My favourite matches: #7 John Cena Vs JBL (The Great American Bash 2008) 

I am back with my list of favourite matches. Only three more to go. Who is gonna make the cut on this prestigious list?

I start with #7 which is a display of brutal offence that is captured beautifully with great cinematography. This is the New York Parking Lot Brawl between JBL & John Cena (The Great American Bash 2008). 

This story between these two was maybe not as thought out as much compared to the Cena Vs JBL rivalry in 2005, but this fight stands as an unusual favourite.

The first point being it is from the greatest year in WWE history according to me. The year held great rivalries from Cena & Batista, Undertaker & Edge, and the historic encounter between Shawn Michaels & Chris Jericho.

Secondly, the match feels like the last of the Ruthless Aggression Era in WWE. Along with this Jericho Vs Michaels (on the same PPV) they are both heavily violent and bloody. In the parking lot brawl, both men plot acts of punishment that could lead to certain death which is kind off evil. No wonder that this would lead the ban of blood and would bring in the PG Era in the following months to come.

Anyway, the actual match. There was no big storyline here. It is established that JBL hates Cena and vise versa, they were like the Owens Vs Zayn of that period.

Cena cost JBL his chance of winning the World Heavyweight Championship against current champion CM Punk on an episode of Raw in June 2008. He did this after JBL banned Mr Hustle, Loyalty & Respect from the arena, in which Cena claimed that JBL had bullied Punk into defending his title. That night was also the same night Punk cashed in MitB case against a defenseless Edge.

The next week, the leader of The Chain Gang would bring the ever so polite and friendly alliance of Cryme Tyme to accompany him in the destroying JBL’s limo in front of him.

This would leave John Bradshaw Layfield furious and he deliver a form of revenge that was confusing and down right evil. JBL would attack Cena the following week. He propped Cena against the hood of a car that JBL would ram into with his own car. The spot was extremely confusing, did Cena miss it? Was this the birth of Super Cena? Either way, the Parking Lot Brawl in Uniondale, New York was going to be interesting.

The match payed true fashion of WWF Parking Lot Brawls with automobiles circled to make a death circle like ring. The match begins with Cena coming from the behind of his opponent and proceeding to electrocute JBL’s genitalia using jump start cables. This set the entire tone which was bizarre.

After a few windows smashed, JBL somehow gained the upper hand and layed down an unconscious Cena into the back of a car. Bradshaw would then proceed to coat the car in lighter fluid which he then set ablaze. It looked incredibly cool but utterly dangerous, no wonder there lied a crew to extinguish the fire straight away.

After an arch nemesis’s attempting to kill you, you would not be the happiest and neither was John Cena. He came back with anger written all over him and JBL could not believe it. They continued their assaults on each other with Cena throwing JBL into the back seat of a car again. However, Cena observed over the forklift and proceeded to spear the car with JBL inside using the metal pillars of the forklift. I am not making this up.

John Cena then rose the vehicle onto the forklift and drove to side entrance of the titantron in front of the crowd. Mr Never Give Up arrived with everyone buzzing to see him because in 2008 we all loved John Cena.

Both competitors then made it up to the titantron and Cena was set to deliver JBL with an Attitude Adjustment onto the car below. Nevertheless, JBL scurried his way out of the manoeuvre and violently shoved his opponent of the stage and into the car window earning the pin fall victory.

After writing this review, I find it hard to believe that a bizarre match like this has made it onto my list. However, the one factor that makes the violence hard to watch is the fact that when the match starts till Cena and JBL enter the arena there is no commentary. This makes the fight in the car park seem as though the cameras should not be there, almost giving the viewers an essence of a movie and we are watching two gang leaders beat each other up.

Once again, utterly bizarre but I love it and I hope you did too. Thanks for reading. #8 will be ready soon.

Bye,

AmeriBoy