One Last Dream Match: John Cena vs. Rey Mysterio

Cena's last dream match is against... Rey?
Photo Credit: WWE.com

If you don't know, I tend to live-Tweet RAW every Monday. I'm not the only one. There's a live cast of Twitter-characters on display, from guys talking about the show for realsies like Sugar Dunkerton to the outright trolls like Typical ROH Fan. OF course, my Fair to Flair cohorts tweet RAW from time to time, the most active being Razor of Kick-Out!! Blog. Last night, during the show, Razor had this observation during the three-way for a replacement Number One Contender among R-Truth, Alberto del Rio and Rey Mysterio:

I have a feeling this match is just a distraction, but the idea of John Cena vs. Rey Mysterio is very intriguing to me.

It's intriguing to me. As we'd find out later that night, the last time the two had faced off one-on-one was in 2003, before Cena turned face. The closest we've gotten since both guys hit the main event was last year at Viewer's Choice, when Rey was up for vote to face Cena in the main event. We all know how that turned out; CM Punk won the vote and he and his Straight Edge Society were offered up to slaughter for the Nexus' epic debut.

It's almost inarguable that these two guys are the biggest draws in WWE right now. Randy Orton may be anchoring Smackdown, but I still feel like he's a work in progress. Besides, we've seen Orton/Mysterio and Orton/Cena a whole lot. But Cena/Mysterio would be pretty magical, or at the very least fresh. I'd even say this is one of three dream matches left in WWE. One is Cena/Rock, and we're getting that at WrestleMania next year. The other is Cena/Undertaker, a match we'll probably never get because it's a WrestleMania-main event-caliber match, and next year will more than likely be Taker's last run.

The thing is, the window for Rey/Cena is closing as well. Rey is also not a spring chicken. Although he's not reached his 40th birthday yet, his knees are notoriously in bad shape to the point where if he retired next year, next month or next week, it wouldn't be surprising. They can't pull the trigger on it now because I feel like it's a WrestleMania main event, or at the very least something to headline SummerSlam. Cena's got a dream match in his sights, so he needs to stay occupied with temporary hurdles, be they del Rio, The Miz, Punk, Truth or even a returning Batista or Chris Jericho.

But if they do tangle? It would definitely be an intriguing match. Both guys are solid workers, although in different ways. Mysterio, although limited by his bad knees, is still a high-flyer and a hard bumper. Cena is a powerhouse whose big moves pop crowds. There's one more very interesting dynamic that would come into play here. Cena rarely ever works against guys who are smaller than, say, The Miz. WWE doesn't grow heels as small as Rey, and usually, if you're that small, you're typecast into a scrappy underdog role₁. I'd be very keen on seeing how Cena plays the big bully role.

An even more intriguing scenario would be heel Rey taking on Cena. It might seem incomprehensible now, but one of the more popular fantasy booking has Rey turning heel after growing jealous of Sin Cara. Everyone would assume that if this wasn't a face/face match that Cena would be the heel, but unless someone comes along who usurps Cena in popularity, I don't see him ever changing alignments. Rey though? I feel like he gets taken for granted more than Cena does. That's a situation that's so new to me that I can barely begin to process it.

Still, it goes to prove that there are many different possibilities for this dream match if it ever happens. I hope it does, because it could be a really cool thing to watch. Even for a jaded fan trying to reclaim his past innocence (futilely maybe), it would be a dream match come true.

1 - It's a big reason why I think Austin Aries remains unsigned by WWE, not just because of his size, but because of a combination of his size and his natural heel proclivities.