Randy Orton and John Cena are both future WWE Hall of Famers who feuded on and off in a rivalry that spanned more than a decade. After Cena announced his impending retirement from WWE, Orton spoke to Cody Rhodes on an episode of “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” about his former rival’s plans to retire, as well as the possibility of another match in their legendary feud.
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Orton said he “100%” wants to get in the ring with Cena one more time and is looking forward to seeing him in person before his farewell speech at Money in the Bank.
“Towards the end of the conversation I asked, ‘Hey, what do you think (about a match)?'” Orton said. “So I had no idea (Cena’s retirement), as far as I know he’s going to be around as long as his body will allow him. But obviously he’s got other things going on and this is my life. So hats off to him for doing the Hollywood thing. If I could, I would, but I have other priorities. That takes a lot and I don’t think I can give that. But I said, ‘What do you think?’ And he was like, ‘Randy, you know I’ve never pitched anything, I always do my best with what they give me,’ and I said, ‘Man, that’s me.'”
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Orton said Cena told him he was open to another match if he “could think of something creative.”
Another game?
Orton told Rhodes that he asked Cena what his Money in the Bank speech would be about; Cena told Orton to “wait and see,” which Orton said was “typical John.” Orton acknowledged that he knows some fans feel his feuds with Cena have gone on too long or that they have fought too often, but he believes that the two have not been in the ring together in a long time, so fans appreciate that.
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“I love working with the man and having a couple of TVs just to put them up and make it special,” he said. “Because no matter how many times we faced each other back then, almost to the point where people got sick of it, when they look back and think about it, they say, ‘Oh. Orton, Cena. Wow. It was this incredible rivalry,’ and to have that callback, that nostalgia concept … we were able to go out and have fun and tear the place down.”
Orton and Cena have competed in 22 televised singles matches between November 2005 and February 2017 – 12 of those matches (more than half) were for the World Championship. Cena has a 13-8 win margin (one match ended in a draw), but five of Cena’s victories came by disqualification, compared to Orton’s two. When you exclude matches that ended in DQs, the gap narrows: Cena has eight wins, Orton has six.
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When using quotes from this article, please cite What Do You Wanna Talk About? as the source and provide credit to ah/t Wrestling Inc. for transcription.
