How poorly was Brock Lesnar vs John Cena feud booked?

Overview

• The feud between John Cena and Brock Lesnar in the former's retirement tour had no special moment or a good payoff
• The feud was entirely dominated by the Beast and the duo neither had a faceoff, nor a promo, or a brawl
• Brock squashed Cena in his farewell tour which served no purpose for either wrestlers

The feud between John Cena and Brock Lesnar in the former's retirement tour had no special moment or a good payoff. The feud was entirely dominated by the Beast and the duo neither had a faceoff, nor a promo, or a brawl. Brock squashed Cena in his farewell tour which served no purpose for either wrestlers.

The Beast made his massive return at WWE SummerSlam 2025 for the first time in two years. He showed up after the match between Cena and Cody Rhodes, and delivered an F5. However, in the leadup to their Wrestlepalooza match, nothing was mentioned about Brock's motive behind attacking Cena at SummerSlam.

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In fact, there was no promo, segment, or a brawl featuring the two. There were a couple of video packages, which noted the history between the two from their OVW days to the current scenario. However, it was not good enough to build their match. In their entire feud, Brock was presented as an unconquerable athlete and Cena played the second fiddle.

Why Brock Lesnar squashing John Cena would do no good for either of them?

Cena was attacked at SummerSlam and on his last WWE SmackDown appearance. He was made look weak and not even a promo was given to address Brock's attack properly, barring a few lines on WWE Raw. Eventually, their match was a squash, which reminded of their SummerSlam 2014 faceoff.

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By ensuring Brock squashes Cena, the feud might not have done anything good for either of them. Lesnar would have remained strong regardless of his win over Cena. However, John needed to stay strong in the leadup to his retirement match. Cena getting squashed made no sense, as it wasn't a process of building a star.