Although the latter stages of John Cena’s career have seen the leader of the Cenation put over several WWE Superstars, such as Roman Reigns and AJ Styles, this wasn’t always the case. Cena, as the perceived face of WWE, was often on the winning end of marquee bouts.
As it turns out, the 16-time World Champion went as far as to refuse to put over former WWE Superstar Jack Swagger in 2010. This came at a time when the now-Jake Hager was holding the Money in the Bank briefcase. ‘The Real American’ teased cashing in on then-newly-crowned WWE Champion John Cena on the Raw following WrestleMania XXVI, though this never came to fruition.
As Jake Hager claimed on an episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast, John Cena refused to put him over for reasons seemingly unknown:
“The night before [Hager’s cash-in on Chris Jericho], I teased it on Raw where I would almost hit Cena with the briefcase. I snuck up on him and then we had one of his brilliant promo segments. Later come find out he refused to do the job for me for the World Championship, but we won’t talk about that.”
Jack Swagger ultimately defeated Chris Jericho for the World Heavyweight Championship less than a week after lifting the Money in the Bank contract.
John Cena May Return To WWE For WrestleMania 39
Having last wrestled a televised bout for WWE at the 2021 SummerSlam event, John Cena may be about to lace up his boots once more, with rumours swirling that he could return to the ring for a contest at WrestleMania 39 on April 1 and 2. Who, exactly, he would face remain unknown.
It’s said that with the thirty-ninth ‘Showcase of the Immortals’ emanating from just outside of Los Angeles, there is a need for John Cena to appear at the event if he wants to be “the next Rock”.