The John Cena retirement tour gets an odd, sort of corporate-feeling speedbump at Clash in Paris on Sunday that doesn’t appear to have a good ending possible at all.
Unless Brock Lensar makes a shocking appearance.
On its face, Cena spending one of his final pro wrestling appearances on Logan Paul is disheartening, among many other possible words.
Make no mistake, the YouTuber has been massively better than expected as a wrestler and can clearly run laps around a big chunk of the locker room now. But when we’re talking Cena’s retirement, fans want dream matches and, with all due respect to Paul, he’s not on the list.
Which isn’t to say the match shouldn’t be a good one. Paul can go, no doubt, and Cena can work with anyone. But the subject of who actually eats the pin isn’t pretty. It shouldn’t be the guy retiring soon and, any criticisms aside, it probably shouldn’t be Paul, either.
Hence, yanking Lesnar back on stage.
It’s an idea that actually walks a pretty good line between WWE’s greedy corporate slant toward broader audiences lately and natural pro wrestling storytelling.
After all, Lesnar made a shocking return after Cena’s recent title loss and laid down the baseline for a must-see contest. Having him come out and do it again to build hype for said match, likely at Wrestlepalooza on September 20, is just smart storytelling.
That clash figures to be a one-off before WWE needs something else for Lesnar while Cena heads for his next opponent, then hangs up the boots. There’s only 20-ish days to build the feud, too.
Paul, too, would take issue with Lesnar messing up his once-in-a-lifetime match with Cena. That could also pave the way for an eventual match between those two.
The TKO-influenced WWE would drool over the headlines, the surprise attack and ensuing coverage before a match generates interest, too. For better or worse, when it comes to social media impressions and overall attention, Lesnar attacking Paul to set up a PLE match is one of the bigger outright things WWE could do.
And again, to the credit of all involved, the match would be a banger. The Beast will probably never get the full credit he deserves for this, but he’s put on some all-time classic matches with smaller underdog guys such as CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles and others. Given what Paul has shown he can do in the ring, it has the potential to be right up there alongside those other callbacks.
Call it a nice way for WWE to squeak out some frankly incredible value from this Cena retirement tour detour that feels a little forced. Heck, call it yet another way for WWE to remind fans back in the United States that these oddly timed international PLEs can have serious ramifications, so they should be tuning in for each.
At this point, Lesnar is a rare-appearing part-time act who slots into this broader TKO bracket. He’s going to get the Cena match and stuff like Paul, not necessarily go back and mingle with the main event scene in feuds with the likes of Drew McIntyre again. Maybe when he’s ready to call it quits for good, fans will see that Gunther or Bron Breakker match.
But for now? Lesnar isn’t Punk. If he’s going to get use beyond the nostalgia-button-punching bout with Cena, it’s bound to be in this way.
It’s also fun to think about how WWE could get creative on the build to Lesnar-Paul. Since the creative changes, they’ve enjoyed experimenting with new broadcast ideas and camera angles, even having major story points between characters occur off-screen, only picked up by “fans” on social media. Paul and Lesnar attacking each other or interacting out in the “real world” could generate more eyeballs for WWE than anything in a long time.
Given this whole matchup on Sunday feels like a weird one-off checklist thing, nobody will complain much if Cena gets a Dusty finish here marred by interference, either. Compared to the disaster of a heel turn and Travis Scott-The Rock stuff, it’s pretty mild as booking ideas go.
Maybe WWE keeps it simple and keeps Lesnar away, but there’s certainly an appeal to the reactions WWE would get when the notifications start going out around the world that he attacked Paul at an international event, causing more beef with Cena in the process.
Compared to a clean, ho-hum win for Cena at a skippable-feeling event, the allure is hard to deny.