It’s 2025 already. The WWE Network is essentially shut down, and fans have been told to trade their WWE Network memberships for Netflix subscriptions if they want to keep the show rolling. It’s that, or read the reports on WWE news.
As the world gears up for John Cena’s farewell tour, it feels only fitting to revisit one of the more peculiar moments of his legendary career.
In April 2012, Cena still ruled as the face of WWE. For every fan who waved their ‘Never Give Up’ towel, another chanted for CM Punk or the Rock to knock him down a peg.”
After losing to the Great One at Wrestlemania 28 on the prior PLE, the Doctor of Thuganomics was charged with headlining Extreme Rules against the returning Brock Lesnar.
There was genuine interest in seeing Lesnar in a WWE ring again. He’d been gone since losing to Goldberg at Wrestlemania over eight years ago. Lesnar tried out for the NFL and became the UFC heavyweight champion in that period.
Despite having his ass handed to him by Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem in consecutive first-round losses, Lesnar was a big enough draw to go against Cena in the squared circle.
The match itself was…painful. Awful. Uninteresting. Nearly as unmotivating as John Laurinatis. The bout felt like a Frankenstein’s monster of MMA and wrestling, stitched together but limping painfully.
It appeared that the two men had not choreographed or planned their match, and the end result was five minutes of hobbled-together power and MMA moves from Lesnar. The end product was worse than the infamous John Cena album released a few years prior.
Brock looked like he’d left his wrestling skills in the UFC locker room. Throughout the match, he was shielded from taking significant damage, preserving his aura as the invincible MMA powerhouse. Every move he landed felt more like an octagon than a squared circle, leaving Cena battered and struggling to keep up.
Lesnar worked Cena like he was in an octagon, not the squared circle. This wasn’t a main event, more like a well-illuminated dark match. Remember…this was…2012. Cena wasn’t going to lose! That would have ruined John Cena’s net worth!
Despite enduring a relentless suplex symphony from Lesnar, Cena pulled off the ultimate babyface comeback, like a Phoenix rising from a pile of broken announce tables. In a single, desperate rally, Cena channeled his inner Attitude Era, delivering a chain-clad right hand that crashed into Lesnar’s skull like a sledgehammer meeting a steel post.
The booking here reeked of 1980s Hogan invincibility—a move away from kayfabe logic into the realm of superhero fantasy.
After securing the 1-2-3, Cena took the microphone and gave a strange promo. Stating he’d be taking time off, whether through injury, hiatus, or suspension, for talking out of turn. But in classic WWE fashion, with a sleight of hand, he was back on Monday Night RAW the very next night.
Those wanting a better match between these two should research their encounter from Backlash 2003.
“Header photo” by Ed Webster is licensed under CC BY 2.0
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