In mere days, The Beastslayer Seth Rollins defends his Universal Championship against The Monster Among Men Braun Strowman at Clash of Champions.
I have been rewatching the Night of Champions/Clash of Champions collections, and it reminded me of a feud wildly overlooked and arguably one of Rollins’ best feuds in my opinion. Long before The Beastslayer was burning it down, he was stealing the show with one of the greatest WWE Champions of all time: John Cena.
Their rivalry essentially began in 2014, when the self-proclaimed “Future of WWE” became Mr. Money in the Bank alongside The Authority. Rollins was on top of the world, his arrogance was through the roof. At the 2014 Night of Champions pay-per-view, Cena would be challenging The Beast Incarnate Brock Lesnar then-WWE World Heavyweight Champion to gain retribution for his heartbreaking loss at SummerSlam.
When the fifteen-time WWE champ was seconds away from making history as a sixteen-time WWE Champion, the delusional and overconfident Rollins caused a disqualification and unsuccessfully attempted to cash-in his briefcase.
This led to Cena and Rollins having a tables match at the upcoming TLC pay-per-view with the huge stipulation that the winner would face Lesnar at the Royal Rumble. Cena had the match won on two separate occasions until The Authority interfered and The Big Dog Roman Reigns came to the aid of Cena which allowed for one final AA for the win.
Rollins would eventually weasel his way into the World Heavyweight Championship Match at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, so it would become a triple-threat-match.
At the 2015 Royal Rumble pay-per-view, Cena and Rollins would face Lesnar in a triple-threat-match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in a fantastic high-octane match. The sneaky and cunning Money in the Bank holder ripped Cena’s chances away yet again but Rollins was unable to slay the beast.
Cena and Rollins then went their separate ways, as Cena turned his attention to The Bulgarian Brute Rusev and the United States Championship, and Rollins continued fighting wars for The Authority. Rollins would eventually cash-in at WrestleMania, which is still today listed as one of the greatest cash-ins in WWE history to become the WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
Cena would also defeat the undefeated Rusev at WrestleMania, winning the United States Championship and bringing honor and prestige back to the title. On the July 27, 2015, episode of Raw, the two rivals would come face-to-face since their incredible match in January. Cena wanted to shut up the self-proclaimed “Greatest WWE Champion of all time,” and demanded a title shot. The Authority granted Cena his match… except it wasn’t for the WWE title, it was for his United States Championship.
Rollins and Cena would clash in a never-before-seen match in the main event, and once again the two fantastic performers would deliver a five-star classic. During this back-and-forth highly-intense contest, Rollins would catch Cena right in the nose with a stiff knee, that busted the United States Champions’ up. Cena despite the pain he was in, would make the arrogant WWE Champion tap-out to the STF.
On the following week’s episode of Raw, and extremely proud and cocky Rollins would announce that “The Face That Runs The Place,” was injured all-the-while mockingly sporting a brand-new t-shirt with the logo “Never Shuts Up. You Can’t See The Knee.” Rollins then issued a HUGE Winners-Take-All Title-For-Title challenge for SummerSlam. On the August 17, 2015 episode of Raw, The United States Champion would return just in time to make the historic Winners-Take-All Match official.
At SummerSlam, Seth FREAKIN Rollins delivered his greatest performance to date, against one of the pillars of WWE for over the past decade. Counter after counter that had the WWE Universe on the edge of their seats for the entire match and thanks to a little help from The Daily News’ Jon Stewart Rollins would become the inaugural dual United States Champion and WWE World Heavyweight Champion!
On the following night on Raw, the gloating of Rollins would finally catch up to him after demanding to have a statue of himself in brass to become an “Icon,” Rollins’ celebration would be ruined by The Vigilante Sting who made his intentions crystal clear he wanted the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Not only was “The Man’s” statue nowhere to be found, but Rollins’ life would only get worse when the former United States Champion returned and requested for his rematch at Night of Champions where every title would be defended…however Cena wasn’t asking Rollins he was talking to Stephanie McMahon and it was granted. Rollins would be forced to defend both his United States Championship and WWE World Heavyweight Championship back-to-back at the pay-per-view.
At the Night of Champions pay-per-view, Cena and Rollins would simply create magic that night, both competitors had to pull out everything in their arsenals and then some. Rollins countered Cena’s Five Knuckle Shuffle twice, and Cena countered Rollins’ Bucklebomb with a hurricanrana. After twenty minutes of fantastic wrestling, Cena landed a nasty-looking inverted Suplex and then hit his Attitude Adjustment to reclaim his United States Championship!
Of course, Rollins’ year would be cut short by his terrible knee injury that would require immediate surgery keeping him out of action for roughly eight months. To the best of my knowledge, Cena and Rollins have only crossed paths twice. Once on the February 18, 2018 episode of Raw, during the Seven-Man Gauntlet Match ahead of the 2018 Elimination Chamber Match, where Rollins was dubbed Monday Night Rollins, and lastly during the 2018 Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.
