Extreme Rules 2012 Extreme Rules 2012 was a professional wrestling pay - per - view ( PPV ) event produced by WWE . It took place on April 29 , 2012 at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont , Illinois . It was the fourth event under the Extreme Rules chronology . Eight professional wrestling matches were scheduled on the event ' s card , which featured a supercard , a scheduling of more than one main event . There were three main events which resulted in John Cena triumphant over Brock Lesnar in an Extreme Rules match , CM Punk defeating Chris Jericho in a Chicago Street Fight to retain the WWE Championship , and Sheamus beating Daniel Bryan in a 2 - out - of - 3 falls match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship . Background . Extreme Rules featured professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre - existing feuds , plots , and storylines which will play out on WWE ' s primary television programs , " Raw " and " SmackDown " . Wrestlers portray villains or heroes as they follow a series of events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches . On the April 2 episode of " Raw " , John Cena spoke about his loss to The Rock the previous night at WrestleMania XXVIII . After concluding his statement , he asked for the Rock to come out and talk . Instead , Brock Lesnar made his WWE return after being away since 2004 . Lesnar deceived Cena by teasing a handshake in order to execute his F - 5 maneuver , dropping Cena onto the mat . The next week , General Manager John Laurinaitis revealed that he signed Lesnar to bring " legitimacy " and for Lesnar to become the " new face of the WWE ; " Laurinaitis also announced that Lesnar would face Cena at Extreme Rules . On April 16 , it was announced on WWE . com that the match will be an Extreme Rules match . Both Lesnar and Cena have a long history between each other . On the February 6 , 2003 edition of " SmackDown " , Cena called out Brock Lesnar with a rap freestyle and challenged him for a match . On February 13 , 2003 , they had their first match in which Lesnar defeated Cena with the F - 5 . After the match , he hit another F - 5 onto the ring post , injuring Cena . After returning , Cena used a modified version of the F - 5 as his finisher , which was then known as the F - U , a pun on the name F - 5 . Cena won a tournament to earn a WWE Championship match at 2003 ' s Backlash pay - per - view against Lesnar , in which Cena was defeated . At WWE ' s Royal Rumble PPV event on January 29 , Sheamus won the Royal Rumble match to earn the opportunity to face either WWE Champion CM Punk or World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan for their respective title at WrestleMania XXVIII . Sheamus elected to wrestle Bryan and defeated him in 18 seconds to win the championship at the event . On the April 10 episode of " SmackDown " , Bryan used his rematch clause as ex - champion to announce a 2 - out - of - 3 Falls match for the championship at Extreme Rules between him and Sheamus . The stipulation was due to Bryan wanting to prevent Sheamus from scoring another quick victory . On the January 2 edition of " Raw " , Chris Jericho returned to WWE He made it clear that he wanted to reclaim his title as the " best in the world , " which CM Punk had claimed to be since winning the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank 2011 . Punk defeated Jericho at WrestleMania XXVIII , but since then , Jericho attacked him several times . On the April 16 edition of " Raw " , Jericho announced that he will face Punk in a Chicago Street Fight at Extreme Rules for the WWE Championship . Another rivalry heading into Extreme Rules is between Randy Orton and Kane . In July 2011 , Kane lost in a Street Fight to Orton , and the two shook hands after the match as a sign of respect . In 2012 , a newly re - masked Kane now viewed this event as a sign of weakness , hence Kane started a feud with Orton and defeated him at WrestleMania XXVIII . Yet , on the April 6 episode of " SmackDown " , Orton defeated Kane in a No Disqualification match . On the April 10 episode of " SmackDown " , Kane attacked Orton and his father " Cowboy " Bob Orton . On the April 20 episode of " SmackDown " , it was announced that Kane and Orton would face off at Extreme Rules in a Falls Count Anywhere match . On April 23 edition of " Raw " Orton attacked Paul Bearer who is Kane´s father , but Kane seem not to care about it proofing he has no humanity . On April 23 , it was announced that the fifth match for the event is a rematch between Big Show and Cody Rhodes for the WWE Intercontinental Championship ; Big Show won the title from Rhodes at WrestleMania XXVIII . On April 26 , it was announced that Nikki Bella would be defending her WWE Divas Championship against Beth Phoenix after Bella defeated Phoenix on the April 23 episode of Monday Night Raw . Despite Phoenix suffering a sprained left ankle during the aforementioned match , she hasn ' t been medically cleared to compete . Event . Pre - show . On the pre - show , The Miz challenged Santino Marella in a standard match for the United States Championship . Before the match , Miz complained about being in the pre - show after he was in the main event a year ago at Extreme Rules 2011 . The title match ended with Marella pinning Miz after hitting the Cobra . Preliminary matches . The first match on the show had Randy Orton facing Kane in a Falls Count Anywhere match . The match started with Kane and Orton brawling into the crowd and then backstage , where Zack Ryder made an appearance to attack Kane and allow Orton to deliver an inverted headlock backbreaker for a two count . Orton and Kane eventually headed back into the ring , where Orton was unable to beat Kane despite multiple pin attempts after repeated chair shots , an elevated DDT onto the floor and a superplex . However , Orton managed to survive a chokeslam from Kane to counter the Tombstone piledriver into an RKO on a steel chair for the pinfall victory . The second match on the show had Brodus Clay facing Dolph Ziggler in a standard match . The third match on the show had Big Show defend his Intercontinental Championship against Cody Rhodes in a Tables match . After the first main event , the fifth match on the show had Ryback facing Aaron Relic and Jay Hatton in a handicap match . After the second main event , the seventh match on the show had Nikki Bella defending the Divas Championship against a returning Layla in a standard match . Main event matches . The first of the three main events was the fourth match on the card , a 2 - out - of - 3 falls match for the World Heavyweight Championship , where Sheamus defended his title against Daniel Bryan . The next main event was the sixth match on the card , a Chicago Street Fight for the WWE Championship , where CM Punk defended his title in his hometown against Chris Jericho . The final main event for the night saw John Cena face Brock Lesnar in an Extreme Rules match ; this was Lesnar ' s first match in WWE since 2004 . They started the match with Lesnar quickly causing Cena to bleed with a vicious elbow strike to Cena ' s head after a double leg takedown . Lesnar continued to dominate the match with his hard hitting offense , delivering punches , clotheslines and knee strikes to Cena , while the match had to be paused twice while a medic attended to Cena to clean up the blood . After the match restarted for the second time , Lesnar continued to brutalize Cena , hanging him from the turnbuckles and throwing him into the steel steps and the guardrail . Then , Cena desperately went for his finishing move , the Attitude Adjustment , but Lesnar countered into his own finishing move , the F - 5 . However , while throwing Cena to the mat , Lesnar inadvertently caused Cena to hit and knock out the referee , so by the time another referee got to the ring to make the count , Cena was able to kick out at two . Lesnar then brought the ring steps into the ring and slapped on a kimura lock on Cena while on the steps , but Cena eventually lifted and slammed Lesnar to break the hold . After Lesnar avoided a Cena diving leg drop bulldog , Lesnar then charged and leapt off the ring steps and over the top rope onto Cena , sending both men to the floor . When Lesnar tried the same move again , Cena countered by hitting Lesnar in the head with the metal chain that he brought to the match , bloodying Lesnar . Cena then fired up , delivered an Attitude Adjustment to Lesnar onto the ring steps and pinned him . Aftermath . Extreme Rules saw the culmination of most of its feuds , some of which started before the previous pay - per - view , WrestleMania XXVIII . The Cena - Lesnar , Punk - Jericho , Sheamus - Bryan and Orton - Kane feuds ended at Extreme Rules ; the only feud to continue on after the event was the Rhodes - Show feud , which ended before the next pay - per - view , Over the Limit . Immediately after Extreme Rules on the April 30 edition of Raw , WWE ' s Chief Operating Officer Triple H refused to give in to Brock Lesnar ' s unreasonable contract demands , starting a feud between the duo and resulting in Lesnar attacking Triple H and ( in storyline ) breaking Triple H ' s arm . This led to Lesnar defeating Triple H via submission at SummerSlam . At WrestleMania 29 , with Triple H ' s career on the line , Triple H defeated Lesnar in a No Holds Barred match . The feud ended in the main event of 2013 ' s Extreme Rules , where Lesnar ( with his manager Paul Heyman ' s interference ) defeated Triple H in a steel cage match . Also on the April 30 edition of Raw , General Manager John Laurinaitis , unhappy that his hand - picked star Lesnar lost to Cena at Extreme Rules , revealed himself to be Cena ' s next opponent for Over the Limit . The wrestlers later agreed that as a condition of the match , if Laurinaitis lost , he would be fired , and any wrestler who interfered would be fired . At Over the Limit , Laurinaitis defeated Cena after The Big Show interfered on his behalf . Show was free to interfere in the match because he had already been fired the week before Over the Limit by Laurinaitis after Show mocked Laurinaitis ' speech mannerisms . To determine the # 1 contendership for CM Punk ' s WWE Championship , a Beat - the - Clock challenge was held on the April 30 edition of Raw . A series of five singles matches took place where the victor with the lowest match - time was deemed the overall winner ; Daniel Bryan set the fastest time by defeating Jerry Lawler in under three minutes . Notably , during the Beat - the - Clock challenge , the Miz avenged his loss to Santino Marella by defeating Marella in a non - title match . Marella eventually lost the United States Championship in August to Antonio Cesaro at SummerSlam . At Over the Limit , Punk retained his title in controversial fashion when Bryan rolled back onto his shoulders as he applied the " Yes ! " Lock on Punk , Punk tapped out immediately after the referee counted a pinfall win for Punk . Punk would continue to hold the WWE Championship until January 2013 when he was defeated by The Rock at the Royal Rumble , a title reign of 434 days . Before Extreme Rules , Alberto Del Rio defeated World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus via disqualification on the April 6 edition of SmackDown to earn a future title shot . After Extreme Rules on the May 7 edition of Raw , Sheamus and Randy Orton faced Del Rio and Chris Jericho , with Sheamus accidentally delivering a Brogue Kick to Orton followed by Jericho hitting the Codebreaker on Sheamus and pinning him . Orton then gave Sheamus an RKO after the match . Due to this , the World Heavyweight Championship match at Over the Limit was made a fatal - four way match . Sheamus pinned Jericho at Over the Limit to retain his title . Sheamus remained as World Heavyweight Champion until October 2012 , where he lost his title to Big Show at Hell in a Cell . Cody Rhodes ' feud with The Big Show continued after Extreme Rules , ending on the May 7 edition of Raw when Show defeated Rhodes in a title match via count - out , but this meant Rhodes retained the title . At Over the Limit , Christian made his surprise return after a month ' s absence from injury and won a battle royal to earn an Intercontinental title shot later that night ; Rhodes lost the match and the title to Christian . After Nikki Bella lost the Divas Championship to Layla at Extreme Rules , both Bella Twins received a title shot in a triple threat match on the April 30 edition of Raw . Layla won the match quickly and the Bella Twins were " fired " from WWE ( in actuality , the twins ' contracts expired ) . Layla moved on to feud with the evil Beth Phoenix , which included title matches at Over the Limit and No Way Out ; with Layla retaining both times . Layla remained Divas Champion until September 2012 , where she lost her title to Eve Torres at Night of Champions . After Extreme Rules , both Brodus Clay and Ryback ' s winning streaks continued through Raw and SmackDown into Over the Limit as Clay defeated the Miz while Ryback defeated Camacho . Clay ' s streak ended at 24 wins on the June 25 Raw with a loss to Big Show . Ryback ' s streak ended at 38 wins in October 2012 at Hell in a Cell with a loss to CM Punk . Meanwhile , Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger moved on to feud with tag team champions Kofi Kingston and R - Truth but would fail to win their title . Reception . The PPV was mostly well received by critics and fans alike . The " Canadian Online Explorer " ' s professional wrestling section described the event as " outstanding " and " a show where all the big matches delivered in spades " , rating the entire event a 9 out of 10 , while also rating each of the main events 9 out of 10 . Benjamin Tucker of " Pro Wrestling Torch " rated the event 8 . 5 out of 10 , stating that " with a solid undercard and three four - star - plus matches , the show was a lot of fun to watch and had a lot of emotional highs . " James Caldwell , also of " Pro Wrestling Torch " , described the PPV as " excellent " , praising the strong matches and performances , the " nice pace with downs to follow the big ups " and " an intense main event " . Fans also praised the event ' s match quality , but raised concerns about Cena beating Lesnar in Lesnar ' s first return match .