10 Times WWE Booked Themselves Into A Corner
9. Suplex City
At SummerSlam 2014, Brock Lesnar annihilated John Cena in one of the most audacious, cathartic, gruesome - and fatal - spectacles in WWE history.
Powered by the confidence of conquering the Undertaker's legendary WrestleMania streak, the Brock Lesnar character honed his strategy to simply throw the hapless around like sacks of sh*t under a German suplex storm. He labelled this strategy "Suplex City" at WrestleMania 31, but erected the foundations at SummerSlam, and those foundations were unshakeable - because why, from a psychological perspective, would he deviate from a strategy that was both incredibly effective and required little physical exertion?
This was a trademark Paul Heyman booking decision consistent with his big picture shock mentality. It wasn't thought through; Heyman imbued the character with so much power that it indulged the selective motivation of the performer, resulting in too many shockingly one-sided and half-arsed outings.
The Lesnar character has proven a revelation since around this time last year, but the whole Suplex City bit has led us to a weird and stultifying point at which stars are meant to get over just by surviving the onslaught in a very good 14 minute match - and at which point the ripping, back-and-forth like of Lesnar Vs. CM Punk can no longer happen.