John Cena reveals that he was originally booked to defeat Roman Reigns at WWE SummerSlam in 2021
While appearing on the No-Contest Wrestling podcast, John Cena revealed that he was originally booked to defeat Roman Reigns at WWE SummerSlam in 2021…
“That night was supposed to go very different. At the last moment, we had a surprise guest booked, and he came out after the match was over. Brock [Lesnar]. They didn’t secure Brock until 5:00 PM that day.
And you want to talk about pivoting, right? A message to anybody out there listening who thinks I’m talking from a high place or a glass house: I was going to win 17. We were going to have someone come out and restart the match, and Roman was going to take it back.
And the way we put together the match was we were going to give him a hell of a match — everything out the door, no rules, no nothing, tons of finishers, all this stuff — because I was going to win, and then Roman was going to take it back. So you have this hard-fought battle, and then through a nefarious set of rules, the match gets restarted. Here we go.
Then we secure Brock, and TR [talent relations] comes and says, ‘I need to see you. We’re switching the finish.’
‘To what?’
‘Roman over.’
‘Clean?’
‘Yep.’
Paul Heyman has been a great mentor. He gets it, and he recognizes somebody who sees that it’s not about them — it’s about the story. This is going to make Roman better because they’re having him win so we can go on to bigger and better things.
An hour before — we’re on the West Coast, so it’s like an hour before the thing.
So it happens to everyone. It happens from the top of the card down to the bottom. They will switch.
I saw Steve Austin leave. I saw him get fired. I was there when they fired him in Atlanta. It happens. It happens all the time.
But I was supposed to win 17 that night.”