Big Vinny V’s Mr. SummerSlam Countdown: You can see John Cena at No. 1

By Vincent Verhei
Published: 31 Jul 2026, 13:45

John Cena vs Chris Jericho at SummerSlam 2005 (Image credit: WWE)

Welcome to the Mr. SummerSlam Countdown, our look at the wrestlers who have the most matches named as the best on WWE’s biggest show of the summer. We’re capping things off today by crowning our champion: John Cena is Mr. SummerSlam.

Prior articles in this series:

As we discussed yesterday, Cena and Brock Lesnar are nearly tied in our rankings. Each was credited with the best match at SummerSlam six times by Cagematch users and eight times by readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. But while Dave Meltzer rated eight of Lesnar’s SummerSlam matches as the best (or tied for the best) in any given year, he did so 10 times for Cena’s matches. That’s the difference in the rankings.

Cena has had 15 matches at SummerSlam, debuting in 2004 by defeating Booker T in the first match of a best-of-five series for the WWE United States Championship. His most recent SummerSlam match was just last year, when he lost the WWE Undisputed Championship to Cody Rhodes.

Here’s a look at the 10 times Cena was credited with the best match at SummerSlam, in chronological order.

2005: John Cena vs. Chris Jericho for the WWE Heavyweight Championship

Dave Meltzer: ***3/4
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Readers: 36% of the votes for best match
Cagematch Users: 7.31

This was shortly after Cena had won his first world championship, defeating JBL at WrestleMania 21, and only two months after he was drafted to Raw, so he was still a very new name in the main event level. It was neck-and-neck with the Rey Mysterio vs. Eddy Guerrero ladder match to decide the custody of Dominik Mysterio for the best match on the show. (Rey won that match, but given his relationship with Dom these days, he probably regrets it.) Cagematch users preferred the ladder match, rating it at 7.53. Meltzer had it a notch behind Jericho-Cena at ***1/2. As for the Observer readers, they picked Cena-Jericho … by a margin of exactly two votes over the ladder match. Hulk Hogan vs. Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton vs. the Undertaker also got votes in the poll.

Meltzer wrote that Cena-Jericho “was by far the hottest match on the show.” Here’s his full review:

This was interesting because of the crowd reactions. The longer the match went on, the more the crowd started turning in favor of Jericho. What seemed to turn them was Cena’s crappy offense, which Cena’s great charisma almost always results in audiences overlooking when they’d kill anyone else for it. However, at the major three PPV shows, you have smart fans traveling and getting the ringside seats, and they see it closer than at a typical Raw event. It appeared most of the guys were for Jericho, but kids and women were vociferously for Cena, creating dueling chants that got really loud. These weren’t the dueling chants like during an A.J. Styles vs. Christopher Daniels TNA match where the same fans chant for both men, but crowds that were behind someone getting mad when the other was getting cheered. Huge pop when Jericho countered the FU into a DDT. Lots of good near falls, as well as Jericho getting the walls and Cena struggling for a long time before making the ropes. Finally Cena got the clean pin with the FU.

2006: Edge vs. John Cena for the WWE Heavyweight Championship

Meltzer: ***3/4
Observer Readers: 61% of the votes for best match
Cagematch: 6.96

We already discussed this match in the Edge column, so we’ll just repeat that passage here.

The best match on a lackluster card is still the best match on the show. Or is it? Cagematch users actually preferred the I Quit match between Ric Flair and Mick Foley, giving it a 7.63 rating. (That match, along with Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Orton and DX vs. the McMahons, also got some votes for best match in the Observer poll.)

Mr. Meltzer:

Rules were that Edge would lose the title if he got disqualified. The interesting story here is Cena was heavily booed. … On TV, it came across like it was 40% [pro-Cena] most of the match, and about 70% at the finish only because the kids and girls got so vocal at the end. In the early part, they weren’t making noise and the crowd was booing everything Cena did. The match had a story in that Lita kept starting to interfere and Edge would scream for her not to because the DQ would cost the title. Best match on the show. Edge escaped from the FU and delivered an implant DDT. Edge had Cena up for the electric chair, but Cena turned it into a rana for a near fall. Edge did a crossbody off the top rope, but Cena did a roll through, and then picked Edge up from the ground and set up an FU. Edge escaped again and Edge collided with Lita and Cena used a schoolboy for another near fall. … Lita handed Edge Knux. However, Cena ducked the shot and got Edge up for the FU again. This time Lita did interfere. But she ran right into Cena who got her on his shoulders as well for the FU. He threw Lita off and she took the FU bump. Edge escaped, and as the ref was looking at Lita, Edge used the Knux on Cena and ;pinned him to keep the title.

2007: John Cena vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Heavyweight Championship

Meltzer: ****
Observer Readers: 93% of the votes for best match
Cagematch Users: 7.65

And we already discussed this match in the Orton column, so we’ll just repeat that passage here.

Again, this was a plain choice for the best match on the show. (Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero got the other 7% of Observer readers’ votes.) It helped that the semi-main event—Batista defeating the Great Khali via disqualification—was a stinker, getting a -*1/2 rating from Meltzer.

Speaking of Big Dave, here’s part of his review of the Cena-Orton matchup:

The crowd was split, but live was told it came across about 75% pro-Orton. Started slow with Orton holding a headlock for a long time. But it was easily the best match on the show. … Cena’s offense like his punches looked bad a few times, but he was strong down the stretch. Cena had Orton up for the FU, but Orton threw elbows to the head and escaped, and then hit a DDT. Cena missed a charge and went over the top rope. … Orton had Cena up for the superplex, but Cena blocked it and shoved him off the ropes. Cena delivered a legdrop off the top rope. He tried the FU, but Orton grabbed the top rope and ended up snapping Cena’s neck on the ropes. Orton missed his field goal kick and Cena went for the STFU. Orton crawled to right near the ropes and barely got the break. Orton came back and finally hit the RKO, but started selling his knee, so he was late on the cover and Cena kicked out. Cena then hit the FU and scored the three count.

2010: Team WWE vs. Nexus

Meltzer: ***1/2
Observer Readers: 89% of the votes for best match
Cagematch: 6.93

And we already discussed this match … well, several times, actually. But while you could argue that we shouldn’t count it for Chris Jericho or Edge or especially Bret Hart, we absolutely should for Cena. He lasted the whole 35 minutes, defeating Justin Gabriel and Wade Barrett at the end to win the match.

Here’s Meltzer’s Cena-related commentary:

Miz came out to be the seventh guy but Cena told him that they couldn’t wait for him to make up his mind and they had gotten a partner, and it was [Daniel] Bryan.

[Editor’s Note: This was shortly after Bryan had been shoot fired for work choking Justin Roberts with a necktie.]

[Heath] Slater moved and Jericho ran into Cena, and then Slater pinned Jericho from behind in 20:05. Edge then yelled at Cena for costing Jericho the fall. Bryan was trying to play peacemaker. As this was going on, Slater came from behind Edge and pinned him with an O’Connor roll in 20:39. Edge then speared Cena and Jericho and Edge both yelled at Cena and called him stupid as they left. At this point it was Cena & Bryan vs. Barrett & Slater & Gabriel. The next seven minute were the Nexus guys beating down Cena. The crowd was really into this part of the match, with the kids and women chanting “Let’s Go Cena” and the adult males doing the “Cena Sux.” Cole kept ripping on Cena for picking Bryan over Miz and putting Raw in jeopardy. They kept beating on Cena until he tagged to Bryan. Bryan did a German suplex to Slater, a dropkick on Slater followed by a tope. Loud “Daniel Bryan” chant so he made himself here. He did a missile dropkick and nip up to Slater, then did a missile dropkick with one leg nailing Barrett and the other nailing Gabriel. Bryan put Slater in the crossface for the tap in 29:02. Miz then came out and hit Bryan with the briefcase and Barrett pinned him in 29:32. This left Cena vs. Barrett & Gabriel. A lot of heat here as they tagged in and out on Cena. Gabriel picked up the mats from the floor and Barrett gave Cena a DDT on the floor. They threw Cena in the ring, but Gabriel missed the 450 and Cena pinned him in 34:51. Cena then put the STF on Barrett in the middle of the ring and he tapped in 35:19.

And speaking of Daniel Bryan and John Cena…

2013: Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena

Meltzer: ****1/2
Observer Readers: 54% of the votes for best match
Cagematch: 9.29

This was on the same show as Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk, and though Meltzer gave the two matches the same rating, the Lesnar match was preferred by both Cagematch users (who gave it a rating of 9.37) and Observer readers (where it won the best match poll by a 70-30 split over Cena-Bryan).

Cena went into the match with a severe elbow injury. “Cena was injured a few weeks ago, which led to a fluid build-up that looked like a baseball was implanted in his left elbow, Meltzer wrote. “The WWE kept quiet about the severity of the injury, although it was acknowledged that he was hurt. Cena was pulled from all matches except his SummerSlam main event. He insisted on doing the match and putting over Daniel Bryan before surgery.”

Cena then announced he would be on the shelf for a while the next night on Monday Night Raw.

“Even though Cena went out of his way to point out that the triceps injury was not an excuse to lose to Bryan, who he put over as strong as he could, stating he lost to a better man in a clean fight, the crowd cheered loudly, perhaps even unnervingly so, when Cena announced it was his final appearance for four to six months,” Meltzer wrote. “It was really clear the level of hatred this crowd had for him, because they could visually see that the injury wasn’t a work and was serious, and booing him because it’s fun and the cool thing to do is one thing, but reacting that way when he’s about to undergo surgery is pretty screwed up and something that I don’t think many babyfaces would have taken well.”

Cena would make his in-ring return the following January, challenging Randy Orton at house shows and then defeating Damien Sandow on Raw.

From Meltzer’s review of the Bryan match:

HHH was the guest referee and actually was almost completely inconspicuous during the match, doing nothing to call attention to himself, which actually made the finish that much better. Since Bryan is being pushed as the serious top face, they didn’t push the seven second deal like they did at WrestleMania with Sheamus when it was supposed to be comedy even with the world title at stake in that one. The whole place was doing the “Yes” stuff. Cena was booed more heavily than usual. At one point early Cena went to the doctor and told him not to stop the match. … Fans were chanting “You can’t wrestle,” at Cena. … The crowd was going crazy for Bryan. Bryan tried to suplex Cena off steps but Cena reversed and suplexed Bryan off the ring steps to the floor. This led to “You still suck” chants at Cena. … Cena ended up with a black eye from one of those moves as he eye started swelling. … These guys either took or got special rules in their favor since bridging German and dragon suplexes have been on the unannounced banned move list for near they lead to neck problems. … Much of the last few minutes saw roughly based on several G-1 matches from the last two weeks so I’m guessing Bryan was studying tapes. The Frankensteiner off the top into a Styles clash was used by [Hiroshi] Tanahashi. I think that was what they were trying to do here but Cena dropped Bryan on his head instead of doing a Styles clash. Maybe that was the plan, because they may not want to use a TNA wrestler’s signature move, but it sure looked clumsy the way Bryan was dropped. Cena put on the STF in the middle and it looked like it was over, but Bryan reversed into the Yes lock. Cena made the ropes. At this point Cena was selling the bad left elbow after the Yes lock. … They started trading slaps like in a Japanese match. … Bryan came off the top and Cena caught him, put Bryan on his shoulders for the Attitude Adjustment, but Bryan countered with a small package for a near fall. Bryan kicked Cena in the head and followed using KENTA’s busaiku knee, similar to a bom a ye, and got the three count. The impression I was given is that Bryan was a huge fan of KENTA so he used one of KENTA’s big moves to win the title. After the match the two shook hands and Cena left. … The match was excellent as far as story telling. It wasn’t perfect when it came to execution in a few spots, but the timing of the post-match couldn’t have been done better.

After the match, Orton came out with his Money in the Bank briefcase. Triple H turned on Bryan and pedigreed him, and Orton cashed in his title shot to pin Bryan and win the championship.

2014: Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Meltzer: ****1/4
Observer Readers: 65% of the votes for best match
Cagematch: 7.85

Hey, look! It’s another match we have already covered! It turns out the guy who had the best match at SummerSlam more often than anyone else shows up a lot in a series of articles on the best wrestlers in the event’s history. What a surprise!

Here’s our recap from the Lesnar column:

This was a very unusual WWE main event, but it was still pretty clearly the best of the show. (Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton were the other matches that got votes for best of the night from Observer readers.) Meltzer called it “the most one-sided title change of any length in company history.”

“The match consisted of Lesnar destroying Cena from the opening bell, throwing him around at will, including delivering 15 different released German suplexes, a few of which saw Cena land badly on his already damaged neck,” Meltzer wrote. “Lesnar laughed at the little offense Cena mustered, kicked out of his Attitude Adjustment, and finished the match by simply powering out of his STF, and getting on top for vicious ground and pound, and delivering an F-5 for the pin. Cena was kept off Raw the next day to sell the beating.”

Meltzer struggled to find historical comparisons; Big Van Vader beating Antonio Inoki in New Japan and Kimala beating Jerry Lawler in Memphis were about the closest he could come up with.

“While it didn’t have nearly the excitement of a usual WWE main event, the stiffness and the ability of the match to take one out of the ‘expected’ pro wrestling zone was more reminiscent of a Japanese match, and because that never happens in WWE (Lesnar vs. Cena in 2012 was the closest to it), it made it one of the most memorable matches in recent memory,” Meltzer wrote. “While not quite as brutal as their 2012 match, this was close to that level with Lesnar delivering hard knees to the body like one would in a real MMA fight.”

“The idea was to get Lesnar over as strong as possible as a monster, to make him break out of the pack. That was accomplished,” Meltzer continued. “The idea was also to get Cena over for not quitting in that situation and for taking the beating. In the Staples Center, it didn’t work, as fans cheered Lesnar and even after, booed Cena and sang ‘Na na na na, good bye,’ thinking the beating meant he would be taking time off.”

Notes from Meltzer’s match review:

Lesnar was super over when he came out. He has an aura unlike anyone else in the company. I think it’s the combination of the freaky size and the idea he’s real. He had something like that, really even more, in UFC, especially before he was a “UFC guy,” when they saw him as an outsider against Frank Mir both times and Randy Couture. It was a combination of the devil incarnate, because to some UFC fans, he threatened their entire religion of how they were superior to WWE because they are real, and how small guys with technique who are trained fighters will beat up the big muscle heads. … It immediately felt like a fight and not a pro wrestling match, just like the first match. Lesnar hit the F-5 right away and Cena kicked out. Unlike the heel doing the fear face when the face kicks out of his finisher, Lesnar laughed and said, “I will kill you.” Super loud dueling chants for Cena. Lesnar delivered his first German suplex and just sent Cena into orbit. … He worked slow, he posed every move before he did it, and every single move in this match meant something. … After another German suplex, Lesnar told ref Charles Robinson to stop the match. … Lesnar cut him off and picked him up for the F-5. Cena got out and hit the Attitude Adjustment but Lesnar kicked out. Then Lesnar sat up like Undertaker and started laughing at him. Lesnar took Cena down and started ground and pounding him while Heyman told the ref to end the match. Lesnar did seven more German suplexes. At this point there was even a light “boring” chant (few remember, but even in the Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe classic where they worked it to look real and had what could have been a game changer of a match had it been followed up on, there were people in the crowd who chanted “boring” because they wanted their version of pro wrestling and not a different version). Cena got the STF in the middle, but Lesnar just reversed it, was on top, and beat Cena to death with more ground and pound, and hit the F-5 for the pin. The crowd was pretty freaked out by this but Lesnar was heavily cheered and Cena heavily booed when it was over.

2015: Seth Rollins vs. John Cena for the WWE World Heavyweight and United States Championships

Dave Meltzer: ****1/2
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Readers: 70% of the votes for best match
Cagematch Users: 8.37

Hey, look! It’s another match we have already covered! It turns out the guy who had the best match at SummerSlam, et cetera, et cetera.

Bring forth the recap you have already read!

This match was notable for a few reasons. It was title vs. title, as Rollins’ World Championship and Cena’s United States Championship were both on the line. And the winner was crowned after interference by the night’s celebrity host.

Other matches on that show that got votes from Observer readers as the best of the night: Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar, Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro and the New Day winning the WWE Tag Team Championships in a four-way tag match.

Here’s a little of what Meltzer wrote about the match in his Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

The Cena vs. Rollins match was on the verge of being one of the better matches in WWE history. Cena certainly did his part, but Rollins put on one of the greatest one man shows in a match you’ll see. … The Cena vs. Rollins finish, complete with the far-too-predictable looking pause and swerve. After a ref bump, both Cena and Rollins were down and [Jon] Stewart came to the ring with a chair. He teased hitting Rollins, who he’s worked a previous adversarial program with both a Raw appearance and a couple of appearances on “The Daily Show,” but instead hit Cena in the gut with a chair shot. He then put the chair on the ground and told Rollins to hit Cena with the pedigree on the chair. If it was anyone but a major celebrity that got the company so much mainstream after the fact, doing that finish, it would be a major groaner. But here it was a news item.

And his review of the match itself:

The fans booed Cena more than anyone on the show. So to this audience, Cena coming back from a broken nose and his 500th wish granted, which was played up big earlier with a video, wasn’t going to get them to stop booing him. The crowd was super hot cheering and chanting for Rollins. Rollins did two topes in a row followed by a running flip dive over the top. If he wasn’t a face already, that was the complete turn. … Cena came back with the attitude adjustment for a near fall. Everyone knew, because every decent guy kicks out of the first one, that it wasn’t the finish. They traded punches with the “Yay” and “boo” spot with Rollins being the “Yay.” … Cena then did a crossbody off the top, Rollins rolled through, hoisted Cena to his shoulders and hit an Attitude Adjustment on Cena for a near fall. … Cena escaped a pedigree and put Rollins in the figure four. They pushed that Cena could tie Ric Flair’s record using Flair’s own move. … There was a ref bump. Cena hit the Attitude Adjustment and had Rollins pinned. He got up because of no ref counting. Rollins used a flying knee to the nose to knock Cena down and both were selling. Stewart came in with a chair, paused for a while, hit Cena in the gut, put the chair on the ground and Rollins gave Cena a pedigree on the chair for the pin. Rollins came across like he was the best wrestler in the world with his performance here. Fans were chanting “Thank you Stewart” for causing Cena to lose.

2016: AJ Styles vs. John Cena

Meltzer: ****1/2
Observer Readers: 97% of the votes for best match
Cagematch: 8.95

There’s not a ton of context to add here. Cena and Styles were capping off a long feud. Cena was taking time off afterwards to deal with injuries, which seems to be a constant in these matches. And they totally stole the show, having a match that Meltzer called “among the best of the year in the company.” Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins (the match where Balor won the inaugural Universal Championship, but injured his shoulder and had to forfeit the title immediately) got the few votes in the Observer best match poll that did not go to this one.

Mr. Meltzer’s review:

The crowd was hotter for this when it started than anything by far. There were dueling chants but it was clearly a pro-Styles crowd. The crowd booed Cena as it got going with “Cena sucks” chants. … They went to near falls early and were pacing early like they were doing a short match. But it kept going. Cena kicked out of a Styles Clash and Styles kicked out of the Attitude Adjustment. Styles used a torture rack into a power bomb for a near fall. Cena used a Big Ending for a near fall. They spent the rest of the match trading near falls. … Styles hit the springboard forearm but Cena kicked out. The timing of that forearm looked amazing in slow motion. Cena used an Attitude Adjustment off the middle rope but Styles kicked out. The entire crowd was chanting “Yes” at this point. Cena just sat there dejected like nothing he could do could put Styles away. Cena went for another Attitude Adjustment, but Styles reversed out of it into a Styles Clash, and followed with the springboard elbow for the pin. Cena took off his armband and left it in the ring and left like he was all depressed about losing this one clean. It was pushed that the first Styles win was controversial, but there was no controversy about this one.

2021: Roman Reigns vs. John Cena for the WWE Universal Championship

Meltzer: ****1/4
Observer Readers: 19% of the votes for best match
Cagematch: 7.34

Meltzer was on something of an island with this one. His readers named Edge vs. Seth Rollins as the best match of the night, and Cagematch users agreed, rating it at 8.25. By our methodology, however, this counts as best match honors for Cena.

Here’s Meltzer’s review:

Reigns dominated early, which went with the promo storyline that Cena would get his ass whipped but would wait for the mistake and score a pin. It was also notable that Cena publicly said that he was going to Europe after the show and that if he won, he would return at Mania to defend the title. The only thing that made people think Cena had a chance was Ric Flair leaving and the idea that they would have Cena break the record because of that. But the overriding storyline is that Reigns is unbeatable until the time comes when they have the next guy and thus the win will be groundbreaking and not to waste that storyline. Cena would get quick cradles and then be destroyed. It was the Paul Heyman fingerprints with the match completely built around the AA, Superman punch, guillotine, spear and STF, really just hitting and countering the finishers. … They traded punches, Reigns hit a Superman punch and won with the spear. This is a pattern of Reigns matches, not only does he win, but he kicks out and escapes all finishers and wins the first time he hits his own. It’s not a knock. It’s what you do when you have a top guy, but it’s unusual historically to book a top heel like this, only a top face. When it was over, a lot of people were cheering Reigns, just like they cheered [Bobby] Lashley the match before. But the place exploded when [Brock] Lesnar came out to confront Reigns and Reigns backed off. After the show went off the air, Lesnar gave Cena a German suplex and some F-5s and the crowd totally cheered Lesnar doing so.

2025, SummerSlam Sunday: Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena in a street fight for the WWE Undisputed Championship

Meltzer: *****
Observer Readers: 69% of the votes for best match
Cagematch: 8.65

Cena’s last SummerSlam match may have been his best, but it was overshadowed by Brock Lesnar, who made a surprise return and laid Cena out. This wasn’t the first time any of that had happened, but the circumstances surrounding this return were unprecedented. Let’s let Meltzer explain:

Brock Lesnar returned as the big surprise at SummerSlam on the second night, getting a gigantic response from the crowd. Cody Rhodes had just beaten John Cena in a classic street fight match to win the WWE title. Cena had turned babyface two days earlier on Smackdown and Rhodes, who was teary eyed at what was portrayed as a passing of the torch moment, left the ring to Cena.

The crowd was cheering Cena on after his best match in more than a decade when Lesnar’s music hit. The place went nuts. Lesnar had not been in a WWE ring for two years and had been unavailable for WWE to use since legal made the call that he couldn’t be used right before the Royal Rumble in 2024. … But when the Janel Grant lawsuit was filed, and while he was not mentioned by name in the original suit, the claims regarding Vince McMahon allegedly trafficking Grant to get a former UFC champion to sign a new contract were obviously him. Later, when Grant’s side filed an amended lawsuit, he was mentioned 44 times by name.

For the last time in this series, we turn to Meltzer for a review:

Rhodes was booed a lot. He came out looking emotional. They did the basic Cena stuff early. It was a WWE main event title match filled with using the finishers over and over again. … Cena used a Code Red on the floor and looked so happy he pulled it off perfectly. He did AA No. 3 through the Spanish announcers table. Rhodes did Cross Rhodes No. 1. Cena did AA No. 4 and Rhodes kicked out. … They went under the stage and fought. They came up through the elevator under the stage that Rhodes uses for his ring entrance. When Cena came up the elevator, Rhodes was on his shoulders. Cena carried Rhodes into the ring and threw him on the ramp. … Cena used an STF using the bottom rope. Rhodes escaped and used an Anaconda vise using the ropes. Rhodes then did Cross Rhodes No. 3, 4 and 5 and Cena kicked out. Cena did AA No. 5 and 6, then he did No. 7 off the middle rope and Rhodes kicked out. Rhodes did a Cody cutter off the top rope through a table and his Cross Rhodes No. 6 and got the pin.

The Lesnar angle then closed the show.

Can anyone match Cena’s record?

No. No, they can not. At least not anytime soon.

Lesnar and Bret Hart are closest to Cena, but Hart is retired, and Lesnar figures to join him sooner rather than later. For the sake of argument, let’s say Lesnar and Oba Femi have the best match of SummerSlam Saturday this year. (With the Hell in a Cell stipulation, they very well might, though they will have stiff competition from CM Punk vs. Cody Rhodes, among others.) That would leave Lesnar with nine matches ranked as SummerSlam’s best, one behind Cena. Would he come back a year later, when he would be 50 years old, to compete again? And if he did, would he be capable of having the best match of the night again? It’s possible, but highly unlikely.

(We should point out that Cena has benefitted from a lot of ties and split decisions in the tabulation in this process. Meltzer has rated Cena’s match as the best 10 times, his readers have done so eight times, and Cagematch users have done so six times. For Lesnar, those numbers are eight, eight, and six. That leaves us with 24 “votes” for Cena and 22 for Lesnar—which means Lesnar could actually pass Cena in total votes with a clean sweep this year, even if he still would not have had as many “best matches” as Cena has.)

The dropoff after Cena, Lesnar, and Hart is steep. Nobody else has more than five SummerSlam matches rated as the best, and most of those in shouting range are in the twilight of their careers. There are only four wrestlers who have had the best match at SummerSlam more than once and have even a mathematical chance of catching Cena before they hit age 50:

Gunther (38 years old, had the best match at SummerSlam twice)
Seth Rollins (40, four times)
Roman Reigns (41, three times)
Cody Rhodes (41, twice)

So yes, Rollins can catch Cena … if he has the best match at SummerSlam for each of the next six years. For the others, the road would be even longer. If anyone’s going to break Cena’s record, they’re probably not on anyone’s radar right now. Maybe they’re going into SummerSlam for the first time (Oba Femi? Bron Breakker?). More likely, they’re currently in NXT or on an NIL deal, and it will be several years before we even realize they’re capable of competing at SummerSlam 10 times, let alone have the best match on each of those shows.

John Cena reigns as the king of SummerSlam. And he figures to remain the king for a long, long time.

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