WWE SummerSlam: Ranking every main event in history

19. SummerSlam 2007: John Cena vs. Randy Orton

While John Cena and Randy Orton has become one of the biggest and longest-running rivalries in WWE history, this match at the 2007 edition of SummerSlam was actually their first time ever facing one another for the WWE Championship. It’s crazy to think that this was actually a fresh thing at one time, isn’t it?

The personal side of the rivalry wasn’t quite there yet as this match just sort of came about simply because they were two of the biggest stars in the world and WWE needed a big main event. Cena had been defending his title against the likes of Bobby Lashley and having non-title matches against Carlito. So yeah, that’s where WWE was in the summer of 2007. I mean, Batista and The Great Khali were battling for the World Heavyweight Championship at this time and CM Punk and John Morrison were trying to make the ECW title at least somewhat relevant. Would you like to know the combined time of those two matches that night in New Jersey? 14 minutes — combined. In fact, the only other match besides Cena and Orton to get into double digits was Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero. That’s 2007 WWE for you.

It’s not that Cena and Orton went out and put on a bad match with one another but they would certainly have better, more intense matches as the years went on. They went with the classic back and forth and Cena would kick out of an RKO at the end, hit the FU, which would later become the AA, and pick up the win after about 21 minutes. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. Things would intensify soon after SummerSlam when Orton kicked Cena’s dad in the head after pulling him from the crowd.