The 2012 No Way Out (known as No Escape in Germany) was the 12th and final No Way Out professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It took place on June 17, 2012, at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It was the first No Way Out held since 2009 and replaced Capitol Punishment for the June 2012 PPV slot, thus being the only No Way Out event held in June as all previous ones were held in February. Following this event, however, No Way Out was again discontinued and replaced by Payback in 2013.
Nine matches were contested at the event, with one match on the pre-show. In the main event, John Cena defeated Big Show in a Steel Cage match. In other prominent matches, Sheamus defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain the World Heavyweight Championship and CM Punk defeated Kane and Daniel Bryan to retain the WWE Championship. The event received 194,000 buys, up from last year's Capitol Punishment pay-per-view of 170,000, but down on the 2009 No Way Out figure of 272,000 buys.
Production
Background
No Way Out was first held by WWE as the 20th In Your House pay-per-view (PPV) in February 1998. Following the discontinuation of the In Your House series, No Way Out returned in February 2000 as its own PPV event, thus establishing it as the annual February PPV for the promotion until 2009, after which, No Way Out was discontinued and replaced by Elimination Chamber in 2010. After three years, No Way Out was reinstated to replace Capitol Punishment as the June 2012 PPV. It was scheduled to be held on June 17, 2012, at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The 2012 event was the 12th event in the No Way Out chronology and the only to be held in June. It was the first No Way Out held since the end of the first brand extension in August 2011, as well as the first No Way Out held since the company ceased using its full name of "World Wrestling Entertainment"; the "WWE" abbreviation became an orphaned initialism in April 2011.
In Germany, the 2012 No Way Out event was titled "No Escape" as No Way Out was used as the substitute title for Elimination Chamber that year over concerns regarding The Holocaust imagery of the Elimination Chamber title.
Storylines
The professional wrestling matches at No Way Out featured professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, WWE. Storylines between the characters played out on WWE's primary television programs, Raw and SmackDown.
The main event of the pay-per-view involved John Cena and Big Show. On the May 14 edition of Raw, the general manager of Raw and SmackDown John Laurinaitis fired Big Show for making fun of his voice. At Over the Limit, just before Cena would defeat Laurinaitis, Big Show turned heel and used his WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction) finisher to incapacitate Cena, allowing Laurinaitis to pin Cena and keep his job as General Manager of Raw and SmackDown. The next night on Raw, Laurinaitis revealed that he gave Big Show back his job, complete with an ironclad contract with a bonus on the condition that he would take out Cena as Big Show was exempt from the "no interference" stipulation for the match. Big Show stated that he only helped Laurinaitis when he didn't receive any sympathy from the other Superstars, and because of his ironclad contract, started attacking every superstar on the WWE roster in revenge. Laurinaitis would soon book a match between Cena and Big Show inside a steel cage for No Way Out. On the June 11 edition of Raw, Mr. McMahon returned to evaluate Laurinaitis's job, but was interrupted by the Big Show, at which point McMahon announced that if Big Show lost, Laurinaitis would be fired, at which point Big Show knocked out McMahon with the WMD after Cena ducked. On the June 15 episode of SmackDown, Laurinaitis announced the stipulation if Cena lost, he would be fired, at which point Cena knocked Laurinaitis out.
Originally Sheamus was set to defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Alberto Del Rio. Following a successful title defense by Sheamus against Del Rio, Randy Orton and Chris Jericho at Over the Limit, Del Rio, Orton and Kane competed in a triple threat match on the May 25 edition of SmackDown to earn a title match against Sheamus at No Way Out, which Del Rio won. However, Del Rio was pulled from the match following a concussion during the June 8 episode of SmackDown. On the June 11 edition of Raw, Dolph Ziggler defeated Christian, Jack Swagger and The Great Khali in a fatal-four way elimination match to become the new number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship.