Legendary wrestling manager Jim Cornette has offered a scathing critique of the main event finish from WWE’s Night of Champions premium live event, calling the chaotic conclusion to the John Cena vs. CM Punk match a prime example of “sports entertainment instead of wrestling.”
A Good Match Derailed
Speaking on the most recent episode of Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru, Cornette praised the in-ring work of the two veterans for the majority of their Undisputed WWE Championship match. “It was a good back and forth match where everything made sense. It was a good world title match,” Cornette said. “It was probably the best John Cena match of this particular retirement run here.”
However, his praise ended abruptly when discussing the final minutes of the bout, which featured a referee bump followed by a parade of run-ins from Seth Rollins, Bron Breakker, Bronson Reed, Penta, and Sami Zayn.
“I’ve loved this match up until this point,” Cornette stated before launching into his critique. “The only thing they can do when a match is not no DQ is knock the referee out, which I’m not opposed to… but the problem is now referee bumps have evolved into the referee has been placed in a fucking medically induced coma… and is going to be down for 10 minutes.”
A “Different Fucking Match”
Cornette was particularly critical of how the interference brought the match to a halt. He took issue with the extended entrances and the logic of the brawl.
“The music is playing over the loudspeaker. What’s the referee supposed to think unless he’s completely slapped dab unconscious, in which case some doctor needs to be bringing over a goddamn oxygen tank,” he said. “It was a different fucking match for about five minutes. Yeah, here, now, let’s all go to the lobby… We’ll come back in five minutes when the match we were watching starts back up.”
The match ended when the original referee, who had been knocked down by a shoulder tackle seven minutes prior, suddenly recovered to count the pinfall for Cena. “I thought it was a real good match, until it became sports entertainment instead of wrestling, and then everybody came out, and they just lost the fucking plot,” Cornette concluded.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Jim Cornette and Brian Last with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
