Jim Ross has given his thoughts on why John Cena and The Undertaker never had a main event feud despite being two of the WWE’s biggest icons.
The Undertaker and John Cena have only met in on-one-on action on television six times during their respective careers. The majority of these matches happened in 2003 and 2004 before Cena ascended to superstardom in the company.
The two stars met in the ring in the main event of Raw in October 2006. Their match was cut short however due to interference from Big Show, Booker T, and Mr. Kennedy.
Speaking on his Grilling JR podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross thinks a feud between two loved characters wouldn’t have protected either man.
Ross explained:
“I think part of it was to protect The Undertaker and his babyface status. And he would have been the babyface and it would have put another shower full of dirt on John Cena’s babyface run. It just didn’t seem the right thing to do at that point in time.”
“People kept waiting ‘Cena’s gonna turn heel’ all this ‘he’ll have to turn heel here’, everybody’s doing their booking. I think it was to protect Taker a little bit and to protect John. You’re right it would have been a very interesting attraction. I thought it would have been very well received. But you gotta protect both guys because of who they are and what they represent et cetera.”
The most high-profile match between The Undertaker and Cena came at WrestleMania 34 in 2018. For weeks Cena had challenged The Undertaker to meet him on ‘The Grandest Stage Of Them All.’ However, it wasn’t until WrestleMania itself that the Deadman answered Cena’s challenge. The Undertaker defeated the sixteen-time world champion in under three minutes. The match marked The Undertaker’s last in-ring outing at the show he became synonymous with.
Jim Ross also discussed his return to Monday Night Raw after illness and how he felt his replacement Joey Styles was sitting in his chair.