WWE SummerSlam: Ranking every main event in history

7. SummerSlam 2014: Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena

Some matches are ranked where they are on this list because they’re great matches. Some matches are ranked where they are on this list because they’re just fun to watch, even if the in-ring action may not be as good as another match. This match is ranked where it is simply because it was so unbelievably surprising.

Since his return to WWE in 2012, Brock Lesnar had surprisingly not really been near the title picture. He had his one match with Cena at Extreme Rules, which he lost, and then got involved in the Triple H feud, which lasted until Extreme Rules the following year. He then got involved with CM Punk, who he defeated at SummerSlam in 2013, and then got involved with The Undertaker, which led to him beating the streak at WrestleMania XXX. Paul Heyman had been requesting a title match for his client but it just never came to be until the 2014 edition of SummerSlam, where Lesnar would challenge John Cena for the title. What came next was completely unbelievable, much like what had happened at WrestleMania.

Nobody ever thought that Lesnar would actually beat The Undertaker to end the streak and in similar fashion, I don’t think anybody thought how dominant Lesnar would be in this SummerSlam main event against John Cena. It’s not like John Cena loses cleanly all that often (unless it’s SummerSlam) but this was an absolute beating. Lesnar hit an F-5 on the champ within 30 seconds of the start of the match and then went on to deliver 16 German suplexes over the course of the match in what was mostly a one-sided affair.

Cena did manage to hit an AA on Lesnar and what did Lesnar do? He sat up like The Undertaker and laughed at him. Cena was able to lock in the STF for a minute but Lesnar got out of it, hit another F-5 and picked up the win, securing his place as the monster they wanted him to be. It was the most lopsided loss since John Cena really became John Cena and stands as a historic match in SummerSlam history.