WWE Over the Limit 2012 Over the Limit is a professional wrestling pay - per - view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment ( WWE ) , which took place on May 20 , 2012 at the PNC Arena in Raleigh , North Carolina . It was the third and final Over The Limit event . Nine official matches were announced for the event ' s card . Background . Over the Limit featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre - existing feuds , plots , and storylines which were played out on WWE ' s primary television programs , " Raw " and " SmackDown " . Wrestlers portrayed villains or heroes as they followed a series of events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches . One of the prominent feuds from the Raw brand was between John Cena and the General Manager of Raw and SmackDown , John Laurinaitis . On the night after losing to The Rock in the main event of WrestleMania XXVIII in early April , Cena ' s promo was interrupted by a returning Brock Lesnar , who immediately attacked him with an F - 5 . It was revealed the next week on Raw that Laurinaitis hired Lesnar to replace Cena as " the face of the WWE " by taking him out at Extreme Rules . A battered Cena barely managed to defeat Lesnar , and in a post - match promo , emphasized his injuries and announced he would be " taking a vacation . " The next night on Raw , Lesnar attacked WWE COO Triple H ( while he was arguing with Laurinaitis about the validity of Lesnar ' s contract ) , breaking his arm . With Lesnar ' s WWE job now in jeopardy , and after advice from his Executive Administrator Eve Torres , Laurinaitis decided on Cena ' s next opponent , for Over the Limit . Later that night , while Cena was in the ring , Laurinaitis appeared on the entrance stage to announce that opponent , and introduced Lord Tensai . Laurinaitis and Tensai then attacked Cena , and Laurinaitis revealed that he ( Laurinaitis ) would be Cena ' s opponent . The WWE Board of Directors stipulated the only way to win would be by pinfall or submission , anybody interfering in the match would be immediately fired and , if Laurinaitis lost the match , he would be fired . The main event feud from Raw heading into Over the Limit was between WWE Champion CM Punk and challenger Daniel Bryan . Following the Extreme Rules pay - per - view ( where Punk successfully defended his title against Chris Jericho in a Chicago Street Fight and Bryan failed to regain the World Heavyweight Championship from Sheamus in a 2 out of 3 falls match ) , Eve Torres announced Punk ' s next challenger would be decided by a series of Beat the Clock matches on the April 30 edition of Raw . In the final match of the evening , Bryan defeated Jerry Lawler in the fastest time to become the # 1 contender . The main storyline from the SmackDown brand led to World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus defending his title in a Fatal 4 - Way match against Alberto Del Rio , Randy Orton , and Chris Jericho . After defeating Daniel Bryan in 18 seconds at WrestleMania XXVIII to win the title , Sheamus faced a returning Alberto Del Rio in a non - title match on the April 6 edition of SmackDown . Del Rio defeated Sheamus via disqualification to earn a future title shot . Sheamus again defeated Bryan at Extreme Rules to retain his title and end their rivalry , opening the way for Del Rio ' s title opportunity at Over the Limit . On the May 7 episode of Raw , Sheamus and Orton faced Jericho and Del Rio in a tag team match . Jericho pinned Sheamus after a Codebreaker , after Sheamus accidentally kicked Orton in the face . They argued , in John Laurinaitis ' office , about who should be next in line for the title . Laurinaitis announced a Fatal 4 - Way match for the World Heavyweight Championship at Over the Limit , instead of the originally advertised singles match between Sheamus and Del Rio . The Divas feud heading into Over the Limit was between Layla and Beth Phoenix over the WWE Divas Championship . At Extreme Rules , Layla returned from a legit injury and replaced an ( kayfabe ) injured Phoenix as Nikki Bella ' s opponent for the Divas Championship . Layla went on to defeat Nikki to capture the Divas Championship , and Phoenix would receive her rematch at Over The Limit . Pre - Show . The Pre - Show match was Kane vs . Zack Ryder in a one on one match . Kane won the match via pinfall after performing a Chokeslam . Event . The first match of the night was a 20 man Battle Royal for a United States championship or Intercontinental championship match . It was ultimately won by Christian . The next match was Kofi Kingston and R Truth defending the WWE Tag Team Championships against Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger . The two teams took turns controlling the match . It was Truth and Kingston who got the win and retained the tag titles Then , Layla defended her Divas championship against Beth Phoenix . Beth tried to nail Layla with a Glamslam but Layla countered it and hit the Lay - Out to retain . The fourth match of the night was Sheamus defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Chris Jericho , Randy Orton , and Alberto Del Rio in a Fatal 4 way match . They hit each other with their Finshers but kept kicking out . The match came to an end when Sheamus nailed Jericho with The White Noise . Then , Cody Rhodes defended the Intercontinental title against Christian who won the Battle Royal earlier that night . Christian controlled the match all the way and pinned Rhodes after a Killswitch . Then CM Punk defended the WWE championship against Daniel Bryan . Both Punk and Bryan took over each other , in the end when Bryan had Punk in the Yes Lock , Punk pinned Bryan to retain the title despite tapping out immediately thereafter . The next one was Ryback taking on Camacho . Ryback won the match . The main event was John Cena taking on Raw and SmackDown General Manager John Laurinaitis . John Cena took control of the match and threw trash on him . Laurninaitis ran away from the ring but was caught by Big Show . Big show threw Laurinaitis back in the ring when Cena was going to hit a AA on Laurninaitis but Big Show hit Cena with a WMD . Laurinaitis pinned Cena and won the match .