WWE Extreme Rules 2012: John Cena vs Brock Lesnar

[rge2010]

I predicted this would be a Brock win, or a draw at the very most. I never expected Brock to return and lose this one. However, from a business point of view it probably makes sense. A top UFC guy coming over and beating the top WWE guy? Doesnt give the Superstars a lot of credibility does it.

Now Brock has gotten that loss and isn't the unbeatable force most of us thought he would be, I do see him being built up from this and them turning this loss into a positive. I fully expect Cena will be put on the shelf by him, I said this weeks ago. Cena needs some time off and more importantly deserves some time off. Absence makes the heart grow fonder (remember his pop at RR08?).

I also expect to see Orton moved to Raw fulltime so WWE doesnt lose its star power. Orton probably needs this as well and has come off better in the Kane fued so he is relevant again now. Wont be long before Lesnar and Punk engage in a fued either.

'There is a disaster on the horizon'

 

[UltimoPhatty]

A few things come to mind when I think of the outcome of this match. I don't think it was by any means a complete waste, but I definitely can think of a few ways it could've been booked better, imo.

- Brock should've taken 3 AAs before losing, or some ridicuawesome spot.

- They improv after the Brock botch and Cena makes Brock tap with a lucky STF on the floor afterwards.

- The ref that got clotheslined by Brock comes in and makes a fast three count, giving Brock or Johnny the opportunity to confront him on RAW and possibly even reverse the decision. Suspend him or something after he admits counting fast because he wanted Brock to lose for being such an ass to the referees (this scenario is my personal fave).

- Let Brock win, Cena then leaves. Easy-peasy.

But again, I'm not pissed about it. Let's just see where it goes. Given the type of match they had, it just wasn't believable for me that Brock would go down like that. Still, I enjoyed it. Remember, Vince doesn't like letting people who "screwed" him win upon their return (see: Stone Cold, WM XIX). Also, don't forget that Lesnar lost his first UFC fight to Frank Mir. And that Mir looked like this...

 

[TheRealDeal]

More than anything, I thought the match told a great story.. Cena took a hell of a beating, it was brutal, and I thought for once that Lesnar did break his arm with the Kimura lock. Overall, I'm glad WWE stayed true to its roots of professional wrestling rather than directly transition to a MMA guy.. Lesnar didn't lose anything from this, he dominated the match like crazy, Cena just got the last shot and it proved vital for him and for WWE.. Overall, I thought that getting home and streaming it for about 4 hours was extremely worthed.. Thanks WWE for a great ppv!

 

[Jaysav]

Also, don't forget that Lesnar lost his first UFC fight to Frank Mir. And that Mir looked like this...

Not sure if you're saying that picture was after their first fight, when Brock lost, but it's not. That was after their second fight when Brock won.

I loved the match last night. Had an element of "realness" to it that I enjoyed and Brock is just flat out entertaining. Excited for Raw tonight.

 

[The Eighties]

MOTN for me, Brock is a beast and I love how he's incorporated his MMA into his wrestling offense. Cena took a beating and it wasn't SuperCena in my view, Brock had him beaten twice and destroyed him, Brock made a point of not needing the chain, Cena in desperation hit Brock square in the face with the chain and busted him open hard way, then AA'd him on steel steps, Cena didn't win so much as he survived, it surprised me but I think bigger picture wise it made sense, Brock reminded me of the glory days of Vader.

The "Was it a shoot?" type reaction online shows how good of a job they did, to Cena's young fanbase that will have felt a very real win for their hero and felt different to even the most cynical fan. It reminded me of the Vader vs Cactus Jack mauling where there was enough legit stuff to blur the lines.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

Really awesome match. To those of you saying "Brock should have won" let me ask you this, where does his character go if he does? He doesn't evolve if he accomplishes what he wanted. Jericho STILL hasn't accomplished what he set out to do and it's made him more evil. It's what heels od.

Also, I think the finish was fine, a chain to the face and then an AA on the stairs? Really? If that's not enough for you, I don't know what is.

The match was great. In 2008 Bryan Alvarez said "if you think Cena sucks in the ring, you lose credibility", head smark, in 2008. This is 2012. After Punk/Cena, Rock/Cena, and now Brock/Cena, if you don't think Cena can tell one hell of a story in the ring then you are insane.

 

[Ithil]

Really awesome match. To those of you saying "Brock should have won" let me ask you this, where does his character go if he does? He doesn't evolve if he accomplishes what he wanted. Jericho STILL hasn't accomplished what he set out to do and it's made him more evil. It's what heels od.

Also, I think the finish was fine, a chain to the face and then an AA on the stairs? Really? If that's not enough for you, I don't know what is.

The match was great. In 2008 Bryan Alvarez said "if you think Cena sucks in the ring, you lose credibility", head smark, in 2008. This is 2012. After Punk/Cena, Rock/Cena, and now Brock/Cena, if you don't think Cena can tell one hell of a story in the ring then you are insane.

The endings to Cena's stories suck. Plain and simple.

This was NO different to the endless "Cena gets the shit kicked out of him for 20 minutes, hits two moves and wins" matches of the past.

It's god damn boring and stale as hell, and this DOES hurt Brock's credibility. What is the context for a rematch? He already lost, why should anyone "fear" for the face Cena, he already beat him and cut a cheesy promo seconds afterwards.

Awful, awful ending to what was a fine match.

 

[TLK]

The endings to Cena's stories suck. Plain and simple.

This was NO different to the endless "Cena gets the shit kicked out of him for 20 minutes, hits two moves and wins" matches of the past.

It's god damn boring and stale as hell, and this DOES hurt Brock's credibility. What is the context for a rematch? He already lost, why should anyone "fear" for the face Cena, he already beat him and cut a cheesy promo seconds afterwards.

Awful, awful ending to what was a fine match.

I'm going to have to agree here. Brock wasn't supposed to be just "any other opponent." He was brought in on a lucrative contract, made demands that made him exempt from policies being forced upon their current WHC (attacking refs), and was acknowledged in multiple promos as a former UFC Heavyweight Champion. He was a big deal, and everyone down to the casual fans knew it. The match at Extreme Rules was different than anything we've really seen in a WWE ring because Brock is different. The match was unique because he is unique. I could've been OK with Lesnar losing (even though I don't think he should've), if Cena was carted out afterward a la HHH/Taker @ WM27. Instead, we have Cena grabbing the mic in an attempt to break the 4th wall a la The Summer of Punk and win the fans over. How is this different from any other Cena victory we've seen for the past decade?

I don't dislike Cena. In fact, I respect him for busting his ass and putting up with a lot of flack from damn near everyone. However, this was supposed to be the exception to the rule. At least, I think it should've been. I think the WWE missed a big opportunity here. It wasn't necessarily Cena's win, but how he won, that boggled my mind.

 

[BigShow]

I don't like cena but i am sooo glad he won. Most the time i like to see cena getting beat up, and he got beat up bad and still won, best of both worlds!!! On Raw last night i found myself wanting someone to come out and help cena when he was getting jumped, whats wrong with me, am i becoming a cena fan, oh my!!!

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

The endings to pro wrestling stories and pretty much every other story ever told in every other medium suck. Plain and simple.

This was NO different to the endless "good guy gets the shit kicked out of him for 20 minutes, hits two moves and wins" matches of the past.

It's god damn boring and stale as hell, and this DOES hurt Brock's credibility. What is the context for a rematch? He already lost, why should anyone "fear" for the face Cena, he already beat him and cut a cheesy promo seconds afterwards.

Awful, awful ending to what was a fine match.

I fixed part of it. I hate to ruin it, but you probably shouldn't watch The Dark Knight Rises or really any other movie with a good guy in it.

Also, it doesn't hurt Brock. Are you ******ed? He destroyed Cena and injured him. He didn't cut a cheesy promo, he said what was on his mind and it convinced a LOT of people that he was going to be out for a while.

If you think ANYONE (unless they have the same mental capacity as you) think that lesnar looks weaker, then you are crazy.


Think about this one smart guy, if Lesnar wins.....then what? Does he say "okay, I've done it, yay me"? He lost, so what happens? He flips out and breaks HHH's arm. His character is evolving and getting meaner. A lot of you people who don't understand character (morons) thought Jericho losing the Rumble, EC, and Mania was all a bad idea too. How stupid you look, Jericho's character evolved and became a lot meaner and a lot better.

Second, for the love of christ STOP bitching about Cena winning. I mean holy shit he puts over Punk and Rock, hasn't been in the title picture since November. Yea, he got beat up most of the match and than pulled out a flukey win. THAT'S WHAT BABYFACES DO. It'd be a lot more damaging to Brock if it wasn't booked that way. Cena sells his ass off and tells an amazing in ring story pretty much everytime out there. It sucks (for you) that you can only appreciate MOVEZ and not selling but there is a reason he's the most over guy.

Before you pull some epically ******ed "TEH FANZ HATE HIM DATZ PROOF HE IS TEH SUX" think about this.

1) some fans boo him
2) this has been going on since about 2005
3) these same fans keep buying tickets and keep making noise
4) these same fans BUY SHIRTS that say how much they hate him
5) these same fans spend a ton of time bitching about him

So that leaves two options. Either they love to hate him in a heel way. Don't be an idiot and say "but he is a clear babyface" we don't have a uniform audience anymore, what is a heel to some is a babyface to others. His actions are heel actions to the "anti-hero" generation.

The second option is they actually do hate him. However, instead of acting like rational human beings they spend money, time, and energy showing how much they hate something. I don't know about you, but I don't walk around stubbing my toe over and over and then bitch about it and stub it again just to show everyone how much I hate it.

Also, "it's not about the destination, it's about the journey"-Stephen King, knows more about storytelling than you. It's stupid to bitch about who won, that kind of makes you a mark doesn't it? Second, pro wrestling isn't confined to one 3 hour show. Everything builds. Brock losing isn't the end of it. Bitching about him losing here would be like bitching 30 minutes into Memento because you don't understand why the story is being told in reverse.

 

[Prince Punk]

I watched Extreme Rules Overall good show Lesnar pounded John Cena's face in and then Cena won.. SHOCK! AWE! WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS!?!?!!

To me the match booking makes sense and I'll get to that in a minute...

But first WHY DID THEY BOOK THESE TWO IN A HOT SHOTTED MATCH AT EXTREME RULES!?!?!?!

When Edge came out on raw and told Cena he had to win, that really was no joke... He just lost to the part time Rock at Mania and now was about to go up against another part timer in Brock Lesnar.... All the while you have Brock saying Cena is not good enough to carry his jock strap and that he would at best be holding Lesnar's bags if he had never left WWE...

The problem is? A lot of this is true... Cena was already looking like a second rate superstar by losing to The Rock... At Extreme Rules Brock beat Cena into mush....

People use the term bury pretty loose around here... But THAT is what they would have done to Cena if he did not pull out the win (by what ever means necessary) at Extreme Rules...

Which is why it makes sense that he won the match, He had no other choice, not only would it have made him look weak (he is supposed to be the pinnacle of WWE) so therefore it makes the ENTIRE full time roster look weak...

I'm not saying it makes sense or was the right call to make but with the situation that they placed themselves in it was the ONLY real play they could make without putting Cena in the ground (I mean I suppose they could have done a Cena's lost his Mojo story). I'm really hoping they have long term plans for Cena vs. Lesnar otherwise they just blew everything..

I mean hell they could have done the same job with Lord Tensi (less blood obviously) at Extreme Rules and then had Brock Lesnar show up and DESTROY Cena at Over the limit (Cena recovers from loss to Rock, Tensi gets to look strong by dominating Cena, but coming up a little short at the PPV. And THEN have Lesnar come in and just man handle Cena and have him dominate and better yet... WIN!!!) it just makes more sense that way...

Instead they took everything they had stuffed it in their machine and blew the entire load in one shot... Game Over...

Simply put, the truth of the matter is the initial Lesnar impact is what they were looking for. Paying him lots of money to be their puppet and do jobs, Now what they need to do however is place him with someone else and have him rip them into tiny little meat chunks so that he can still be as "legitimate" as one can be in the WWE...

 

[TLK]

Is it just me or can Cena never look weak no matter how many matches he loses? I can never picture him as looking weak because of how strong he has looked for a decade. He has basically reached that legendary status, much like Triple H/HBK/Taker, where losses don't affect his status. I don't think losing to Brock makes Cena look weak at all. Like I said, maybe it's just my view of Cena's status.

 

[Benson]

I think that's a fair assessment though, considering where he's at. He's at the status in the WWE where he's main eventing PPVs, without being in the title picture. Punk's been WWE Champion, basically since November and guess how many PPVs he's main evented that haven't involved John Cena? None.

 

[TLK]

Exactly. Cena is at the stage in his career where he doesn't need titles, doesn't need wins, and is basically unaffected by any crappy booking. As big a star as Lesnar is outside of pro wrestling, I think he should've won on Sunday. I think there were more avenues to take with a Cena loss.

 

[closet_fan]

Someone mentioned in a comment in one of WZ's articles regarding Cena's promo after the match. Does anyone else think that promo was supposed to be made AFTER the show went off the air? It seemed to me it was such an odd way of ending the match. Usually promos like that are made after RAW, etc once the show ends. Not right before.