I was actually a bit shocked at the fact that John Cena was not OP enough to pull out a single victory. This, albeit an unexpected turn of events in the game, is in line with his real-life path over the last two years. I don’t want to be the one to say it but, I will go on a limb here and state my opinion that Cena will not surpass Flair’s number of title reigns. It is apparent, at least to me, that he is moving on with his career.

Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns were definitely shining. These matches showcased their ability to be beaten down to a pulp and then — WHAM! Superman Punch or F-5 out of nowhere! It was honestly a thing of beauty to watch. These two were put through ladders, RKO’d off the top of the ladder and took the Styles Clash; all for them to rise up and still claim victories. The Beast Incarnate eked out a first place finish in this leg. None of Lesnar’s wins were a cakewalk, but he managed to take 7 victories to Reigns’ 4. It is my opinion that even though Reigns has a higher overall rating than Lesnar, the difference can definitely be seen in the stamina and damage recovery. Reigns just isn’t the energizer bunny that Lesnar is!

A.J. Styles and Seth Rollins rolled in as the dark horse, party wreckers. I am not going to lie when I say that as much as I am enjoying their prowess, I did not see these two pulling out the second and third place in the rankings. Thinking about it, though, their wrestling styles in the game are what played a good part in their success. Styles, for example, can climb the ladders much faster than any other competitor in this six man, 100 match gauntlet. The speed and stamina of Styles and Rollins, the only two classified as light heavyweights, has allowed them to keep pace with The Beast and boy was it a thing of beauty to see.

Now, for the elephant in the room. My personal favorite going into this battle for the OP championship, Randy Orton, is riding second to last in this rodeo. Honestly, I cannot complain. Orton’s A.I. functioned just like the Viper does in reality. Outta nowhere, and with a viciousness that is fueled by truly ending opponents regardless of victory or his hand being raised. In the matches, Orton tended to take those high risk RKO’s from the ladder, on the ringside, etcetera. And as always, his focus often drifted from an opportunity at the briefcase hanging above him to instead laying waste to John Cena. I loved this aspect because anyone that truly knows the history of these two professionals knows that their rivalry goes back to before their days with WWE. They wrestled each other as far back as January of 2001 in OVW, more than a year before either man debuted on the main roster. Prototype versus the man who would soon become the Legend Killer. Great match if any of you guys want to see it, it is on the WWE Network as part of The Rise of John Cena.

One key piece of this puzzle was how adamant the A.I. responded to John Cena gaining any kind of momentum during the matches. There were numerous times where I felt he was gonna pull a Milan Miracle and grab that briefcase, but one of the other competitors always came from outside the ring or recuperated insanely fast and was able to cancel his opportunity. This usually ended in a finisher from the ladder with the occasional powerbomb resulting as he held onto the briefcase after the ladder had fallen to the mat. These events ended his run completely and he was usually found laying outside the ring as the victory typically went to whomever stopped him. A.J. Styles was the one who most often pulled off this type victory, followed by Orton — all three of his victories came in grand fashion over Cena in exactly the manner described above.

This concludes the first quarter of matches for the YES! Wrestling OP simulation. Below you will find the OP Championship Scorecard courtesy of yours truly as well as a few more highlights from this leg of the gauntlet. Stay tuned to see who will pull out the victory in the second quarter match stipulation: Hell in a Cell! Let’s get ready to rumble as it should be a real slobber-knocker!