Hulk Hogan y André the giant. Bret Hart y Shawn Michaels. Stone Cold Steve Austin y The Rock. What do these rivalries have in common? The three They marked an era. The Golden Era, the New Generation was and the Attitude was, respectively. And same is the case of John Cena y Randy Orton In more recent times, on behalf of the last vestiges of the Ruthless Aggression was and part of the PG Era. A rivalry that meant both for an entire generation and wrote its last chapter in this 2025 …
The importance that both Cena and Orton have obtained in the opinion of the new generations is impeccable. For the youngest, or rather those who coincided with their golden times, They are two of the greatest fighters of all time. Without wanting to fall behind, WWE has even taken the habit of calling 16 times champion as he Better in history. But, but … very different is the opinion of the historian and journalist Dave Meltzer.
► John Cena and Randy Orton are overvalued?
Let's see what he had to say in a recent analysis of both fighters:
«(When WWE says that John Cena is the best of all time) is not so. Of all time? That is a long time. If you compare it with Lou Thesz, Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair… as a fighter, in the ring, or close. He doesn't even enter the top 100 of the best fighters in the ring.
«As a popular attraction, it is among the best twenties, yes, but it is not the best. It is not as if he had achieved what Hulk Hogan, Sammartino or Steve Austin. He was never at that level. Was never at the level of Antonio Inoki Or someone like that, someone who has been a legitimate national hero. Never. In your time? Yes, it was number one. But 'the best of all time' … I know that when you get the issue there are many candidates. He does not qualify.
«He was the best of his time, which does not make him … This business exists since 1880s, has existed worldwide and has been in more mainstream situations than WWE is currentlyand it is also much bigger now than it was in dinner, so not. There have been countries where a whole nation stopped to look at a fight, as happened to us when it fought Muhammad Ali. Inoki achieved that at certain times. Reapawozan even above.
«Dinner did not make a tenth of that. And it is not a dart for him, it is simply a different culture. It is different. And if you are the best of your time it is something great, but of 'all time' it is a term that covers a lot ».
So is John Cena overvalued?
It must be said that no matter how much you were in the discussion as the best of all time, dinner yes You can enter the pedestal of the best of the WWE. Going to the concrete, probably not in the top five if we put on the balance the capacity in the ring or everything related to the box office (where even Cody Rhodes has far exceeded)but in the contents of the following positions.
What Meltzer refers is to its transcendence in a global historical field, where the name John Cena, despite a rising popularity in the world of Hollywood and time was that it always induces the collective to miss any great star, It is behind so many others, both in the United States and in Mexico or Japan.
«The injury did her well because (before her) simply 'was there' and now. He is a very good fighter and WWe always boosted him, but at all times He lacked that something. Upon returning in 2024 People began to see him as a bigger star than he really is, capable.
«And I feel that it is someone who does not enter the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame, in twenty years They will say that the one who has not entered is a carafal error of the votersalthough the people who think about it will be the one who did not follow their career while it was active.
«Something similar happens to me with fighters whose career I continued in the context of when they still fought and now, two decades later, for some reason They are seen as legends. And in my opinion They are not hall material of fameno matter how much they have been at the star level. Really Were they blockbusters? Nothe truth. It seems to me that Randy Orton is one of those cases.
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So is Randy Orton overvalued?
Said which, we must put ourselves in a situation. What Meltzer refers is not to the WWE Hall of Fame, whose demand when choosing their exalted is much more relaxed than any other prestigious institution and where Orton qualifies without problems given the low -tax low. What Meltzer refers to is the hall of fame of are Publication, the observer, much more meticulous in the selection of the exalted.
And this is not to minimize its impact, which was not minor in the 21st century. It is also true that when He had the chance of being positioned as the maximum star of the company, failed loudly. He was certainly in a stage where immaturity limited him greatly, but he is anyway that He never met the requirements for focal paper. One of the best of the last decades, legitimate, but not at the historical level in contrast to other emblematic figures.
