John Cena has acknowledged a top AEW star’s tribute to him.
AEW World Champion Samoa Joe paid tribute to 17-time WWE Champion John Cena during his title defense against Eddie Kingston at AEW Dynamite: Winter Is Coming. He performed an Attitude Adjustment on Kingston, locked him in an STF, and gave a salute, looking straight at the camera.
Cena has now acknowledged Samoa Joe’s tribute by posting a screenshot of the moment on his Instagram.
Samoa Joe and John Cena trained together during the early years of their careers in UPW. They did cross paths in WWE in 2017, but never had a proper televised feud.
Joe isn’t the first to pay tribute to John Cena on AEW television, as Adam Copeland, who’s one of Cena’s iconic rivals, did the same at All Out back in September.
John Cena Reveals The Moment Of His Retirement Tour That Made Him Cry
During his recent appearance on the INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet podcast, John Cena said that he almost cried and broke character over CM Punk’s gesture during the Punkanomics promo in Saudi Arabia.
“That moment with Punk in Saudi. That transcends wrestling,” John Cena said. “To see cultures bridged. To see genuine forgiveness. I’m watching that pre-show bawling. It’s a pre-show. Unfolding before our eyes is accountability and genuine forgiveness and the bridging of cultural gaps. People who might not know a lot about each other or understand each other are getting along in harmony through this one thing that we dig: wrestling.
“In a moment, people were like, ‘Oh, I’m heard. Yes, I’m ready to forgive.’ Astonishing. To top it all off, ‘I think we’ve bridged the gap here,’ and then for him to go out and smoke in the promo. Drop heat in the gimmick. It was beautiful. The one that almost got me to break, in between one of his lines, he said, ‘I miss you already.’ I almost lost it right in front of him. That’s one of the best moments I’ve ever been a part of,” John Cena said. [H/T: Fightful]
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