John Cena Makes the Most of The Great Khali

The match as Herculean an effort as lifting the monster himself.

The greatness of a pro wrestler can often be found in what he does with lesser material. It is, funnily enough, something that has been used to boost up John Cena’s most famous rivals of the year. It’s still a talking point one might here that his repertoire of classics can be attributed to the efforts of better workers such as CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, and whoever else the internet may be favoring that day. Hats off to those faves, of course, but Cena can do well enough on his own, thank you very much. And there’s really no better display of that than what he accomplishes against The Great Khali in mid-2007.

I enjoy The Great Khali. I won’t lie, a part of that is almost certainly some lingering childhood nostalgia. He debuted on WWE TV in 2006, the year I first started watching wrestling, and I still have vivid memories of his massive frame taking up the screen, the way the camera always came to him low on the ground to emphasize his already freakish height, and even the way he posed kayfabe trouble to childhood favorites like The Undertaker. If we’re being honest about what he brings to the table wrestling-wise at the peak of his prominence though, there’s maybe three or four things he does well. Hell, punching isn’t even among those strengths, despite those massive bear paw hands of his, he throws punches with the gentility of a royal pet.

What makes John Cena so great though is that he can take those three or four things and craft greatness around them. What that means for our hero in practice is a lot of bumping and selling—two of the best tools in any wrestler’s arsenal, let alone for one of the greatest of all time. With this idea in mind, the match is centered on a few key moments for Khali. That big spin kick Khali nails Cena with, the big brain chop that drops him from the turnbuckle to the floor, then the final FU on the stage that gets Cena the win.

All of them are fine on their own, but elevated via Cena’s selling. The way he bumps around the ring, constantly in motion even on the defensive to compensate for Khali’s own lack of mobility. Cena’s also smart enough to create a structure around these big moments. Take that big brain chop on the turnbuckle. A brilliant means of taking the fight to the floor in order to play into the match’s pinfalls count anywhere stipulation, but also a great set up for when Cena’s eventually able to block the chop with his own two hands. There’s a genius to the follow up of that spot too, with one threat in the chop being immobilized, there’s still Khali’s raw power to contend with when he sends Cena crashing into the front row with his arm.

The most obvious structural choice here is obviously the FU teases though. Classic rule of threes with Cena trying and failing for his finisher multiple times, and then only really nailing it at the absolute climax of the match. It’s such a simple trick of the grammar, but one that Cena applies so brilliantly throughout his career.

In a lot of ways this, reads like an abridged version of Cena conquering a better and more terrifying monster earlier in the year. Khali’s nowhere the worker that prime Umaga was, sure, but even that context gives us something to enrichen this match. A part of Cena died—or was rocked to its core at least—taking out Umaga. As such, there’s a hardened edge to him in this match in his comeback, resourceful in ways such as using the monitor or the camera crane to take an advantage. Hell, even that final rake of the eyes is a little underhanded, but Cena’s been through the worst of it, and killing monsters is just what he does.

Rating: ***3/4