10 Wrestling Matches That Broke All The Rules
8. John Cena Vs. Brock Lesnar - WWE SummerSlam 2014
At SummerSlam 2014, in an audacious, shocking main event, Brock Lesnar threw John around like he was Barry Horowitz, only Cena didn't have time to pat himself on the back; Lesnar threw him down to the canvas, again and again, compressing his neck with a series of borderline harrowing German suplexes. Never the most natural of bumpers, Cena's own distinct style put over the punishment all the more. He looked like he was getting his bones rattled with every impact.
That was the match, essentially - or the moves. Lesnar mastered the space between them with wicked psychology, conveying to the audience that Cena was a slab of meat to be toyed with. Lesnar didn't fight the big dog; he killed a puppy with an assault rifle.
This was John Cena. John Cena did not lose; WWE engineered a series of such daft contrivances that he might as well have arrived to the ring in bubble wrap, on the few occasions he had to look at the lights.
A clean loss was rare enough: this was both humiliation and destruction. Really, the only word is desecration, given how sacred the Cena character was to the narrative lore at that point.