Ever since Jeffrey Dean Morgan took over the role of the sadistic Negan in The Walking Dead, comparisons have been made to his other famous role in The CW’s Supernatural, where he portrayed the complicated man that is John Winchester.
Negan, the ruler of the Saviors and the man responsible for taking out hundreds of people - a significant of whom he bashed to death - is the most feared villain on The Walking Dead. On the other end, we have John Winchester - the man who went down as perhaps the greatest hunter to ever lived in the Supernatural universe, being responsible for taking down beings of unfathomable power. So, let’s put the conversation to rest and see which one of these two would come out on top in a fight.
10 Cunning: Negan
Negan’s joking persona is a front to make his subordinates or opponents think of him as an everyman to underestimate. However, Negan is a thinking man who strategizes in advance. This was best seen in the Season 6 finale, where Negan had all his men placed in the way of Rick and company, knowing where they were headed. His ideology of using people for service ensured Negan had seemingly endless supplies.
John was more like his son Dean, preferring to shoot first and ask questions to the terrified partner of that enemy... before chopping their head off as well.
9 Fighting Ability: John Winchester
There’s no question: John easily wins a one-on-one fight between these two characters. The Winchester patriarch was famous for taking down one-of-a-kind monsters in his time, and the time traveling John in Supernatural’s Season 14 easily took out his sons even though they had decades' worth of experience by then.
Negan’s fighting style was that of a brute; even his character in Tekken 7 doesn’t have much moves other brute force. When wielding Lucille, Negan tended to throw fighting tactics out of the window and relied on swinging for the head. John won’t have any trouble beating Negan within a minute or so.
8 Back-Up: John Winchester
Negan had about five or so trusted generals in his army of Saviors, but none of them would be useful against John’s sons in Sam and Dean Winchester. Heck, even one brother could solo all of Negan’s generals.
Sam has the brains, and he’ll have an ambush ready before Negan’s crew knows what hit them; Dean is the brawn who’ll slice off every head with his machete within a couple minutes. The brothers took down monsters like the Leviathans, so humans will be a cakewalk for them. If the situation has John in the captivity of the Saviors, then you can bet the brothers will slaughter the whole faction to get to their father.
7 Feats: John Winchester
Negan managed to stack up an entire army on his own and got them so terrified of him that they identified themselves as Negan - this is an achievement we haven’t seen anyone else achieve in The Walking Dead. While that’s a superb feat, one still can’t argue against a guy who survived over a century in Hell!
John was tortured by the demon Alastair for what felt like forever, and yet he still never gave in and retained his humanity. John would then find a way to escape Hell itself and incapacitated a Prince of Hell as well. As a human, John faced and survived almost every foe Sam and Dean faced, giving him the honor of a legendary hunter.
6 Ruthlessness: Negan
Sure, John decapitated more bodies than he could count in his time as a hunter - this included both humans and monster victims - and yet, John was still a person who knew what compassion was.
Negan, on the other hand, had no qualms when it comes to using underhanded tactics or simply killing people in the worst ways possible if it meant remaining unchallenged. We’ve seen him bash people’s brains in, strangle victims in public, and even throw an innocent man in a furnace. This guy was as ruthless as they came and if he decided to kill someone, then it was most likely curtains for them.
5 Knowledge: John Winchester
The most anyone in The Walking Dead knows is that they have to avoid being bitten by zombies and that they shouldn’t trust anyone. Conversely, Supernatural has characters travel to all sorts of realms and learn deep levels of magic.
John has been to both Heaven and Hell, with his understanding of all things supernatural reaching almost unparalleled levels as evidenced by his journal, which Sam and Dean exclusively used as their source of knowledge in the first few seasons. Who knows, maybe John could make use of certain spells or hex bags to finish off Negan without even needing to touch the man.
4 Enemy Power Level: John Winchester
Yeah, fighting zombies is a tall order if they overwhelm someone, after which it’s time to become undead chow, but that’s still more preferable than fighting a freaking Prince of Hell. While the Supernatural villains aren’t as strong as those the DC and Marvel heroes face, Azazel was powerful enough that he could even possess Reapers and make deals that brought people back from the dead.
Negan would firstly be swiftly possessed by a demon without having any clue how to fight it, while John would have the easiest time in his hunting career if he were to be thrust against slow moving zombies.
3 Weaponry: John Winchester
We would’ve given the win to Negan simply because Lucille is the coolest weapon out there, but it turned out that John had a Lucille-style weapon of his own. This makes both characters square in this regard... that is until we bring up the point of the Colt.
The Colt can kill just about anything other than primordial entities; since The Walking Dead only has zombies, the Colt could easily kill them. John was also knowledgeable of other kinds of melee weapons, having dabbled with them to kill all sorts of supernatural creatures. Negan has his supply of weapons, but none of the variety that John has experience with.
2 Army: Negan
While the main characters in The Walking Dead have taken out members of Negan’s army, they only won because Eugene rigged the Saviors’ weapons. John had a number of connections with other hunters, however, there were hardly enough to form an army.
Should John be confronted with the entire might of the Saviors, his only recourse would be to bail or go down swinging. The Saviors’ numbers were immense to the point that there were still hundreds left even after we saw hundreds die, so perhaps Negan would simply have them fight John rather than do it himself.
1 Winner: John Winchester
Honestly, this was an easy conclusion to arrive at, seeing as John Winchester has a truckload more experience than Negan and the fact that he fought with beings that Negan could never comprehend.
Being an apex hunter in Supernatural enabled John to learn about magic, lore, fighting styles, resilience, and just about every ability anything a person could attain. Negan became a tyrant who didn’t need John’s experience because he relied on power and fear rather than strength. In the end, John’s all-round skills have him make short work of Lucille and take down Negan’s threat with ease.