WWE And TNA: 7 Worst Moments Of The Week (Feb 12)

4. Cena Vs. Orton: Round 73

John Cena Randy Orton
WWE.com

In 2002, a 52-year-old Ric Flair and a 48-year-old Hulk Hogan main-evented Monday Night Raw. It was a bizarre night, as not only had they been feuding in WCW in 1999, but at that point in their careers it felt like WWE was stuck in some sort of weird time warp. This is kind of what SmackDown felt like on Tuesday.

We've seen Randy Orton and John Cena wrestle on TV so many times over the years (over 70 if you add up singles, tag and multi-man matches) that it doesn't seem conceivable that they'll ever be interesting to watch again. They just can't live that long. Both guys are legacy stars in the promotion, but fans aren't going to look back in future years and long for the days of their largely mediocre matches.

It already feels safe to say that Orton winning the Royal Rumble was a pretty bad decision, but WWE wasted no time in making it feel like an even worse one. If The Viper had to win that match, then he should have been protected for whatever was coming up next. Having him get pinned by Cena doesn't do him any favors.

It's a bit sad that their SmackDown match happened at all, because it seemed that it existed only so WWE could alleviate fears that they wouldn't fight at WrestleMania. That seems to be the only relief we can take from this. I don't know if I can handle match 74 taking place within the next decade.

Advertisement
Contributor

As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at." Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week. Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com