5 Reasons Lesnar vs Cena Was The Best WWE Title Match In Years

5. It Placed A Renewed Interest On Wrestling And Striking In World Championship Matches

There was a period of time between August 2002 - June 2004 wherein World Wrestling Entertainment was treated to championship matches that set a new standard for WWE-style professional wrestling. Along the space for character-driven storylines and matches featuring gimmicks and oftentimes outside-of-the-ring intrigue, when Brock Lesnar defeated The Rock at SummerSlam 2002, it ushered in an era of brutalization and hard-hitting professional wrestling, with mat grappling and safe, yet spectacular risk-taking as an alternative solution to winning matches. Champions in this era included the likes of Brock Lesnar, who burst onto the scene with a mix of raw power, mixed martial arts striking and Olympic-style wrestling that may have never been seen before in professional wrestling. When blended with the likes of The Big Show's similar dependence on strength, Kurt Angle's Olympic wrestling, Eddie Guerrero's lucha-inspired athleticism and Chris Benoit's top-tier Japanese junior-heavyweight style mixed with classic NWA levels of pure wrestling excellence, top-of-the-card wrestling in WWE had reached another level. The type of beating that John Cena received from Brock Lesnar was fairly typical for Heavyweight championship matches a decade ago. Of course, let's also not the fact that Benoit and Guerrero are now dead, Angle is arguably currently a shell of himself, and well, The Big Show is now an on-again/off-again member of the WWE Universe. In the level of brutality (sans weapons, interference or having to leave the confines of the squared circle) reaching what was a once-commonplace level of violence for WWE, the match was actually more than a fight even, but a brief throwback to a long-forgotten era meant to refresh what many consider to be a stagnant WWE product. Sometimes, when wrestling and fighting rules more than storylines do, it's amazing to see what transpires.