This past Monday, WWE was in Belgium for Monday Night Raw as part of their Road to Wrestlemania. And those paying attention were eagerly anticipating this show, as it was set to be the first show which John Cena would appear on, ever since he stunned the world by aligning with The Rock and attacking Cody Rhodes after winning the Elimination Chamber to secure a title match against Cody at Mania. And everyone was waiting with baited breath to see what Cena as a bad guy would even look like, as many thought it would never happen again.
From the moment his music hit to open the show, you could tell we were in for something special. The European crowd heavily booed Cena as he made his entrance and serenaded him the whole time with chants of “John Cena sucks”, which would make you think you woke up in 2010 in the middle of the prime “Super Cena” years. And while Cena’s music/gear haven’t changed, you can tell Cena is a totally different man, gone was any acknowledgement of Stu, running down to the ring or even fully showcasing his “Last Time is Now” towel, simply laying it on the edge of the ring before getting into the ring to say his piece.
And Cena was quick to begin admonishing the crowd. Berating the “abusive relationship” he’s been in for over 2 decades and how he has been forced to act like a puppet for the fans, and to do it with a smile. Explaining that he isn’t a Babyface (good guy) or a Heel (a bad guy), just a human being who has been treated awfully for 25 years, a human being who despite trying so much to do what people wanted him to do was always hated because nothing was ever enough. And how the final straw was Cena announcing his impending retirement and how quickly the fans as he put it could only think for themselves and wonder what we would get from the “Farewell Tour”, and never actually asked Cena how he felt.
Cena then clarified what we are going to get, which is the nothing he believes we deserve. Specifying he wouldn’t get a new attire/outfit or even change his music from the iconic “My Time is Now” because we don’t deserve it for being awful for the last 25 years. Further admonishing the crowd, for now being against Cena entirely and asking for Cody Rhodes instead after being the same people who chanted “Let’s Go Cena”, stealing his personal moments and turning John Cena into a toy and a pathetic joke about an invisible man (you can’t see me). And shaming the crowd/fans for using Cena as an excuse for being a failure, and again shaming everyone in attendance & watching (even singling out a child in the crowd in a full Cena outfit) for being toxic. And firmly breaking up with everyone who has ever liked or disliked him, as Cena no longer cares about the fans or anyone else.
This moment is what finally brought out Cody Rhodes. Who simply, after hearing all of this questioned who he was even standing in the ring with as the John Cena he knows was nothing like the man who’d been insulting the crowd for nearly 20 minutes prior to this. Before simply requesting that the person in the ring find the “real” John Cena, as Cody has no interest in fighting the man he saw in the ring before leaving. And following this, Cena had no sort of retort or even said another word, simply leaving the ring to waves of “nananana, heyheyhey, goodbye” and even looking like a soulless husk of a man, and nothing like the John Cena we have known for years.
Following this, we know that John Cena will also be on the next 2 episodes of Monday Night Raw to continue the buildup to Wrestlemania and has multiple dates confirmed following Wrestlemania, currently covering as far as the June 20th episode of Smackdown and including the Backlash PLE as well as the next Saturday Night’s Main Event. And even with all of these dates, there are still plenty of slots to be used up of the initial 30-40 dates Cena mentioned he would be working as part of his Farewell Tour. So we will definitely see more of this John Cena who has finally broken after 25 years of again, as he put it an abusive relationship with the WWE Universe.
