Welcome To The Club, Kevin Owens

A victory over John Cena? That’s rare.

A clean victory over John Cena? Even more rare.

A clean victory in a non-gimmick, one-on-one match on pay-per-view? Well, that's like the Halley's Comet of professional wrestling.

Kevin Owens joined a very exclusive club at WWE's Elimination Chamber event. Hey, I know the thrill didn't last long. Cena got his revenge just two weeks later at WWE's Money In The Bank event, but don't let that take away from K.O.'s accomplishment. 

Kevin Owens is in some exclusive company. Here's the very short list of men who have clean victories over John Cena in one-on-one, non-gimmick, pay-per-view matches since Cena was drafted to Raw on June 6, 2005.

Triple H vs. John Cena

WWE Championship

Night Of Champions 2008

Triple H's tan, you guys! John Cena's white sneakers! It's almost too much to take in at once! The announcers bill this as the first meeting between Cena and Triple H since the main event of WrestleMania 22, and they're actually right! This is their first one-on-one match since Cena's successful title defense more than 2 years earlier.

Less than a week before Night Of Champions, the draft lottery had once again thrown the WWE into chaos. Triple H, and the WWE Championship, were moving to SmackDown. This was a last chance to keep the title on Raw. On paper, it seemed to make sense that Cena would win, but that's not what happened. Triple H beat him clean in the middle of the ring with the Pedigree. 

It's an interesting match because of Cena's style. He's definitely doing more dastardly stuff, which is a little weird given Triple H's reputation as an all-time bad guy. Cena isn't nearly as smooth in the ring here as he is today. That may be due to injuries that would put him out of action soon after, but more on that in a moment...

John Cena vs. Batista

SummerSlam 2008

2008 wasn't very kind to John Cena. He followed up his loss to Triple H at Night of Champions with a loss to JBL of all people in a New York City Parking Lot Brawl at the Great American Bash. Then, Batista came calling.

This was the first one-on-one meeting in WWE between these two. Despite neither holding a title at the time, it was one of the marquee matches at SummerSlam 2008. 

This match is solid, but not spectacular. The crowd is red hot by the end, so you know these two guys are doing something right. Cena really doesn't look like himself in this match. He's panting like a dog not long after Batista starts to impose his will. Perhaps that's simply to highlight The Animal's immeasurable power. The announcers try to portray this as a "dead heat" where anyone can win, but Batista's win feels dominant and definitive.

Cena wrestled a few more matches after this before neck surgery took him out of action for about three months. His injury would be attributed to Batista, and this loss would provide the foundation for a rematch for the WWE Championship nearly two years later at WrestleMania XXVI.

John Cena vs. The Rock

WrestleMania XXVIII

Yeah, one was a pretty big deal. The "Once In A Lifetime" match turned out to be a record-setting combination for WWE. It was the payoff to more than a year of hype.

After sometimes interminable talking, and virtually no physical contact, Cena and Rock finally met at WrestleMania XXVIII. The general consensus going into this match was that Cena would win, but there was just enough hope in The Rock to make this one of the most unpredictable main events in WrestleMania history. In his hometown, Rock pulled off the shocking win and sent the crowd in Miami into a state of euphoria.

I won't lie. This WrestleMania is one of my favorites. I love the production. I love the atmosphere. It just feels epic, and this match between John Cena and The Rock had a lot to do with that.

It's far from a technical classic, but it's also unforgettable. The addition of live performances by Flo Rida and MGK for the entrances adds a little extra to what was already an epic main event. And the fans are amazing. They're so happy to see The Rock win, and a lot of people watching at home were too.

John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan

WWE Championship

SummerSlam 2013

For those of you who may have forgotten, the set-up for this match was quite strange. For some reason, WWE Champion John Cena was granted the right to choose his own challenger.

Daniel Bryan was certainly popular at this time, but he and Cena were facing a tough task on hyping this match - the equivalent of a restaurant serving you a meal, and then cooking it. 

John Cena was in bad shape physically. He was nursing an elbow injury that could only be described as hideous. Daniel Bryan, on the other hand, was scorching hot and in peak form. Cena left SummerSlam soundly beaten, humbled and seemingly shaken to see how little his effort mattered at the end of the night.

Bryan and Cena had an awesome match, and it's a shame that it's overshadowed by the other big match that night, CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar. Punk/Lesnar was getting Match Of The Year buzz by the end of 2013, but fewer people were as generous to Cena/Bryan.

Perhaps it's what followed SummerSlam 2013 that dulls our affection for Daniel Bryan's big win. He held on to the championship for mere minutes before Randy Orton cashed in Money In The Bank, Triple H revealed whose side he was on, and The Authority was born.

The months that followed were endlessly frustrating for Daniel Bryan's fans, as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship slipped from his grasp on multiple occasions. At several points, it appeared WWE was ready to give up on Bryan.

Fate and the fans eventually turned things back in his favor. Unfortunately, by the time Bryan got his crowning glory at WrestleMania XXX, it was already too late. The accumulated toll on his body took Bryan out of action just over a month later, and he hasn't been the same since.

John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar

WWE World Heavyweight Championship

SummerSlam 2014

You remember this one, right? 

This match may actually be what WWE claims it to be - the most dominant victory in a championship match in the history of professional wrestling. It's certainly one of the most shocking outcomes I can recall, but it's not like Paul Heyman didn't warn us.

Brock Lesnar's victory over John Cena is less match, and more public execution. It's also our first visit to Suplex City (those now-legendary 16 German suplexes), although it wasn't officially christened until WrestleMania 31.

What is it about John Cena and SummerSlam? It's the most common scene of the crime on this list, and that's without a couple other losses that were notable, but not entirely clean - CM Punk's win at SummerSlam 2011 (which was the result of a missed foot on the rope by special referee, Triple H), and Randy Orton's at SummerSlam 2009 (which was clean in the end, but underhanded at almost every turn leading up to that final RKO).

This match is just a mile marker on Brock Lesnar's road of ruin. He hasn't been pinned or made to submit since WrestleMania 29. He remains the monster looming over WWE, waiting for someone to knock him off of the mountaintop.

Be honest, aren't you glad Brock Lesnar broke The Streak?

John Cena vs. Kevin Owens

Elimination Chamber 2015

That brings us back to this. Looking at the company Kevin Owens now shares, it's obvious he's much more than just another opponent for John Cena, and certainly one to be taken more seriously than some of Cena's other recent foils like Rusev and Bray Wyatt.

It's a shame Owens was defeated just two weeks later, but just look at this list. Kevin Owens is something special in the eyes of WWE, and certainly in the eyes of many fans.

And the next time he scores a clean victory over John Cena in a one-on-one, non-gimmick match on pay-per-view, Kevin Owens will be in a class by himself.