4 Ups & 5 Downs For WWE Wrestlepalooza 2025 (Results & Review)

2. What The Hell Was That?

The moment it was announced that Brock Lesnar versus John Cena was opening Wrestlepalooza, there was little doubt that this was going to be a sub-10-minute match that just “played the hits” rather than attempting to approach an epic.

Sure enough, after a brief period of shoulders in the corner, punches, and clotheslines, Brock started throwing suplexes. Cena came back with shoulder tackles, three Attitude Adjustments – getting a two count – and saw his Five Knuckle Shuffle countered with SIX F-5s… for the win.

Lesnar coming back is bad enough to be a Disgusting Promotional Tactic of the year finalist, but Brock returning and defeating Cena is mind-bogglingly stupid. This should have been Cena slaying the Beast in their final match, Brock snapping on security or officials, and getting suspended and disappearing (for good, ideally, but until the Royal Rumble at least). Instead, this raises questions about whether WWE does a rematch or if Lesnar just disappears anyway.

Cena has only five dates left. They can’t be doing a “Cena needs to find his inner strength” angle on his way out. And honestly, if WWE wanted him to get battered to drive the point that he’s running out of steam, why not have a young star like Bron Breakker or an established guy like Gunther take on that task?

The match was an anticlimactic, low-rent rehash of their SummerSlam 2014 match. It’s hard to envision any positive follow-up from this – unless you’re a Lesnar mark just dying to count along with his German suplexes.