6 Ups And 5 Downs From WWE Crown Jewel 2023

3. A Snoozefest Of A Career-Defining Match

WWE Crown Jewel 2023 Solo Sikoa John Cena
WWE.com

Fans evidently were meant to receive Solo Sikoa versus John Cena as an end of an era match for one star and a career-making moment for the other. But that’s not how it came across at Crown Jewel.

Wrestled at half-speed, Solo versus Cena was a pretty basic match with the former 16-time world champion staying very limited in his movements, save for a diving crossbody. Cena targeted Sikoa’s right arm and hand to try to render the Samoan Spike useless. Instead, Solo simply attempted the Spike no fewer than five times unsuccessfully, each time comically winding up and whiffing or getting blocked.

When he finally connected, Solo elected to not go for a pin and repeatedly spiked Cena nearly a dozen times before pinning the Greatest of All Time. After all the buildup of Cena wanting – and needing – his first singles victory in five years, losing like that certainly was a statement… though it was diminished when you realize that Austin Theory defeated Cena six months prior at WrestleMania 39.

Regardless, one would think that hitting your finisher on a wrestler more than 10 times would warrant a stretcher job or at least needing help getting to your feet. But Cena instead was back up in moments rubbing his throat like he had a bad case of strep and walked to the back under his own power. That even undercut the announcers’ speculation about whether Cena’s career was potentially over.

Disappointing execution of what seemed like a good plan on paper.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.