WWE Over the Limit 2012 results - May 20,2012

John Laurinaitis def. John Cena

RALEIGH, N.C. — John Laurinatis was done for.

Beaten and battered by an intensely focused John Cena in a match where the megalomaniacal General Manager’s career was on the line, Mr. Laurinaitis was only a three count away from finding himself on the unemployment line. And then something big happened.

Shocking the WWE fans crammed into Raleigh’s PNC Arena, the mighty Big Show stormed into the ring and aided the man who fired him on Monday night in a way the WWE Universe never expected to see.

Had The World’s Largest Athlete not changed the clear outcome of this bout, the landscape of WWE would look a lot different right now. A polarizing figure since he grasped complete power over both Raw and SmackDown, John Laurinaitis stirred up serious controversy when he reintroduced the unpredictable Brock Lesnar to WWE rings. Promoted as the new face of the company by the General Manager, the former MMA fighter went on to nearly end John Cena’s career at WWE Extreme Rules before quitting WWE and then threatening to sue for millions.

As if Mr. Laurinaitis hadn’t created enough of a quagmire, the executive then recruited the dangerous Lord Tensai and his follower, Sakamoto, to aid him in a vicious attack on Cena the night after the Superstar’s showdown with Lesnar. After ruthlessly targeting the Cenation’s leader’s injured arm, a crazed Laurinaitis announced that he would meet Cena one-on-one at WWE Over the Limit.


It may have been the most baffling managerial decision since Mr. McMahon orchestrated the kidnapping of his own daughter during WWE’s “Attitude Era.” A suit-and-tie guy willingly stepping into the ring with a former 10-time WWE Champion? It was madness. Laurinaitis may have once been a respected grappler in the hardnosed world of Japanese professional wrestling, but that was more than a decade ago. Did the executive really think he could hold his own against a man who just stood toe to toe with Brock Lesnar and won?

As it turns out, he did. Well, he did until WWE’s Board of Directors stepped in. Decreeing that not only would John Laurinaitis be fired if he lost the match, but any contracted Superstar who interfered in the bout would also be terminated, the committee stacked the deck against the already in-over-his-head GM.

Clearly lacking confidence after the Board rejected his last minute plea to reverse at least one of the stipulations, (FULL STORY) Laurinaitis sulked to the ring like a man headed down the green mile. If the self-proclaimed Mr. Excitement wasn’t such a conniving egomaniac, the WWE fans may have felt sorry for him. Instead, they cheered John Cena on as he picked apart Mr. Laurinaitis in a bout that resembled more of a televised mugging than a sports-entertainment showdown.



Cena took slow pleasure in manhandling the executive who orchestrated a vicious attack on him as he dumped a garbage can over Big Johnny’s head, doused him with a fire extinguisher, and locked him in the STF for 10-second bursts of brutality. When Laurinaitis briefly mounted a comeback by grabbing a steel chair, he paid the price when Cena drove the hunk of metal right into his red face.

The General Manager’s night only got worse when the man he fired on Monday night — Big Show — suddenly appeared among the WWE fans in the PNC Arena and dragged a retreating Laurinaitis back to the squared circle by his neck. Surrounded on both sides by the Cenation leader and The World’s Largest Athlete, the executive was clearly done for. And then it happened.

With Laurinaitis propped on Cena’s shoulders, only moments away from feeling the AA, Big Show drove his Thor’s hammer of a fist directly into Cena’s jaw. It was the last thing the WWE Universe expected to see from the giant who was humiliated by the GM, but there was no mistaking what had happened. The World’s Largest Athlete deliberately K.O.’d the Cenation leader and saved John Laurinaitis' career. And since Show wasn't a contracted Superstar, there was nothing WWE's Board of Directors could do about it.

Was the attack a gutsy move by Big Show, done deliberately to save his own career? Or was it part of a beautifully constructed plot, pieced together by Mr. Laurinaitis and his sharp advisers in David Otunga and Eve? Whatever it was, there will be hell to pay when John Cena arrives on Raw.