John Cena Got In Trouble Early In WWE Career With Former Champion

A former champion in WWE has recalled the time early in John Cena’s career when they had a match that upset their bosses.

John Cena started at the bottom of his WWE career. When he got to the main roster in the summer of 2002, he was in the ring with big names like Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho, but then his career stuttered.

The Halloween episode of Smackdown in 2002 saw a change for Cena because, while dressed like rapper Vanilla Ice, he started rapping on television. The rapping idea happened after impressing Stephanie McMahon on a bus before that. From there, Cena gained a lot of momentum, became a United States Champion and eventually won his first WWE Title at WrestleMania 21 in 2005.

In those early days, Cena had to wrestle on weekend WWE shows like Velocity. Paul London is a former WWE Tag Team Champion who worked with Cena for much of his WWE career.

While speaking with Fightful, London recalled when Cena got in trouble with management for giving London too much offense in a match. This came at the time when Cena was a heel character with Bull Buchanan by his side as B2.

“So that that was that was frustrating and anytime we would have people down, I was fortunate enough to work John Cena when he was ascending as a heel rapper with Bull Buchanan at his side.

I think he had caught wind that I had gone through UPW’s program post their developmental. But needless to say, we got along really well. So much in fact that he got in trouble after that match for giving me too much offense. It was on Velocity, yeah. I get that point because I wasn’t under contract at the time, but I was coming in fairly regularly. To the point where one time I remember Johnny Ace asked me who I wanted to team with and who I wanted to work with and I’m not even under contract.

So needless to say I had these ties with Cena, but even when he came to OVW, he was like, ‘Why are you here? Like, you shouldn’t. You don’t need to be here.’ I’m like, ‘I’m just doing what I’m told.’”

John Cena Could Be In Line For Major Championship Match At WrestleMania

The 16-time WWE World Champion John Cena has been called the “greatest of all time” by WWE on many occasions.

As most WWE fans know, John Cena has announced that he will retire as an in-ring performer at the end of 2025. That means that WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas will be his last time competing at WrestleMania as a wrestler.

It has been reported by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that “the idea of Cena challenging one of the two champions, in an effort to have him break Flair’s record is something strongly talked about, including for Mania.”

That means that Cena could theoretically face the WWE Champion Cody Rhodes or World Heavyweight Champion Gunther at WrestleMania 41 assuming both men are still champions at that point.