5 Reasons Lesnar vs Cena At Night Of Champions Was WWE Match Of The Year

3. John Cena Is Learning About "Heart"

It's arguable that the last match that required John Cena needing to up the ante on physicality in order to show that he indeed had a heart beating inside of his very corporate, brand and message driven body was arguably against Batista in a last man standing match at April's Extreme Rules 2010 pay per view. When Cena gives Batista the Attitude Adjustment from off the roof of a car through the staging area and Cena stands triumphant, he looks like less of a "babyface wrestling character" and more of a "gladiator." Last night, Cena the Gladiator peeked out his head yet again, and it added to the drama of the main event. Maybe its the era of wrestling in which Cena competes, but the heels that he is tasked with defeating do very little in the way of pushing the boundary past "beating a man in a wrestling match" into "ensuring severe physical harm." When Hulk Hogan was champion, heels needed to present themselves as attempting to maim Hogan in order to ensure victory, almost as if Hogan's grasp on the belt was so significant as to first require bodily harm in order to ensure victory. In a manner consistent with old school heels in the business, Lesnar "hurt" Cena instead of "defeating him in a wrestling match" in order to win. In learning how to fight Lesnar and hurt him back in order to retain his belt, Cena - 15 championship runs into a 12 year WWE career - is learning an important lesson that may actually take him to another level of excellence.