10 Money Matches WWE Rushed To Give Away For Free
8. John Cena Vs. Braun Strowman (11 September 2017, Raw)
John Cena went through a period of working big matches on free TV in 2017. In August that year, he lost to Shinsuke Nakamura on SmackDown - but it paled in comparison to the WWE-style brawl he worked with Braun Strowman on the 11 September Raw.
This, despite the quality, was a total waste.
Mere weeks before he was set to clash with Brock Lesnar at No Mercy, Braun lost by DQ to Cena when he should have won. Look beyond that and it's pretty clear that the match was unnecessary anyway; Strowman jobbed in nine minutes to Brock at the pay-per-view, and that makes WWE's decision to p*ss (less) money up against the wall even harder to swallow.
Cena is one of the biggest stars of his generation, perhaps the biggest. A properly promoted pay-per-view match with Braun would have garnered huge interest from fans. It was the kind of reputation-enhancing victory Strowman needed at the time.