[9.0] "It was an excellent match top to bottom. The only problem is that I found it a bit long and it kinda hurt the match for me but despite that they delivered an excellent bout and is an easy Top 10 match for both men's careers"
[10.0] "This is one of the greatest matches I've ever seen and I don't care if I get hate for that opinion. This might also be the greatest redemption story of all time because Cena and Cody stunk up the joint at WrestleMania but they more than made up for that with this absolute banger. This match was almost 40 minutes long and it was action packed and fast paced the whole time. While Punk vs Gunther took like 25 minutes to hit second gear, this hit second gear in like the 1st minute of the match. The spots were absolutely great and Cena was as doing a great job wrestling here. It's like he turned back the clocks for just one night. The most common complaint about this match is finisher spam and kickouts but that's honestly what I loved about this. A finisher fest when done right is extremely entertaining. This match and Punk vs Seth vs Roman are the perfect examples of that. As for the kickouts, false finishes are some of my favorite things about a match and this match had so many of them. I don't care if it so calls devalues the finisher I'm not someone who thinks that deep about everything and clearly the real life crowd feels this way too because they were reacting the loudest during the second half of this match when all the finisher spamming and kickouts were happening. Overall this match definitely deserves the 5 star rating Meltzer gave it and the fact it's only 8.64 is absolutely criminal."
[9.0] "This is what their WrestleMania match should have been: no interference from The Rock, no guest artist, no turn heel-- just a passing of the torch match and a nice memory for John Cena fans. However, nothing is perfect, and personally, I don't find it fun to take the match into the crowd (because it boils down to "I walk, I hit you, I walk, you hit me"), but I admit it was somewhat worthwhile since it allowed us to see Cena emerge from the trapdoor carrying Cody. The match wouldn't have been what it was without the stipulation, because both wrestlers knew how to take full advantage of everything a street fight offered. By the way, I don't consider Brock Lesnar's appearance part of the match, so my rating doesn't take his appearance at the end of the event into account."
[10.0] "This is one of my favorite match. Two great characters, storytellers, in ring workers and babyfaces. Super enjoyable spots. Cena throwing stairs at Cody, barricade slam and elevator firemans carry remain memorable long after Summerslam. Also I would like to appreciate canadian destroyer and PILEDRIVER that are unusual in recent WWE. Good psychology and wild brawls. One of the best ever. Good example of a match that is pure five star without flashy, indy style moves."
[10.0] "Overall this match was leaps and bounds better than their WrestleMania match, but overall in my opinion the best match of Cena's final year. The suspense going into this match with Cena's sudden face turn and us being aware that Cody was more ruthless this time in getting the WWE Championship back it was very hard to say where this match was going to go. The suspense of whether Cena had actually turned face or if Cody was prepared to turn heel added so much more to this match. It ultimately made the final result which was a simply a Superman vs Superman scenario where both men threw the kitchen sink at each other all the more enjoyable to watch, it was great to see Cena go all-out of the biggest prize in the company one last time and equally to see Cody's development where this time he was not going to pull any punches."
[10.0] "The redemption of a lifetime. A 2K match come to life lol. John and Cody give it their all and more. Nonstop finishers that I genuinely thought ended the match multiple times, but nope. And the ending was executed perfectly. This is the wrestling I live for? Give this match 6 stars idgaf"
[6.0] "I know I'm one of the very few people that rates this match as worse than Wrestlemania, but at least at WM, I understood what was happening, it had logic, even if the execution wasn't that good. But this match was overproduced; I found it to be fan service. The ending was very clear before the match even began. I didn't like it even if they put in a ton of effort."
[10.0] "What a match. Man, John is 47 and yet can put up 5 star matches like this. Its incredible, a joy to watch this one as a wrestling fan. The greatest of all time who carried the company for over a decade vs. the current face of the company. The match continued to pick up pace from the very beginning after the hug, chairs, tables, stage, in the audience it was everywhere ... Cena giving two AA's and Cody still kicking out; Cena picking Cody up all the way from the stage and getting thrown into the table into the Cross Rhodes, Cross Rhodes on the table from the top rope, 3 more Cross Rhodes and Cena still kicking out ... crowd got LIT UP. Super Cena indeed, one last time."
[9.0] "Desperation, proper intent, energetic, explosive, acceptance, proper character growth. It definitely got self indulgent at times, more specifically after the kickouts from the triple cross rhodes and aa's respectfully. But considering the stakes, I can't be too picky about that. An ambitious match, a match that if you just watched blindly without factoring in the proper context, this one wouldn't be for you. The best Cena looked in his retirement run. This should have been how it was from the start. Cody doing what he needed to do to get the ball back and finally beat one of his wrestling heroes, Cena doing what he can to fight off the inevitable. The smile Cody cracked after he finally got one over on Cena, who was the standard bearer for WWE for decades, to Cody who is now in that position today, immersion at its finest. Even getting emotional after Cena said a few words to him and handed him the title in defeat. A damn shame what followed after the match tho. But that doesn't takeaway the magic these two created in and outside the ring last night. Both men were determined to make it up to the fans after what happened at mania (overhated match btw), I'd say they did just that. Incredible, incredible match. A spirited performance from Cena I will never forget in my wrestling fandom. It was only fitting that Cody was the one who was able to get this out of Cena. One of my current favs and one of my all time favs just duking it out throwing bombs at one another until the other ran out of answers and had to accept their fate. A stadium epic and then some. I understand him wanting to try something different since he is retiring when he finally turned heel, it just didn't work or resonate at all. There was some good stuff he did but no one wanted to boo this guy, and when shit went left in terms of what happened after the chamber, they should have found a way to pivot back much sooner. Now we're at the end of the road, a run that crept up on us so fast. I remember he announced he was retiring just last year in my city during mitb. I regret never getting to see him one last time but I had to make a choice cause tickets were so expensive lol. Cena is one of the many examples as to why I look at wrestling the way I do today. I know what to look for in a match and that's mainly because of him. It's gonna be weird not seeing Cena on my screen getting ready to wrestle on a raw/sd/snme/ppv anymore. The last time is truly now, it's still hard to accept that the end is near. All I'm hoping for is that they stick the landing. As polarizing as this run was, there were still a lot of good shit that he did, tonight will be another example of that. Thank you Cena, for everything. Wrestling won't be the same without you. ****1/2"
[7.0] "Honestly... I didn't hate it. I quite enjoyed it for the most part. I don't love the finisher spam, and I don't love the crowd brawling outside of the cody vator thing. And I actually think it's paced very well not feeling like 37 minutes at all. But man the finisher spam is too much, and by the end I was wanting the match to end not because of the pace, but because of how many finishers were hit. It was just way to much. But it actually is a good match and fun. I just wish they cut the finishers down and maybe went like 30 instead of 37 and I think this would be almost a great match. Instead it's good, but just too much for me. ***3/4 (3.75)"
[10.0] "This match made me feel like a kid again, Cena pulled out his 2015 bag, this match was super fun and Cody really made this one emotional too. They both took nasty bumps and there were some cool spots in here too. For not a minute I was bored it was straight action for almost 40 minutes. Cena kicking out of the triple Cross Rhodes, Cody kicking out of the Super AA and Cody doing the salute was perfect before the Cross Rhodes. Easily Cena's best match of the retirement tour."
[8.0] "It's good. Don't get me wrong, it's good. But is it 5 stars? Nowhere close. I think it's honestly insulting that this received 5 stars but Styles vs. Cena at Crown Jewel didn't. This match is just very slow and prodding to me. They're really only in it for the big moves and moments. That's usually fine, but they overdo it to an extreme amount here. There's no reason for Cody Rhodes to kick out of what must have been 8 AA's, and no reason for Cena to kick out of the same amount of Cross Rhodes. At least this was a million times better than their WrestleMania match."
[10.0] "The best match John Cena has had since coming back. This makes up for the mess at Wrestlemania and I think it's the right call for Cena to drop the belt. The only complaint I have is them both kicking out of a ton of finishers. I do see why though as it is super Cena vs the modern day version. I also liked Brock Lesnar coming out at the end and curious to see where this all goes."
[7.0] "****1/2 a great match, one of the best of Cena's year and far far above the WM 41 match, they started strong fighting practically, bringing out their arsenal, even Cody pulling off an impressive Piledriver, and the first AA they did very meh because it was obvious it wouldn't end there, they brought out weapons and made great spots worthy of the stipulation, the second AA arrived but Cena couldn't cover Cody and then outside the ring he applied a third AA now to the commentary table, then there was a brawl outside the ring among the public with a great suplex spot to a metal barrier that looked painful, and when they disappeared upon entering under the stage for me it was the perfect opportunity to make Cody bleed when they appeared in the elevator, unfortunately it didn't happen and it went normally, a 4th AA I think arrived on the ramp, and Cena took Cody to the ring to look for another but without achieving much, Cody began to give excellent touches of storytelling with his most violent way to act since the three cross rhodes (which I thought was excessive the kick-out there but it worked to cause a brutal pop) also the attempt to use the belt that Cena avoided and applied two AA and a super AA followed by another exaggerated kick-out that was the bad thing about this fight as much as I understand it, the most important spot of the match was in my opinion Cody using the bottom corner to attack Cena, Cody unleashed using the most violent facet seen of him in WWE, Cena also used it but only the rope for an STF, in the end everything ends with a Cody Cutter from the third rope to a table, and a moment with Cody saying goodbye to Cena and applying a last and definitive cross rhodes to become undisputed champion again, MOTY Contender that if it weren't for the excessive kick-outs would be top 3 of the year"
[9.0] "It's a shame that this wasn't what we got at mania. The storytelling in this match was great making it such an emotional match especially with the end with Cody saluting Cena before hitting the crossroads. They really went all out in this match and my favorite spot was when Cena came from under the stage and hitting Cody with an aa. The two big kickouts were a bit too much but I'm not as mad as I would be because it mostly fit the narrative. 4.75/5"
[7.0] "7.5 I love Cody and Cena and the street fight, Cena turning face does help this match alot, you know what you're getting in a normal match, but here there was a random piledriver, typical plunder, loved the callback to the Umaga match with the bottom rope. I just really didn't care for the end. You're doing a street fight and yeah it is respectful but anything goes so waffling over the belt is annoying choice.. Solid match"
[8.0] "A good, solid Street Fight that looked like it was going to repair the damage John Cena's poorly thought out heel turn did to his retirement tour. While that wasn't the case (*cough* *cough* Brock Lesnar), this match was still really fun and was a true passing of the torch moment from Super Cena to Super Cody. An amazing step-up from their snoozefest of a WrestleMania main event with Travis Scott interference, this match made us believe, if even just for a moment, that Cena could turn it all around and retire as the Superman that we all wanted to see. Ranking not including Brock Lesnar's return post-match, because if I included that, then this match would be a 1/10."
[10.0] "Excellent match from both participants, Super Cody vs Super Cena was great, the ending with Cena passing the torch to Cody was great. It was a bit of finisher spam but for it made me at the edge of the seat everytime, Cody winning and staying babyface was also the right choice because its the best for WWE for now."
[0.0] "I'm using a translation function, so it might be hard to understand. Cena threw away the great character he'd built up during his heel turn and, as he'd declared, fought as the babyface he once was (what? ). The match was long and boring, with just punches and set spots. The scene where the two men came storming out from under the stage was incredibly lame and a joke (speaking of jokes, Cody's entrance mask was also terrible). I'm sick of how PLE main events have been dragged out to make matches last longer by needlessly padding things out in recent years. The match was so lackluster that I wasn't excited about Lesnar's surprise appearance after the match.I love WrestleMania matches, but this one was so boring I nearly fell asleep multiple times. It was a waste of time.This was a historic match in the sense that it almost caused me to lose interest in WWE after watching it for over 20 years."
[9.0] "Funny how they went from the worst match of the year to one the best. Too many AA's and cross rhodes but still fun match. Made it up for the wrestlemania disaster."
[9.0] "The match between Cody Rhodes and John Cena at SummerSlam was a perfect blend of emotion, skill, and respect between generations. Both superstars proved why they're legends in the ring, delivering a performance worthy of the hottest event of the summer."
[9.0] "Thank God this happened. John Cena's final WrestleMania match may have been ruined, but his final SummerSlam match went quite the opposite. The random face turn two nights before on SmackDown was pretty obviously a pivot because Dwayne doesn't like showing up to work anymore, but it made the moment where his colorful graphics replaced the dull 'John Cena' super special. This was definitely a finisher fest, but it was so much fun and had some great moments like Cena carrying Cody on the elevator and Cena kicking out of the triple Cross Rhodes. Nice passing of the torch moment and I will be ignoring what transpired after. (9.25/10)"
[9.0] "The match their Wrestlemania bout should've been, though it's weird how heel-ish Cody became as the match went on without him actually turning heel. Still, fantastic performances all around, and a flat statement of how poor Cena worked as a heel. He's still got it, folks!"
"***** This is what WrestleMania 41 is supposed to have. Frankly, SummerSlam is what WrestleMania should've been. This is Super Cena vs Super Cody, The Peacemaker vs Homelander. Both of them kicking out of the other's super finisher is warranted."
[10.0] "Iconic match that will be enjoyable to remember and fun to watch. Future WWE classics. A masterpiece in the pop-WWE style. Synchronous moments, plenty of meme-worthy moments, combined with a lengthy, epic duration, great wrestling, and emotions. Thank you, Cena!"
[8.0] "The match was great at the beginning and gave you feelings, but again they made the same mistake: they don't know when to end the match. It was very emotional with excellent performances, but it was too long. Cena gave everything he had left in this match, and I don't think he will top that ****"
[8.0] "I liked the match, but it was nowhere near 5 stars for me. The match had some crazy spots, but not enough to call this a classic. I hated the finisher fest, and the two men kicking out of so many finishers, I lost count. I don't have a problem with kickouts in big matches, but it was just way too much. The two should've been more creative, instead of just spamming finishers. The ending was cool and elevated the match, as I really liked the Cody Cutter off the top rope through the table, and him saluting Cena before the end was also a nice touch. Cody winning the match was the right decision and liked the way how Cena passed the torch. Overall, it was a pretty good match, but went on for way too long and got a little boring in the middle. [****]"
[8.0] "This felt like a Cena match of old, good to see him deliver this kind of performance in the modern times. It had all the spots you would expect from this type of match, but it did get a bit too over-the-top at times, especially with the finisher kickouts. Glad that Cena turned face for this and stayed as such afterwards rather than swerving us and keeping him heel. Odd that he dropped the title rather early but I have no complaints. Rhodes performed very well too, glad that he got the win here. It's not the greatest match of all time by any means but I'll happily take what it gave. Cena and Rhodes definitely redeemed themselves from that horrible WrestleMania match they had four months earlier."
[10.0] "Ce Cena vs Rhodes à SummerSlam 2025, c'est plus qu'un simple match : un moment de passage, une célébration et une intensité pure. Rhodes et Cena ont donné tout ce qu'ils avaient, des nearfalls trop bien, des spots brutaux, une street fight qui rend hommage à la stipulation. Wikipedia. Le finish était parfait -- Cody enfin champion à nouveau, Cena qui rend hommage, les fans qui vibrent. Ça marque une étape majeure. Pour moi c'est le meilleur match solo de Cena de l'année, et une victoire logique de Cody."
[8.0] "A stupid amount of finishers, but the rest of this thing wasn't too bad. A VAST improvement over their WrestleMania match, that's for sure. Innovative spots and a slow build that paid off with Cody ending this historically stupid Cena heel run. We're not gonna talk about that post match. [****]"
[3.0] "The amount of finishers that were dished out was absolutely absurd & ridiculous. Matches like this will never be my cup of tea but this was on another level of bad. John Cena hit almost 10 finishers & Cody just kicks out of all of them? Why even have finishers if they are just going to be treated like an arm drag. Not to mention everything in this just felt super slow & it felt it was done on purpose"
[9.0] "The chemistry between Cody and Cena was much better than in their first match at Wrestlemania. It's really nice to see John Cena as a face again."
[9.0] "****1/2. MOTY so far. Pretty much what the Mania match should have been in terms of a culminative epic but having Mania so early in the retirement run it's hard to do it. Loved literally everything about it, classic Cena in everyway down to busting out a random workrate move for the pops. he's still got it, and its just a pittance that they turned this guy heel, one of the all-time moments of malpractice. at least this last leg of the run is looking up !"
[10.0] "The culmination of Cody Rhodes and John Cena's feud and the passing of the torch from Cena to Cody. It doesn't quite have the majestic nature of Hogan Vs. Andre, but they do a good job of keeping the crowd invested. People finishing: Finisher spam, bro. Who gives a shit? People take this stuff too seriously. It was an entertaining match and that's all that matters to me. You can tell John Cena is going to miss this, but he's getting too old for this now. It could have used some blood, but otherwise a great passing of the torch between eras."
[6.0] "It was a decent, WWE style sanitary street fight. It's PG-13 at its best. The problems in this match are the same in almost every WWE match. Overuse of finishers, thousand yard stares after kickouts because in kayfabe wrestlers have no long term memory. The spot with the elevator on the stage was incredibly stupid as well. We had to sit there and wait for it and it looked awkward. This isn't a terrible match and Cena had one of his better outings. It simply suffers from the forced epic WWE keeps trying to do. To love this match is to be undemanding and simple and I'm actually envious I'm not like that anymore. Also, 5 stars only matters to fans when it's their favorites. Otherwise Uncle Meltzy is a paid shill somewhere else."
[10.0] "This match is perfect. Utterly insane. I understand the criticisms of this "finisher spam" wrestling but I think this match does it perfectly. Such high stakes, brilliant spots and an incredibly memorable moment of Cena coming up through the stage. Love this match."
[5.0] "I wanted to like this but I counted over 15 finishers combined in this match smh and don't get me started on the ref that was counting this super slow. You can say the silver lining is this was better than their WrestleMania match but it didn't need to take over a dozen finishers to make that happen."
[8.0] "If presented as a mere checklist of ideas, this would've felt like something very much not for me, but it had an undeniable punch in execution. The visible effort of John Cena produced considerable charm to begin with, but that only escalated as he grew into the occasion. In the blink of an eye, Cena had transformed into a version of himself that we hadn't seen all year, wrestling with a smile on his face and regaining the enthusiasm that defined his differing peaks. It's a flawed match, but one with a spiritual gravity that I hadn't anticipated before the first bell. It's dumb, loud and unapologetic, yet that feels true to both wrestlers: a comic book duel between two of WWE's ultimate superheroes. ***3/4"
[10.0] "In John Cena vs AJ Styles 2016 feud they were critiqued for essentially co-opting the NJPW style for main events of big four PPV's; Cody v Cena recreates this style while simultaneously enabling cena's retirement run to have all the pay offs in spots that were teased throughout the heel run. For a match that meaningfully had 1 show on build last Friday, it succeeded at capturing a once in a lifetime feeling especially after the flop of a wrestlemania main event. This match went long, was overly campy at spots, had a lot of laying around, but it was perfect for creating a big match John match. As a viewer I was left speechless at how many quintessential Cena matches were able to be utilized in refreshing ways. You know a match is good when they decide to start going through the crowd 15 minutes in without being falls count anywhere."
[9.0] "A really fun match that had some crazy moments. It had fan engagement from the moment it was announced and lived up to the excitement and made up for the WrestleMania match-up. Cena and Rhodes put a ton into this match. My only real complaint is how many finishers their were. I liked the shocking kickouts of the 3 AA's and the 3 Cross Roads' but everything prior to that was unnecessary especially if this was to happen."
[8.0] "A great match and closer for sure, but it falls short of a 9 for me for several reasons. I much preferred this match to Cena and Rhodes' Wrestlemania encounter, with it featuring great pacing that certainly helped the match feel shorter than it was. The first couple near falls or so did really add to the tension of the match, but as the match continued onwards it went from feeling like shocking feats of endurance to a sort of cheap "There's no way he's gonna kick out of that THIS TIME! " Overall, the excitement faded for me and by the time it was over I was desensitized to the finisher spam. However, I'd be lying if I said my eyes weren't glued to the screen the entire match, and the two really did put on a classic. ****"
[2.0] "I initially ignored this match after Wrestlemania but gave it a fair chance when I saw the praise from people online. What I ended up watching was a drawn out finisher spam where any semblance of an interesting match was thrown out of the window and replaced with finishers and kick outs. Kick outs should mean something and after this match had cycled through a few of them they were just pointless to me. There was no shock when they happened, no surprise. Just another kick out. And another. And another. For the entire match. I was hoping for at least a bit more variety, more anything really given the experience these men both have in the ring. This may be the last truly big Cena match and it's a shame for me that it ended on this."
[10.0] "Going into summerslam, i was expecting night 1 ME to be a classic match that will be my MOTW and i was expecting night 2 to be at least decent because i knew both Cody and John would want to rectify their wrestlemania match & i have ended up getting the opposite. John Cena v. Cody Rhodes was hands down among the very best wwe matches EVER. Former face of wwe v. current face of wwe. 2 of the greatest babyfaces wwe has ever had going against each other as a face v. face match. Like almost everyone else, i too expected John's sudden babyface turn to be a ruse that was done for the story of the match and playing into Cody's hesitation to do whatever he has to to put John down but as soon as they started the match by hugging each other and straight up going into a fist fight, i realized the turn may have been genuine and thank f'n god it was genuine because this allowed John to tap back into what he has always been known for, and that is big match John. He was still the old man John with his body no longer capable of doing what he could once, but mannn..... it did not matter one bit. He did everything and so much more than his body allowed him to. And as it is in most cases, Cody f'n Rhodes brought the best out of John. It will probably go unnoticed and underappreciated because he allowed this to be the John Cena show. Everything John did Cody sold like a million bucks for him. In theory, this was supposed to be Cody's redemption moment/story but no, they put the main focus on John like their first match would have probably been. It was about John fighting a fight with his much younger, healthier, faster, more athletic, just simply a better wrestler of a successor but him refusing to no pun intended, never give up and keep fighting and Cody sold all of this turmoil and pain of having to inflict all this punishment to his broken down hero. Perfection is rarity in pro-wrestling because there is always something to nitpick but i thought when this was over, i thought it was a perfect match in the sense that even the imperfections like excessive finisher kickouts and not every move or sequence being crisp like a Danielson or a Kenny match, or simply John just being an old man with physical limitations but all of these imperfections added to the match to make it better. The kickouts were necessary simply because this was Big match John, Super Cena v. Cody Rhodes, who has been the most overpowered wrestlers since John Cena. The triple crossroads kickout made me legit jump. Some moves and sequences not looking crisp and sharp gave it a feeling of realism as to where John's body is in 2025. It was charming to see John struggle to lift just the bottom portion of the steel steps, something he has done so easily countless times in his prime. Him breathing heavy while carrying Cody from the ramp to the ring but smiling and powering through anyway and the crowd realizing it and being so behind him. Beautiful stuff. I have seen a lot of people cite these specific imperfections as reasons as a detriment to the match but mann, if anything that was the true beauty of this match. Hands down one of my favorite matches of all-time now. Hats off to John Cena & Cody Rhodes. 10 out of 10. 5 stars. All that!"
[7.0] "This was a good match and many people felt it was more, the crowd was very into it. The 2 fan favorites finally having a match with no interruptions, many kickouts that made people crazy. However, I personally didn't felt much, probably because I'm burned out by what the company and its matches looks like now. Spamming finishers in that type of match is not the worst decision but same as MANY other matches this year, I think it looks lazy and ruins the whole thing. Cena still did really good tho, the part in the crowd and on the stage was nice. So yeah, it was good and I understand many people liked it a lot, but I think it wasn't that special, not a classic or a "banger" at all."
[6.0] "finisher spams are the worst in wrestling, especially in WWE. Definitely a better match than Mania but 5 stars, I don't know about that. Well at least they realized Cena is better face than heel. Why don't turn Cody heel though"
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