Original Plan For John Cena Vs Brock Lesnar At Wrestlepalooza 2025 Revealed

There’s a new update on the John Cena Vs Brock Lesnar match finish story. Fans were understandably furious when John Cena lost to Brock Lesnar at the Wrestlepalooza premium live event. Lesnar had just made his return on August 3 at SummerSlam and started a rivalry with Cena.

He later interfered in Cena’s United States Title match against Sami Zayn and attacked both stars. Later, WWE confirmed John Cena vs Brock Lesnar for Wrestlepalooza.

The match received a ton of criticism from fans, with ESPN journalists giving it a C- rating. Shortly after the bout, there were rumors that John Cena was supposed to win this match, but on the day of the show, WWE changed its finish to have Lesnar win. Many fans didn’t believe this story, and even those who considered it for a moment still weren’t satisfied with the booking. A new report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter now says that WWE hadn’t made any last-minute changes to the match finish.

More Details About The John Cena Vs Brock Lesnar Match Finish

Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bodyslam.net first reported that John Cena vs Brock Lesnar was originally going to end with Cena going over The Beast at Wrestlepalooza. However, WWE later changed the match finish for some unknown reason.

“Sources indicate that as of Saturday morning, John Cena was scheduled to defeat Brock Lesnar at WrestlePalooza. Sources also indicate that both Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre pitched Randy Orton accidentally costing Rhodes the WWE Title.”

Dave Meltzer later said Cena made the call to lose the match, as he’s “unselfish” and wants to make “big stars,” which doesn’t sound right because Lesnar is already a household name.

But on a recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Meltzer said that Cena was always supposed to lose. Nobody changed the match finish, and the call to make Lesnar win was made because he had just returned to the company, and WWE wanted him to look strong.

“It was said that the story that the John Cena vs Brock Lesnar finish was changed was not true, and that Brock Lesnar was not brought back to lose his first match.

There are always discussions and the idea may have been broached for Cena to win, as most expected, but it was never a serious discussion or ever the planned finish.

The match was all about making Lesnar as strong as possible, getting a last match with Cena, and the feeling Cena more than anyone, is bullet proof no matter what they do with him.

WWE are spending a ton to get Lesnar and the idea is to make him a monster and have someone slay the monster.” (H/T Wrestlepurists)

Most fans didn’t enjoy John Cena vs Brock Lesnar because of its finish. Cena is now scheduled to face AJ Styles at Crown Jewel. Both stars have worked with each other before, and their SummerSlam 2016 match cemented Styles as a main-eventer in WWE. This will be one of the last few matches of Cena’s wrestling career.

Main image credit: Simon from United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons