John Cena Had Incredible Advice For Former WWE Rival
John Cena helped out one of his on-screen rivals by assisting him by suggesting a finishing move to use throughout his career.
When Carlito debuted on the WWE main roster on the October 7, 2004 edition of Smackdown, he defeated John Cena to become the United States Champion. It wasn’t a clean win because Carlito hit Cena with Cena’s own chain, but it still counts as a US Title win in Carlito’s first match.
As their careers evolved, Cena became a main event level performer who was the unquestioned top star in the company with a record 16 WWE World Title wins. Carlito has yet to be a World Champion in WWE, but he still accomplished a lot while there and outside of the company as well.
Carlito was featured in a WWE Retrospective video on YouTube where he talked about the cool moments from his career. The finishing move that Carlito used throughout his career is something called the Backstabber, which is when he puts both knees into the back of an opponent and pulls back while Carlito bumps on his own backside. According to Carlito, it was John Cena who suggested that Carlito use the Backstabber as a finishing move.
“I took a liking to the backstabber. I remember Cena was one of the first ones to point it out to me, he goes, ‘Man, that looks like a great move, you should use it as a finisher.’ I was like, eh. But he kind kept on getting me to try and do it so I was like, ‘Alright’, you know what I mean?
Nobody else does a move like that. That’s it, and then it just took off from there.”
John Cena Helping Younger WWE Stars Like Trick Williams
The year 2025 will be the final year where John Cena competes in a WWE ring because the future Hall of Famer has announced he will retire by year’s end. While Cena won’t wrestle after 2025, he will still be a part of WWE and still enjoys helping younger talent out.
Trick Williams is the current NXT Champion, who has the potential to be a future World Champion on the main roster as well. Recently, Trick spoke about the things he has learned from Cena.
“We’ve had multiple talks, but I would say the most important thing I’ve learned from him is being able to listen and perform at the same time. He knows what every sound means, what every sound means that he should be, how he should respond and react to everything.”
“But just being able to listen and react accordingly to what the people are giving you, I think, is the most [important] thing that I’ve ever heard.”
John Cena’s next WWE appearance hasn’t been announced, but Cena has said he will be at the Netflix premiere on Raw, which is on January 6th.