The Cenation Leader kicks off a special Labor Day edition of Raw by battling the "gold-blooded" Jason Jordan.

OMAHA, NE — Jason Jordan isn’t just learning from his father Kurt Angle, he’s learning from his old opponents. Much like when John Cena stepped up to Angle in his debut, Jordan received a match with the 16-time World Champion to kick off Raw. And if Jordan didn’t quite unleash his inner ruthless aggression, he still displayed plenty of intensity, integrity and intelligence, grounding Cena with his mat game and forcing the decorated champion to adjust on the fly.

To Jordan’s credit, he hung with Cena almost every step of the way, escaping both the Attitude Adjustment and the STF before administering a jaw-dropping pair of Northern Lights Suplexes. But much like Cena against Angle, Jordan came up empty against the veteran, succumbing to a quick-strike AA that didn’t come a minute too soon for the imperiled Cena. For all the similarities this match shared with the one waged between his father and his opponent so many years ago, it turned out to be one of the most declarative statements yet about the path Jason Jordan might forge on his own.

Of course, the moment had barely passed before Roman Reigns’ music hit and The Big Dog emerged, surely with a thing or two on his mind …