John Cena upset the powers that be early in his WWE career.
During a recent appearance on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Paul London was asked whether Cena got in trouble for letting him get too much offense in their 2002 match on Velocity.
London prefaced his response by praising Cena, calling him the “Mick Jagger of pro wrestling,” before revealing that Cena’s generosity in allowing Paul to get so much offense during the match landed him in trouble with management.
“John was amazing, and the funny thing with John is, so we went out to the ring, and he said, ‘What do you want to do?’ We start talking. I’m like, ‘I do this slingshot…’ Because he’s asking me. I was always taught when the veteran, or who the match is engineered for, when they’re asking you questions, you just shut up. For any vet, you just stop and listen when they ask you questions, then you answer, but you give your input when they ask you for it.
Paul London on match with Perry Saturn
“One of the things for most academies is etiquette is not taught, because lot of these mixed schools are taught by people who taught themselves, or they couldn’t get booked elsewhere because they sucked. So now they’re teaching people, and they’re the champion of their promotion, and they’re like, ‘You can’t work anywhere else, or you’re never coming back.’ It’s garbage. It’s all crap. But it was hard to get back in it.”
“So selling, I was taught to make yourself available. So that’s what happened with Perry Saturn, which allowed him to give me a ton of offense in that match. That’s what really put me on the map, was that match with Saturn. Because he came to the back, he was like, ‘Oh, kid, I was so awesome.’ [He’s] hugging me. Perry? Who did you work with? He’s in a good mood. And Heyman’s running down the hallway. ‘Sign this kid. Sign this kid, I swear.’ What the hell is happening here?
Did WWE punish John Cena after Paul London match?
Paul London implied that WWE punished John Cena by sending him back to OVW after he called the shots in what was meant to be a tryout match.
“I think I wasn’t signed for another year and a half later, but that match with John was another tryout match, dark match, or it was on Velocity, but it was for him. I wasn’t signed, but he said ‘What do you do?’ I do this slingshot head scissors. [He said] ‘Show me.’ We get in the ring. This is before the fans get in the building. I’m parallel to the ropes coming over. He’s supposed to catch my ankles here and go this way. But it went [crash]. I was like, ‘Oh sh*t, I’m f*cked. I’m done, I’m done, I’m done.’ He’s like, ‘It’s not ballet. Come on, let’s do it again.’ And we hit it and it worked in the match, so just super generous. I didn’t find out until later at OVW, when John came to work out with us, I’m like, ‘Why are you here?’ He was like, ‘They got mad at me for giving you what I did.”
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