Editing Openai/6960b960-7b68-8003-8a39-ed41413ff2b8 (section)

==== ### ====

John Cena (c) vs Kurt Angle vs Chris Masters

This match is exactly where the trope crystallizes, because:

===== - Submission-only rules remove flukes, weapons, roll-ups — this is supposed to be pure credibility =====
* Cena is: - The defending champion - Against the best submission wrestler alive (Angle) - And a guy whose entire gimmick is an unbeatable submission (Masters)

On paper, Cena should be dead.

===== - Cena is: - In the Master Lock - In the Ankle Lock - Sometimes effectively double-submitted =====
* The psychology says: someone should tap
* Instead: - Cena refuses - Escapes everything - Wins with the STF

This wasn’t “Cena overcoming odds.”

This was Cena invalidating two entire characters at once.

===== - JBL losing = expected =====
* Jericho losing = normal top-guy booking
* Angle at Rumble = still arguable as “big match grit”

But here?
* Angle’s legitimacy
* Masters’ only selling point
* Submission logic itself

—all sacrificed in one TV main event.

That’s when fans realized:

: 

===== If someone says: =====
* “Royal Rumble 2006 created Super Cena” → that’s hindsight
* “JBL did it” → nah
* This RAW submission triple threat → ✅ this is the one

This match didn’t just show Super Cena —
it proved the rules of wrestling no longer applied to him.

If you want, we can:
* Compare this directly to Reigns no-sell era
* Talk about how it killed Masters overnight
* Or identify the exact week crowds stopped giving Cena the benefit of the doubt

This was a great pull.