WWE Matches That Were PAINFUL To Watch
8. Brock Lesnar Vs John Cena (Extreme Rules 2012)
John Cena winning and then cutting an incredibly weird "not sure how long I'll be here guys"-type farewell speech in the aftermath were WWE's ways of 2012ing this incredible bit of matchmaking, but even those boneheaded choices couldn't stop Brock Lesnar's return battle coming across as an instant classic.
WWE had switched to PG four years earlier, and Cena was a talismanic figure in the move to clean up the product. It informed a sizeable part of the "hate" side of the love/hate divide that defined his peak years, so when Brock Lesnar carved put a sizeable part of 'Big Match John's head with the point of his elbow and a few thousand fists, the catharsis was real.
Having been absent for Cena's rise, Brock Lesnar was a legitimate dream opponent for 'The Champ', and the stark contrast between the way the two men told their stories was the shock WWE's broken system desperately needed.
Triple H slowing 'The Beast' to a crawl across a lame trilogy couldn't stub out the magic. Unlike when he faced...