John Cena has revealed that he doesn’t concern himself with star ratings given out by Dave Meltzer.
The 16-time WWE Champion has had a host of classic matches over the years, including one match the Wrestling Observer dubbed as a “five-star match”.
This was his bout with CM Punk at Money in the Bank 2011, which garnered some of the biggest crowd reactions of all time.
Cena spoke out about the ratings at a Q&A event. An audience member mentioned a four-and-a-half star bout he had with AJ Styles, and asked if he’d come back to wrestle in a “five-star classic”.
In response, Cena said:
“How do i put this?”
“I am much more concerned when I perform for wwe in how the audience as a whoe feels about my performance rather than one individual trying to grade me by stars.”
“Not that that doesn’t matter, because that is a great way for those to try to get equity and try to get noticed. It’s a great ranking system, and I really do appreciate it.”
“I’m not knocking critics. My process is to make sure that everybody who paid a ticket had a good night, and if that gets me a zero-star match, I know in my heart of hearts that I entertained my audience that night.”
John Cena has only had one five-star match in his career
Shockingly, Cena has only had one five-star match in his career (according to Dave Meltzer).
The former WWE Champion defended his title against CM Punk at Money in the Bank 2011. The bout took place in Punk’s hometown of Chicago, and saw a rabid crowd willing the “Best in the World” to victory that night.
Despite Vince McMahon and Alberto Del Rio trying to spoil the match, Punk defeated Cena to capture the WWE Championship, before walking out the arena through the crowd and going straight home.
Other matches, like the Triple Threat at Royal Rumble 2015 and his matches against AJ Styles and Kevin Owens came close to the five-star rating, although many fans think they should also be ranked among John Cena’s best matches.
