Legendary wrestling manager Jim Cornette has delivered a harsh critique of the controversial main event finish from WWE’s Night of Champions premium live event, specifically targeting the overbooked conclusion of the John Cena vs. CM Punk match for the Undisputed WWE Championship.
Speaking on the latest episode of his podcast, Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru, Cornette initially praised the majority of the bout, calling it one of Cena’s strongest showings during his current farewell run.
“It was a good back and forth match where everything made sense. It was a good world title match,” Cornette stated. “It was probably the best John Cena match of this particular retirement run here.”
However, the praise stopped once Cornette addressed the match’s final stretch, which featured a referee bump and a barrage of surprise run-ins from Seth Rollins, Bron Breakker, Bronson Reed, Penta El Zero Miedo, and Sami Zayn.
“I’ve loved this match up until this point,” Cornette said. “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 being placed in a medically induced coma… and is going to be down for 10 minutes.”
Cornette took aim at the logic and pacing of the chaos, mocking the fact that each interference was treated like a mini-entrance while the referee remained motionless in the ring.
“The music is playing over the loudspeaker. What’s the referee supposed to think unless he’s completely slap-dab unconscious? In which case, some doctor needs to be bringing over a goddamn oxygen tank,” Cornette joked. “It was a different f***ing 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 with Cena scoring the pinfall after the same referee—taken out by a shoulder tackle nearly seven minutes earlier—suddenly sprang back to life to make the count.
Cornette didn’t hold back in his final assessment:
“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 f*ing plot**.”
