10 Wrestling Matches That Buried Top Stars ON PURPOSE

7. Brock Lesnar Vs. John Cena - WWE SummerSlam 2014

Bray Wyatt John Cena
wwe.com

The purpose here?

Triple H had killed Brock Lesnar's deadly, inimitable aura by losing 2-1 to the Beast in a methodical (read: boring as f*ck) trilogy that played out to eerie, damning silence. The artificial emotion and political bullsh*t here almost ruined Lesnar as an attraction. HHH winning at WrestleMania was far more memorable than ultimately losing 2-1 at Extreme Rules, and the Game knew it. That's why he is the Game.

Even the shock, colossal breaking of the Streak wasn't enough to get Lesnar over under Vince McMahon's preferred vision, irrespective of whether that vision - "mercenary embodies company values by annihilating people they don't want you to like" - was wise.

The plan, realised at SummerSlam 2014, saw Lesnar erect the foundations of Suplex City by German-ing John Cena's spine to smithereens. This wasn't "Holy sh*t he can go a bit!" John Cena. This wasn't inspirational tweeter, Gwyneth Paltrow John Cena.

He'd know about enjoying that, because John Cena enjoyed wins every day.

He was Super Cena when Lesnar destroyed him, and this was Paul Heyman's chance to finally realise his long-held plan to get a single move executed by a killer over in an age of convoluted action.

The strategy worked to an extent - the best Lesnar matches yielded the most awesome comebacks - but it also buried generations of talent amid declining TV viewership.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!