David Otunga claims he suffered “verbal and emotional abuse” from John Cena in a WWE locker room

This was on September 24th, 2010, in Paris, France. I was tag-teaming with Wade Barrett against John Cena and Evan Bourne. Goldust was on the tour — this was right before he became an agent, so he was still active — and he was really cool because he would work with me before every show. Goldust was giving me different things I could do and helping me add tools to my bag, because I was such a green wrestler. My moves were very limited, but Goldust was trying to give me extra things to do.

He gave me a simple little move — I can’t even call it a ‘spot,’ but wrestling fans have seen it a thousand times. A heel drapes a babyface’s neck over the top rope. The heel then puts his hands on the rope, pushes it out, pulls it back, and the babyface jerks up and bumps off it.

So Goldust told John ahead of time, ‘Hey, Otunga’s going to do this little thing in the match.’ John didn’t even need to be told, but Goldust was just letting him know he’d been working with me.

So I hang John Cena up on the ropes. He’s hanging there. I’m flexing, doing my stuff. I slowly walk over. John is hung up. I reach out and grab the ropes — the first step in the move — and the moment I touch the top rope, Cena does this awful-looking sell. I hadn’t pushed it out or pulled it back yet. I just touched the rope, and he sold it. Way too early. It looked terrible.

But I didn’t say anything. I turned around — and boy, Cena is pissed. He is kicking my ass in there for real and cussing me out, telling me how terrible I am, that I live in fantasy land, that I’m awful, that when this is over I’m going back to FCW. He’s doing this in the middle of the match.

And I don’t even know what to do with myself at this point, because I didn’t mess that up. But this is John Cena, and he’s cussing me out, stepping over the line, and we’re still in the match. I remember being so embarrassed. People could hear it — maybe we were in France, but still. Evan Bourne is snickering at me across the ring, Wade’s not saying anything, and it’s just awful.

Then we get to the back.

I don’t even get to say sorry. Cena is cussing me out as soon as he comes through the curtain, in front of the entire locker room, totally dressing me down. Telling me this is a fantasy for me, that I’m not a real wrestler, I shouldn’t be here, I can’t hack it, and I’m going back to FCW. He says the first thing he’s doing is calling Vince [McMahon]. He’s calling the office.

And it’s so bad that I start getting tears of anger — not crying, just rage. Because what do you do? I’m not going to put my hands on him; he hadn’t crossed that line physically. But he’s talking to me in a way no man talks to another man. Totally disrespectful. And the whole point is — he messed it up.

He finished his tirade and stormed off. Goldust came over to me, and the first thing he said was, ‘Man, that’s messed up. He should never talk to anybody like that.’ He said he was going to say something to John about it.

Then he asked what Cena was even mad about. I told him it was the rope spot. Goldust says, ‘Well, John messed that up.’ And I’m like, ‘I know.’ He goes, ‘So John’s yelling at you because of that rope spot, but he’s the one who messed it up.’ We went back and watched the tape together, just like I said. Cena messed it up. He missed the timing — I don’t know what he was doing — and he sold it way too fast, then went crazy on me.

It was the worst I’ve ever been cussed out or disrespected, to the point where I questioned if I even wanted to work there anymore. I didn’t make a mistake, and yet I was disrespected like that. Absolutely not.

So I really had to think about it, and if I’m being honest, it changed the way I saw John Cena forever. It actually changed the way I saw the company, too, because nobody did anything about it. I think Goldust said something to him, but there was never an apology.

Like—let’s be honest—I saw how I was treated. I saw what time it was.

Now, Cena only got physical with me in the ring. Backstage it was verbal and emotional abuse in front of everybody. But he knew better than to put his hands on me backstage. I’m telling you right now — if John Cena had put his hands on me backstage, I would have beaten the dogsh*t out of John Cena, and fast.

Actually, it probably would have been better if it had just been a physical altercation. At least it would’ve ended quickly. But the fact that it was verbal abuse — and I couldn’t do anything but take it. I was a rookie, so I guess I just had to eat that and be humiliated in front of the locker room, the agents, the audience, disrespected, with all kinds of undertones thrown around.

It has taken me 15 years to tell this story, but this is what happened.

I have never seen anybody do that. And up until then, I had never seen John Cena blow up on anybody like that. In fact, I’d never seen anybody blow up on someone like that for anything.”