10 Awesome Wrestling Matches That Had Harsh Consequences
9. John Cena Vs. Brock Lesnar (Extreme Rules 2012)
John Cena has been WWE’s franchise player for over a decade now, but many a young wrestler’s career has suffered at his expense. The likes of Wade Barrett, Bray Wyatt, and Umaga lead a list of grapplers whose main event credibility was obliterated while working one-sided feuds with Super Cena, and there are dozens of instances where Cena won a match he probably should have lost.
Few are more apparent than his Extreme Rules 2012 win over Brock Lesnar, who’d just returned to the company after an eight year absence. It was vitally important that the Beast Incarnate won his first match back to re-establish him as a major threat in WWE, but alas, he lost.
In fairness, Cena took a prolonged beating throughout the match, and Brock was allowed to look like a dominant monster. All of this was undone by one of Cena’s trademark Superman comebacks, however, and while Brock has since become WWE’s prime special attraction, this match almost killed him off.
Lesnar’s mystique faded away as soon as the referee’s hand hit the mat for a third time, and it took his Streak-beating win over The Undertaker for Lesnar to eventually get his heat back. The outcome only amplified the fan’s disdain for Cena, and had it gone the other way, WWE would have avoided a boatload of backlash: not only from this match, but from Lesnar’s eventual win over The Undertaker.