Joseph and Colette Discuss John Cena vs. The Great Khali

Star ratings vs. the BIG EGG MASTERLIST

WWE

John Cena vs. The Great Khali is a great match, a pretty foundational piece of the whole “Cena is the Greatest Wrestler of All-Time” thing in terms of demonstrating his ability to piece together and lead a match against an opponent most struggled with. It’s also a Great Khali match, and while Khali is a fascinating figure who would almost certainly feature in my old Greatest Wrestler of All Time column at Fanfyte, he is not a machine that generates three star matches, let alone fours and fives. This and the Judgement Day match that came before it are aberrations, not just in the grand scheme of Khali’s overall career, but to Vince McMahon’s general inability to convincingly book men of Khali’s size (despite his belief that he was fucking incredible at it). To me, it is a *** & 3/4 match. To me, it is a ***** match. Joseph definitely knew this going into this conversation, but I don’t think he knew the extent to which I was going to throw down for it on the MASTERLIST, which is now, more than ever, a matter of the head and the heart.

UP NEXT: Next week on the EGG, we got a match that's often lost in the wider conversation to the much more famous Summer of Punk around it. But it's John Cena taking on a fellow all-timer in Rey Mysterio in their only televised title match ever! Two of wrestling's greatest babyfaces collide for the (tainted???) WWE Championship!

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Colette Arrand
Joseph, if there's something I'm glad the two of us share in common, it's an appreciation for The Great Khali. I was pumped when you picked this match to represent Cena's early-ish ace period — I don't know if it's his in-ring peak, but he's on a real heater in 2007, paradoxically a time at which the "YOU CAN'T WRESTLE" chants couldn't have been louder. Besides the fact that you've recently reviewed the Umaga Rumble match, what drew you to Cena/Khali?

The Simple Pleasures of John Cena vs. The Great Khali

Joseph Montecillo
I've never seen this one! I did watch the Judgment Day match on stream once just on a whim and I thought it was great, so I was fascinated to see what they would do with a stipulation intact. Beyond that, this is one of those key matches in a wrestler's career that really speaks to just how talented they can be. I think overall, there's very few people, even Cena haters, who dislike this match, which is a massive accomplishment given that both Cena and Khali can be very highly derided in some circles of the fandom. So I just really wanted to see what they accomplish together in a year where Cena went from a great wrestler to starting a run that would make him one of the greatest of all time.

John Cena Makes the Most of The Great Khali