Add as a preferred source on Google John Cena’s loss to Brock Lesnar at WWE Wrestlepalooza on September 20, 2025, was one of the most striking results of his farewell tour. “The Beast” controlled the match, shrugged off the little offense Cena managed, and won in under nine minutes.
The way it played out drew heavy criticism, largely because Cena was in the final months of his career and many fans had expected a more competitive match between two of the biggest names in WWE history.
According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, though, WWE had already settled on Cena’s program with Dominik Mysterio, while Lesnar was being lined up for bigger plans.
The company saw Cena as fully protected by the career he had built over more than two decades. With him leaving the ring shortly after and working with Dominik in the meantime, creative did not feel the need to protect him at Wrestlepalooza.
The thinking on Lesnar was different. The idea was to put him a level above most of the roster, aside from a few top names, without having him sell too much for someone who was on his way out.
The third season of WWE: Unreal, released on Netflix on July 21, 2026, backed that up. The show revealed that Michael Hayes was among those behind the idea for the squash, while Cena explained that the loss would not hurt his image and would help Lesnar build his momentum back up so he could later pass it on to another wrestler.
Both plans made it to television. Cena beat Dominik on November 10, 2025, to win the Intercontinental Championship for the first time, but lost the title back to him at Survivor Series on November 29, 2025.