100 Greatest WWE Matches Of All Time (Ranked)
88. John Cena vs. Umaga (Royal Rumble 2007)
Royal Rumble 2007 brought 'Last Man Standing' action for the man they call 'Super Cena'. That year, WWE figured the best way to feed into the annual Rumble match was to have John Cena and Umaga paste the living crap out of one another for a solid 23 minutes. Good news: They were absolutely correct. This was one of the matches used by staunch Cena fans as fuel against non-stop bombardments from haters claiming John couldn't wrestle for many years.
A lot of fans had already made their minds up about WWE's poster boy by January 2007. He was there to be jeered, not cheered. Not-so-quietly, Cena went about his business by delivering excellent matches like this when the heat was on. For his part, Umaga matched up well as a powerhouse antagonist who could believably keep JC down for the count of 10 and take his WWE Title home.
Being fair, Umaga's manager Armando Estrada had also excelled in promos putting over his man's chances before the pay-per-view rolled around on the calendar. Estrada will forever be overlooked as a mic man by so many folks, which is a shame. He was top notch when slotted next to Umaga.
Naturally, Cena would overcome everything to be the 'Last Man Standing' in San Antonio. He did so with aplomb, and John sure shut some of the critics up who'd been questioning the quality of his matches. That argument would rage for another decade plus (at least), and it was already nothing new to him in 2007.
Check this sneaky Royal Rumble gem out if you've never had the pleasure.