K-Fed Cyber Attack to On the Shelf: Spotlight on John Cena Part 3
Welcome to part 3 of this series on the career of John Cena. On this article, we’re going to look at his match at Cyber Sunday 2006 to his first injury in October of 2007.
Heading into Cyber Sunday, Cena entered an inter-brand story involving all 3 World Champions: himself, World Heavyweight Champion King Booker, and ECW World Champion Big Show. This was to determine who the Champion of Champions was, with the fans voting which Championship was defended. It was also around this time that Cena began feuding with Kevin Federline (yes, that Kevin Federline).
K-Fed appeared in the weeks leading up to Cyber Sunday and got into an altercation with Cena. At Cyber Sunday, Federline did interfere in the triple threat match, hitting Cena with the World Heavyweight Championship belt (which fans voted to be defended), allowing King Booker to retain. On January 1st, 2007, Cena would face K-Fed in which Federline would win with help from Umaga.
At New Years Revolution, Cena wound defend his WWE Championship against Umaga, retaining the title and ending Umaga’s undefeated streak in the process. The two would have a rematch at the Royal Rumble in a Last Man Standing match, with Cena winning again. The following night, Cena teamed up with Shawn Michaels to take on Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton) for the World Tag Team Championships, which they won, making Cena a double champion.
Cena and Michaels would then enter a feud against each other, leading to a match between the two at WrestleMania 23 with Cena retaining. The next night, the duo would defend the World Tag Team Championships in 2 10-Team Battle Royal, losing them in the second after Michaels eliminated Cena. On the April 23rd edition of Monday Night Raw in London, England, Cena and Michaels would main event, putting on one of the best Raw matches up to that point, competing for near an hour.
At Backlash on April 29th, Cena would defend his Championship against Shawn Michaels, Edge and Randy Orton, in a Fatal Four Way, retaining in the process. The next opponent to challenge for the WWE Championship was The Great Khali. The 2 would face off at Judgement Day, where Cena would retain by submission, being the first man to defeat Khali in such fashion. At One Night Stand, they’d face off again in a Falls Count Anywhere match, with Cena winning by pinfall.
On June 24th, 2007, WWE held the inaugural Night of Champions as a rebranding of Vengeance. Here, Cena would go on to defend his title in a Five Pack Challenge against Bobby Lashley, King Booker, Mick Foley and Randy Orton, retaining in the process. Bobby Lashley would be the next singles opponent for Cena at The Great American Bash, with Cena retaining. Randy Orton won #1 Contendership during the summer, with his title opportunity coming at SummerSlam.
In the lead up to the show, Orton would hit Cena with multiple sneak shots, including hitting his finisher, the RKO, on 3 separate encounters. Vega would go on to win at SummerSlam, and the rematch was booked for Unforgiven, which Orton would win by DQ after Cena ignored the referee and continued beating Orton up in the corner, allowing Cena to retain the title (Championships can only change hands via submission or pinfall, unless otherwise stipulated).
2 weeks later, on the October 1st edition of Monday Night Raw, Cena would face off against Mr Kennedy…. wait for it…. Kennedy. During this match, Cena would tear his pectoral muscle while performing a hip toss. He would go onto finish the match, and complete the post match beat down by Orton, and was written off TV, as he required surgery.
The following night on ECW, Vince McMahon stated that Cena would relinquish the Championship as there would be a 6 to 12 month rehabilitation process. After the successful surgery, the surgeon, Dr James Andrews, gave an update claiming Cena was well ahead of schedule in his healing, by several weeks.
Come back next week as we kick off with the return of John Cena.
PPV + PLE Content. Northern Adelaide suburbs resident with a lifelong passion for professional wrestling since the age of 14. What drew Rhys to wrestling was the antics of Eddie Guerrero and the freestyles of John Cena, and has been hooked ever since. Currently, Rhys watches WWE and AEW programing. This passion for wrestling has led to Rhys writing for PW Down Under, where he has become the resident PPV guy.
