Joseph and Colette Discuss John Cena vs. Eddie Guerrero

Lie/Cheat/Steal > Hustle/Loyalty/Respect, at least in 2003. You know, before Hustle/Loyalty/Respect.

Hello! Were I to write a lengthy intro I’d spoil the details, but luckily this is one of those weeks where there’s a bit of housekeeping to do, so, to those of you who come to this site via a web browser or non-email app of some sort, welcome to bigeggwrestling.com. That’s right, we’re two years in and now we have a custom domain. Hopefully that means links from this project will show up more readily when we share them on Twitter, but who knows how the Internet works. If you want to help us test it out, feel free to share one of our pieces on the social media platform of your choice. Or you can directly refer someone to this here website and get a free month of premium content, like the conversation between Joseph and myself that follows, or EXTRA BIG EGG. Here’s a big ol’ share button, if you’re inclined to click it.

Speaking of EXTRA BIG EGG, there will be a free bit of that tomorrow, about the 1996 parking lot brawl between Fit Finlay and Lord Steven Regal. Plenty of new people have joined BIG EGG lately, so consider it an extra bit of appreciation/a teaser of the writing I’m doing behind the paywall. We have 1,143 free subscribers at the moment, and I said I’d give away a Japanese wrestling program when we get to 1,200, so, you know … pretty close! In the world beyond BIG EGG, you can check out Joseph’s website and Twitch stream, and I’ve got zines and t-shirts available for sale.

Up Next: THE GREAT KHALI MAKES HIS BIG EGG DEBUT, AND I WASN’T EVEN THE ONE WHO SUGGESTED IT. *ahem* It’s John Cena vs. The Great Khali in a Falls Count Anywhere match from One Night Stand 2007! It’s a very important match in my personal viewing history, as Joseph and I discuss at the start of this week’s conversation. Let’s go!

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Joseph Montecillo
John Cena is one of the greatest professional wrestlers that has ever lived. I don't think that's a controversial opinion for most people reading this right now, and I highly doubt we find any evidence to the contrary in the matches that we've lined up for the month. We've only got four matches but we're trying to get a feel for what he can bring. Here, we have him in one of his early heel performances, before I even became a wrestling fan. Do you remember the time you first had Cena on your radar as a wrestling fan?

Colette Arrand
With the exception of the WWE Home Video collections I was picking up at GameStop, I was way out of watching weekly wrestling until ECW One Night Stand 2006, so the first John Cena match I saw was the main event of that show, against Rob Van Dam, New York City threatening to riot if Cena lost and, like the ECW faithful of yore, maybe popping a bit too enthusiastically when a Fed-fixture like Edge popped his head into a Defining ECW Moment to lend some star power to RVD, who should have won clean. I was, am, and will always be a C-show freak, so ECW was the only weekly show I kept up with until One Night Stand 2007, main evented by Cena and The Great Khali. That match is one of the most important matches in the history of my fandom — I was efedding at the time, even when I wasn’t watching, so going to a Buffalo Wild Wings that happened to be a WWE Blast Zone on a PPV night and seeing a packed room of unwashed, 2007-era wrestling fans boo John Cena was captivating. I joined a wrestling forum because of that match. It’s a small, out of the way one, but its alumni includes an NXT UK guy who has since been on a few NOAH tours — a wild time to be online. In other words, he’s been a fixture, but there’s a lot, like this match, that I missed, and probably a lot of stuff that I need to revisit some day to see if my dumb, teenage brain was seeing things straight back then. You?

Joseph Montecillo
Cena is integral to my understanding and experience of pro wrestling. I've told the story elsewhere, but my first major storyline investment was him vs. Edge, so I've never known John Cena outside of being the absolute fucking man in the WWE. As far as the early stuff, all I've really seen is an Undertaker PPV match that was included in the Deadman's VCD compilation, and then a really great Kurt Angle match a month or two before the first WWE Championship win. It's fascinating seeing him just out and out play heel instead of being a more reserved, situational antagonist.

Colette Arrand
“The Deadman™️”? “A really great Kurt Angle match”? Man, if only your haters could peek behind the paywall.