On April 6th, 2014, Brock Lesnar emerged victorious in one of the most hotly-debated finishes to a match in professional wrestling history. At WrestleMania 30, Brock Lesnar conquered The Undertaker and ended The Streak.
For a man that had already won multiple World Championships and risen to the top of UFC for good measure, Lesnar’s defeat of The Deadman at WrestleMania appeared to be the crowning moment of an incredible career. Although in the eyes of many, a moment that he didn’t necessarily need.
After climbing to the top of wrestling’s Mt. Everest, the question became what’s next? The answer to that question was John Cena and the WWE Championship.
At SummerSlam, Lesnar pinned Cena after one of the most one-sided World Title matches in modern history. The Beast delivered a total of 16 Suplexes, and two F-5s, with Cena unable to put up much resistance.
Speaking in a new interview with Sam Roberts on the Notsam Wrestling podcast, Cena explained how the match came together. The 16-time World Champion broke down how his mentality was born out of his early years with WWE, and comments from Arn Anderson, who told him that during this period, it was on him to make others look good.
“Brock was taken from OVW and pushed into being champion immediately. I was given an opportunity at the beginning, and then became enhancement talent. And even when I reidentified myself as a hip-hop artist or a rapper, I was an enhancement talent. So I had like a two year understudy of, ‘This is your job, this is the story.’
Arn Anderson, I remember, ‘It’s just not your night, kid. The story is for this’. So I have great equity in like, my piece is to make ‘this’ interesting.”
With regard to the match at SummerSlam, Cena revealed that Lesnar came to him with the specifics of the squash after having dinner with Steve Austin. Lesnar said that he and the WWE Hall of Famer had come up with a plan where he would Suplex Cena and just keep going.
Cena added that if he and Lesnar would have had a competitive match, it would have killed the impact of The Beast ending The Streak months earlier.
“Brock is one of the most giving performers when it’s his time, and he will make anyone look great. But I remember Brock being like, ‘Hey, I had dinner with Steve Austin last night and we came up with this idea where I just start suplexing you and don’t stop, and then beat you.
I said, ‘Yeah’. He said, ‘What do you mean?’. I was like, ‘Well, we both collectively agreed that you just defeat the streak. We ruin that if we have a 50/50 match’.
‘It’s not my night, kid’ — Arn Anderson in the back of my head. I hope he understands the influence he had on my wisdom of this.
It’s not my night. How do you showcase the enormity of that win? How do we not waste the Undertaker’s streak? It’s not just Brock winning a match, it’s all those matches that (Undertaker) had to lead up to losing. If I go out and have a 50/50 match and (Lesnar) just sneaks over, we wasted all that.
But if you take that unbelievable feat, with another unbelievable feat, now we have passed the energy. And that is how you make someone. And then that someone can make others. And that’s how the business works. You have to be able to work together.”
Brock Lesnar To Fight Cody Rhodes At Night Of Champions
While it remains to be seen whether John Cena will return to the ring after being defeated by Austin theory at WrestleMania 39, Brock Lesnar is still very much in the hurt business. No, not that one.
The Beast has been terrorising Cody Rhodes since the spectacular and his mission will seemingly be completed at Night of Champions. Although Rhodes overcame Lesnar at Backlash, the former UFC star doesn’t seem to care, instead he just wants to hurt the American Nightmare.
On the May 22nd episode of Raw, Lesnar attacked Rhodes once again as the pair gear up for their match in Saudi Arabia.
H/t to Wrestle Talk