WWE Legend Legitimately Beat Up John Cena For Disrespecting Him

John Cena learned a valuable lesson.

Following the closure of WCW in 2001, Arn Anderson was one of the many wrestlers and backstage figures who signed with WWE.

Although occasionally an on-screen figure, Anderson largely worked as a coach and producer backstage. A role he held until 2019, when he left the company in controversial circumstances.

During this period, Anderson was given the task of producing John Cena’s matches as he made his way onto the main roster in mid-2002. The belief within WWE was that Cena had a bright future, but he needed the steady hand of a veteran to sharpen up his natural ability and keep him moving in the right direction.

And for Cena, this sometimes meant learning some painful lessons.

John Cena Learned Tough Lesson

During an appearance on Busted Open Radio, Anderson was asked about his time working with Cena as the 17-time World Champion inches closer to retirement. The WWE Hall of Famer went on to recall Vince McMahon telling him he would be working with Cena to “teach him how to work.”

Part of Cena’s development saw him regularly working with Kurt Angle and subsequently learning a harsh lesson about respect.

“Vince pulled me in the office and went, ‘We’ve got a new kid that we pulled up, we think he’s got a very bright future, Arn teach him how to work.’ I did in fact have his matches and John was very, very green. He was green in his thought process. He was trying to find his way.

One night, he was working with Kurt Angle. Some guy out in the audience had one of those hands, and John spotted it, he just leaves Kurt, rolls out of the ring, and goes about 10 rows deep, takes the hand, and folds it into a (middle) finger.

He goes back over the rail, right there is Kurt. Kurt hit him with a belly-to-belly on the floor, then threw him in the ring and stomped his brains out.

When he came back through the curtain, I went, ‘Learn anything tonight?’ And he had this (wide-eyed) look on his face. Because he had just got the dog s**t kicked out of him by somebody that could do it and not have any repercussions from it.

I just said, ‘You’ve gotta respect the guy. You don’t leave a guy, even in the ring, you don’t leave a guy and walk over and start screaming at the fans, with your back to that guy.’

If it was me, or if it was a veteran that knew what he was doing, when he came back to get me, they would be looking at a totally different complexion of the match. There’s a certain thing about respect.

If you just let a guy walk off and then come back and get you and continue on you, it don’t feel good, don’t smell good, don’t taste good.”

During the same appearance, Arn Anderson expressed his pride at watching Cody Rhodes stand at the top of WWE. Anderson worked closely with Rhodes in AEW after being friends with his legendary father for many years.

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H/t to Wrestle Talk