“It just wasn’t working”; When John Cena was almost fired by WWE in 2002
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John Cena is one of the most iconic stars of WWE and whenever his name pops up in an interview, everyone is all ears. John Cena started out as a rookie wrestler in WWE in the year 2002 when he accepted Kurt Angle’s open challenge. Even though John was defeated, he was praised by many, including ‘The Deadman’ Undertaker. As the time passed by, John wasn’t getting the reaction he was given by the crowd in his early matches.
According to John himself, after his successful introduction match against Kurt, in which he was heavily cheered by the crowd, the interest was slowly fading away. He also pointed out that even wearing the same themed shorts as the city’s sports team did not help him. on the WWE network’s Ruthless Aggression, he revealed how he was on the verge of release:
The WWE, they used to make a series of cuts around late November and around mid-May. I was told that I would be getting my release in Christmas cuts. Because it just wasn’t working and I, there was no argument, there wasn’t. They gave it to me on a silver platter, John Cena, Ruthless aggression, and I failed. I messed it up.”
John Cena goes on:
“The people that remember the Ruthless Aggression John Cena and look back on that as a success, they’re not looking back on it correctly. It was a failure, I was stuck wrestling matches on Velocity, a program which none of you have heard of. I wasn’t stressed to be perfect; I was more stressed in the fact I didn’t know who I was,”
John Cena went on to transform himself into the Doctor Of Thugonomics gimmick which was an instant hit among the fans.
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Did Stephanie save John Cena’s career?
It is hard to imagine a WWE without John Cena, arenas have been sold out, and viewership charts have blown-up when his name is mentioned in WWE. And that is why it is hard to imagine John Cena being fired from WWE. John Cena on the WWE Network’s Ruthless Aggression opens up on how Stephanie McMahon saved his WWE Career:
“We traveled as a community, so we’re all on the same bus, so I heard a bunch of guys sitting in the back of the bus like where Rikishi and Rey Mysterio kind of leading the charge, and they were all freestyling. Just to pass the time, it was a long bus ride. And I remember being like, ‘let’s go try this’. Just dove right in, and it was like it resonated with me.”
He goes on to add that Stephanie overheard him and asked him whether he would like to try it out on TV:
“In two seconds I made a small rap about the tuna fish, the jetway, the plane we were about to go on, the destination. And then kinda closed it with a comment about Stephanie. She was like, ‘Would you like to do this on television?’, I said, ‘Absolutely,'”
It was more of a gamble for John Cena and the gamble worked “1000%” for him as he went to to become one of the greatest stars in the history of WWE and becoming its highest merch seller throughout two decades.
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Mohammad Jazib
(92 Articles Published)