Brock Lesnar‘s stock reached an all-time high by ending the Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania 30. Already a made man in WWE, Lesnar became an even larger figure for the next few years.
Of course, he needed someone else to feud with after the Dead Man. That became John Cena, leading to a shocking squash of the “Fast X” star at SummerSlam 2014. Blink and fans would have missed what happened in this “Suplex City” match.
Almost a decade later, Cena reflected on the match in an interview with Sam Roberts of Not Sam Wrestling. He said not only did Lesnar create the bout’s layout, but that Stone Cold Steve Austin had significant input as well (h/t Fightful for transcription).
“Brock is one of the most giving performers when it’s his time. He will make anyone look great. I remember Brock being like, ‘I had dinner with Steve Austin last night and we came up with this idea where I start suplexing you and don’t stop and then beat you.’ ‘Yeah.’ We both collectively agreed that you just beat 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 with 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 he had to lead up to losing. If I go out and have a 50/50 match where he just sneaks over, we wasted all that. If you take that unbelievable feat with another unbelievable feat, now we have passed the energy, and that is how you make someone. That someone can make others and that’s how the business works, you have to be able to work together. You can survive and thrive by also being generous and being giving and working with others.”
Essentially, they teamed to make a special WWE moment even grander.
As Cena said, a match in which they were equals would have compromised the significance of Lesnar ending the Undertaker’s streak as if it were any other match. Instead, the SummerSlam 2014 match further increased Lesnar’s status and made him a nearly invincible presence on WWE programming in the subsequent years.
Meanwhile, regardless of the result, nothing could have changed Cena’s status as one of WWE’s biggest stars ever, and his participation in this match only enhanced programming for the rest of the year and beyond.