John Cena always wins ... except at SummerSlam

Chances are good you’re no longer bored of John Cena winning. Much of that has to do with how John Cena has evolved as a wrestler late into his career — an inordinate percentage of WWE’s best matches from the last few years involve Cena, and that’s not a criticism of the rest of the roster so much as praise for how good John has become. There is also the matter of John Cena losing matches in high-profile spots, and with a consistency that seemed impossible not all that long ago.

SummerSlam plays the most significant role in that. Can you believe it’s been seven years since Cena single-handedly defeated the upstart stable The Nexus at SummerSlam? Cena didn’t actually defeat an entire stable by himself — he picked up a few eliminations, as did his teammates — but he survived a DDT to the concrete and a 2-on-1 at the end, in the midst of LOL Cena Wins fervor, so it sure felt like he did it by himself.

Chris Jericho and Edge would later talk about this match on Jericho’s podcast, and Cena even admitted to them later that the DDT idea was wrong, but it was too late to fix the finish or the Nexus. Apparently there was a cosmic price to pay for Cena taking down that promising group, however, and it was any future victories at WWE’s major August pay-per-view. That’s right: The last Cena victory at SummerSlam was the one against The Nexus, back in 2010.

Here are Cena’s matchups in the six SummerSlams since:

Losing to Punk was huge — both times — but in reality, Cena was still pushed as if he was the main event, title or not. The loss to Daniel Bryan is where things started to change, however, as Cena had chosen Bryan to be his opponent, and it ended up being a referendum on smaller indie guys vs. WWE’s picturesque idea of what a wrestler should be. Bryan won, which helped usher in this new era of WWE where indie wrestlers are treated as equals to the more establishment-esque WWE performers, and Cena stayed out of the title scene until injuries forced him back into it.

And then, Brock Lesnar violently threw Cena back out of said title picture. If there was anyone who remained unconvinced that we were dealing with a different Cena in 2014 than we were in 2010, when he wanted to look like an unstoppable superhero to the detriment of his opponents per the Edge/Jericho story, Lesnar changed their mind. Cena had no chance, from start to finish, and the match only went on as long as it did because Lesnar hadn’t finished sending a message yet.

In consecutive SummerSlam bouts, Cena lost to help set up a new era in WWE with Bryan and future indie guys, and then made Lesnar look literally unstoppable, the exclamation point WWE needed after having Lesnar break Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania 30.

This was not enough penance. Seth Rollins was WWE Champion by SummerSlam 2015, thanks to defeating Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 31 by cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase. John Cena was the United States Champion, and an incredible one at that: Between the defeats at previous SummerSlams and week after week of U.S. Open Challenges each Monday night that were designed to make Cena’s opponents look strong while still having him retain, Cena was in a completely new light that he had been in before. Whereas you could hear the bloodlust in 2014 as Lesnar took Cena apart piece by piece, in 2015, well, the crowd was still cheering hard for Cena’s opponent, but it wasn’t the same as it had been.

Rollins would win (with some help from Ric Flair fan and SummerSlam host, Jon Stewart), and while he’d eventually lose the United States Championship back to Cena, it was still a significant moment with Cena putting over an up-and-coming star at a major event.

AJ Styles was a little different in 2016, as he was new only to most of WWE’s audience, but the result was the same as it had been since 2011. Cena wrestled in a great, memorable match, and Cena lost.

That brings us to 2017, where John Cena might just be picking up a victory for the first time since he cut the legs out from under Wade Barrett and The Nexus. Baron Corbin is his opponent, and Cena just humiliated him on this week’s episode of SmackDown Live by interrupting Corbin’s Money in the Bank cash-in on current champion Jinder Mahal. Corbin looks like a chump, he now has no direct line to the WWE Championship with his briefcase futilely used up, and Cena is going to be in a revenge-seeking mood after Corbin’s sneak attack that prompted his cash-in attempt in the first place.

Corbin could very well win. He’s still an up-and-comer, Cena is now more of a part-timer. But, it doesn’t feel like we’ll see the SummerSlam losing streak continue for John. No, this time it feels like Cena is going to be the one with the huge victory that sets him up for the next major story — in this case, perhaps a chance at the all-time WWE Championship record of 17, as he’s currently tied with Ric Flair with 16 after his Royal Rumble victory over Styles.

That feels about right. Cena has spent his last six Augusts saying Hail Marys and Our Fathers to earn forgiveness for 2010, while crushing it in between nearly the whole time. Let’s find it in our hearts to forgive him and, maybe not even post any “LOL Cena wins” memes when he wins this Sunday.