10 Most Infamous Matches In Wrestling History
8. John Cena Vs. John Laurinaitis - WWE Over The Limit 2012
In 2012, John Cena was meant to have experienced the worst year in his professional career. He somehow needed to be redeemed from beating a returning Brock Lesnar and remaining firmly in the WWE Championship picture ahead of his WrestleMania 29 rematch with The Rock.
He also had a whale of time bullying and thrashing onscreen authority figure John Laurinaitis in the main event of Over The Limit 2012. He was the only one.
For seventeen migraine-inducing minutes, the very worst of the Cena character was distilled and elevated above everything else in the company. He gurned his way through a comedy performance played for the most juvenile laughs imaginable. He spun Laurinaitis around and made him dizzy. He then rang the ring bell next to his ears, before dragging the disoriented "Big Johnny" into the commentary area, at which point he "hilariously" thought he was Booker T. The Big Show turned up at the end, telegraphing the most obvious ever of his frequent and contrived heel turns. It was as conspicuous as his garish yellow shirt.
Worse than the fact that it headlined over CM Punk and Daniel Bryan's technical masterclass, worse than the fact that it dragged on for nearly twenty minutes, worse than the blindingly obvious finish, was that it existed to both set up another Cena/Show retreated.
Scratch that; even worse was the portrayal of Laurinaitis as a bumbling fool. It was too close to home. The man oversaw the dismal developmental system for years, and was directly responsible for the dross that was WWE in the pre-NXT era - and this match was a near-affectionate acquittal of it.