WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray has questioned the booking of John Cena following his loss to Brock Lesnar at Wrestlepalooza, a match that has also drawn sharp criticism from wrestling media.
On the September 21 edition of Busted Open Radio, Bully Ray criticized the decision to have Cena leave under his own power after Lesnar’s decisive victory in Indianapolis on September 20. He argued that the finish weakened the impact of the angle, which saw Lesnar deliver seven F5s, including one after the bell.
“That’s the little part that had me scratching my head,” Bully Ray said. “If you’re going to go that far with a decimation of somebody, why not put the icing on the cake? Why not put the cherry on top? If you want to build to that last match, why not put John Cena in a position that we never thought we would see him in?”
He specifically suggested that Cena should have been stretchered out to sell Lesnar’s destruction. “And yes, in my opinion, stretcher him out because that lends to the destruction from Brock Lesnar. John Cena might be Babe Ruth, but he ain’t f—ing Superman, and if he was, he just met his whoever Superman’s arch nemesis was in bringing him down. That was Brock Lesnar. Go the full way. Once John walks away, I immediately think to myself, ‘The beating couldn’t have been that bad.’”
The Wrestlepalooza match marked Lesnar’s return to the ring after a two-year hiatus. He secured the win after six F5s against three Attitude Adjustments from Cena, but the bout received just two stars from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
This reaction was echoed in mainstream coverage. ESPN’s Andreas Hale gave the contest a C- on September 22, the lowest grade of the card, writing that it functioned more as “a setup for a future match” than a self-contained main event.
The contest was part of WWE’s debut pay-per-view on the ESPN platform. The decisive booking and critical backlash have fueled speculation that a rematch between Cena and Lesnar may already be under consideration.