than the hell of the Cell, and sometimes more dramatic than the Royal Rumble match. However, there were times when the two men involved were reserved only for feuds that wanted to prove one thing. That they were better guys.

Towards bragging rights, Cena and Orton traded victory on three consecutive pay-per-views, but their rivalry continued to grow all the way through 2007, when Cena’s father was kicked in the head. You get the feeling that the original attack on Cena has always added something to their feud, even if they always get back to this feud. However, the consensus between Cena vs. Orton Feud in 2009 was one of “Really? This?” There weren’t many other main event stars who were stepping up in the way WWE liked, so they didn’t get to the same height as Cena and Orton were. That said, this is their feud match that guarantees the title of legend.

Randy Orton in 2009 has become something of a recent meme (the whole argument of “one gorilla beats 100 men” is thrown into confusion. The guy looks terrifying, he moves so smoothly in the ring, really moving out of nowhere to get him back into control. The iconic place where he looks like a caveman leaving the fireworks is from this match, and it works so well. As for China, he is at his best when he is forced to dive into his dark side. I don’t know how much he will get in the 2025 run, but when he is given the freedom to legally try and kill someone live on TV, it’s a joy to watch.

Overall, there’s a reason why this is the best-ranked Cena vs. Orton Singles match on Cagematch. If you are a WWE fan or want to see how to configure a 60-minute match, a match is essential. There was a lull in the third quarter, but these two men were hoping into the air at the end of a match that lasted an hour.

Written by Sam Palmer

Eleven years ago, John Cena and Randy Orton met on the line at the 2014 Royal Rumble at the relatively new unified WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

The title was unified in TLC the previous month, with WWE champion Orton overcoming world heavyweight champion Cena in a match of the same name at the event. But, unhappy with his failure, Cena was led very hard by the frustration of fans who wanted to return to Orton for a traditional singles match and wanted to see Daniel Bryan on the spot. Brian wrestled early in the evening with Bray Wyatt for the opportunity to perform at the Rumble Main Event, but he lost to spell him out effectively from the WrestleMania 30 equation. But that allowed Orton to play the villain he plays very well. He joined forces with the crowd and eventually added to the fuss that encouraged Brian to win the title in “Show of Show.”

In Orton and Cena’s own match, rivals played their best hits and played each other. Cena managed to submit Orton, but only once the judge was knocked to the ground. Orton broke the hold by hitting Cina with the title belt, then swapping the finisher for close range, Orton adopted attitude adjustment and STF, followed by Cina with RKO. At this point, things became particularly interesting as Orton landed another RKO to steal the victory, and the Wyatts came along to provide a distraction. This continued the proxy relationship between Wyatt and authority, and was also loaned out to the following month’s story with Brian, Sheena and Shield, demonstrating a catalyst for some of the core stories of WrestleMania 30. Orton and Cena were very central to it, as much as their match.

Writen by Max Everett