Why John Cena Vs Umaga At The 2007 Royal Rumble Is Still WWE's Best Last Man Standing Match

Posted by Lashay Rain on Friday, April 26, 2024

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Almost two years into John Cena being the top guy in WWE, we were treated to the greatest Last Man Standing match in company history when The Champ stepped in the ring against the WWE’s new monster, Umaga, at the 2007 Royal Rumble. The two would beat the hell out of each other in a classic that began Cena’s stellar 2007 run as WWE champion.

Despite The Criticism, John Cena Always Stepped Up In His Big Matches

Going into 2007, John Cena was firmly cemented as the franchise of the WWE. He had pretty much shed the white rapper persona the year earlier, no longer freestyling his way to the ring, instead going with a Marine aesthetic equipped with dog tags and camo. At this point, Cena had already gathered his fair share of detractors with them proclaiming that he was not deserving of his spot at the top of the card because he possessed what they considered less-than-acceptable wrestling skills for a guy who was being positioned the way he was.

Regardless of the criticisms of Cena, one thing that was for sure was whenever you put the guy in one of these types of matches, you were in for a real treat. Think back to his incredibly violent I Quit match from Judgment Day 2005. Who could forget the visual of Cena with both world titles after the match sporting an insane amount of color? This match in a lot of ways is the spiritual successor to that. It’s an all-out, balls to the wall affair with both men laying it all out on the line.

RELATED: The 5 Best Things About The 2007 Royal Rumble (& 5 Worst)

John Cena And Umaga Stole The Show From The Actual Royal Rumble Match

Usually, title matches on Royal Rumble cards are often overlooked in favor of the Rumble match itself, and are usually booked rather conservatively outside the few outliers (looking at you, Rumble 2000) but that is not the case here. You get the sense that perhaps these two went out that night with something to prove. Nobody expected much out of this match at the time and Umaga was a relatively new entity despite being in the company before under a different name. You combine those factors with Cena’s legendary work ethic and desire to go out and do whatever it took to help business, and you get this incredibly inspired performance from the 2007 Royal Rumble.

Cena made Umaga look like an absolute monster in this match, making everything he did to him look devastating. Umaga was moving like only he could in this one as well, throwing his weight all over the ring and hitting Cena with some heavy offense. Of course, the match was structured as your standard Cena fighting-from-underneath performance in a lot of respects, but when the time for the finish came it wasn’t as simple as a five-knuckle shuffle and an AA. Cena had to dig deep and come up with something a bit more innovative and borderline sadistic to finally put away The Samoan Bulldozer, as all of his previous attempts did not work in this one. The visual of Cena holding Umaga in the STF and choking him out with the ring rope is one of those that come to mind when you think of that early mean streak that Cena used to exhibit when his back was against the wall in a big match.

RELATED: 10 Best Matches Of Umaga's Career Ranked

This Match Was The Peak Of Both John Cena And Umaga's WWE Careers

This is the last time we were able to see something like this for him as the John Cena character transformed further into a goody-two-shoes superhero character with upstanding morals in the following year when the company would pivot to a TV-PG rating. This took away a lot of the edge from him that got him over in the first place. Umaga went on to be an ancillary character for the company moving forward, never quite making it back to the world title picture, but he played a pivotal role in the Billionaire Showdown at WrestleMania 23 a few months later, contributing to a butyrate that would stand as the most bought WrestleMania of all time for years to come.

If you are looking to watch non-Rumble matches that appeared on the January Classic this Rumble season, there aren’t too many that are better than this one. It’s especially recommended for newer fans who did not know of it or fans whose radar this flew under for years now. It’s an interesting look at the early years of the John Cena era, and it stands alone in the WWE's catalog of Last Man Standing matches as the best one in company history.

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