Ex-WWE Star Recalls Having Backstage Heat With John Cena
A former WWE superstar has opened up about past issues with John Cena that led to a canceled push and questions about work ethic.
It took John Cena about three years from his WWE debut in June 2002 until he became the top guy in the company in 2005. Cena became the WWE Champion for the first time at WrestleMania 21 in 2005 and a few months later was moved from Smackdown to Raw, which was clearly the “A” show at the time.
Chris Masters was a guy who debuted on the WWE main roster in 2005 at the age of 22. Masters had one of the best physiques in WWE history and fans of the company knew that Executive Chairman Vince McMahon loved pushing wrestlers with the type of muscular body that Masters had.
Despite having the right look, Masters never won a championship in WWE. While Masters did get to wrestle some top names in WWE, the company never pulled the trigger on him with a massive push. Masters’ initial WWE run ended in November 2007 and then he came back in 2009 for another two-year run.
In an interview with The Attitude Era podcast, Masters talked about nearly becoming a Tag Team Champion and Intercontinental Champion, but then those plans changed in part because he had an addiction to painkillers. Masters also mentioned a potential World Title feud that was speculated at the time.
“There’s quite a few. I mean Carlito and me were supposed to win the tag belts at the WrestleMania match that we worked together but it got switched. No big deal. Then the second time was I was supposed to win the Intercontinental title. But that’s when I also had intervention from my pill addiction.”
“So they even told me like ‘Oh we originally had you set to win the belt tonight but in light of what we found out…’ What I was going through, they didn’t do that obviously. Then the World Title thing was also speculated, I never heard it first-hand but it was speculated. But I think a number of factors kind of put a squash to that, one of them being Cena. I don’t know 100% but….”
Chris Masters Explains Why John Cena Wasn’t A Fan Of His
As he continued, Masters spoke about how John Cena didn’t seem to like the Masterpiece’s lack of work ethic in those days.
“It’s not hatred by any means we’re just two very different guys, I’m from California and he’s a Massachusetts guy. At that point he had a better work ethic than me so I think he looked down on when he looked at me and didn’t see the same work ethic. Although I will say I did develop that eventually. When you’re young and dumb, sometimes you don’t approach things the best possible way.”
Chris Masters is now 40 years old and wrestling outside of WWE for over a decade while mainly using the name Chris Adonis.