John Cena was 'battle-tested, always delivered and was just a true champion' of WWE, MLW founder says
John Cena’s illustrious in-ring career with WWE will come to an end in just over a month as his final match is slated for Dec. 13 in Washington at the Capital One Arena.
Cena made his main roster debut in 2002 when he went up against Kurt Angle, who was having an open challenge on "SmackDown." The rest is history as Cena made an indelible mark on the industry and became a 17-time WWE champion at WrestleMania 41.
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Major League Wrestling founder Court Bauer was a writer for WWE just as Cena was coming up through the territory system and eventually to the top shows. Bauer recalled Cena’s grit and professionalism over the course of his career in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.
"John Cena is what Vince McMahon looked for his entire career as a promoter," Bauer said. "Someone that would show up to work early, leave late, be an incredible soldier and leader on the field, or in the ring in this case. Always represent the company, go above and beyond, whether it was charity, whether it was anything to do to help other talent and elevate them. Never a complaint. Never an issue.
"You look at all the guys that were anointed, ‘the guy,’ throughout Vince McMahon’s tenure as head of the company and there was maybe a guy who didn’t like doing the honor for someone else or had a financial conflict or would complain about some issue or was a malcontent or thought the grass was greener somewhere else or just something would come up. John Cena was battle-tested, always delivered and was just a true champion of the company."
Bauer pointed to Cena learning Mandarin, which helped take WWE into China.
"You could start a cloning factory and not come up with the prototype that was John Cena for WWE," Bauer continued. "And when you look at how the company changed and evolved with him at the helm as the guy, it’s undeniable what his contributions were as a performer, in terms of what they were of what Vince McMahon always looked for and couldn’t find in Shawn Michaels, couldn’t find in Ultimate Warrior, couldn’t find in guys that went through, you could go through the list for 40 years, there was like, ‘Yeah …’ And then it all went to hell.
"John Cena’s start is strong, his end is strong and was a constant in every sense. So when you see someone like that, and I’ve worked with him, and I thought, ‘What a great experience it was to work with him.’ Always kept it light on set, always was just giving positive contributions and feedback on things, never difficult, always with the shared goal of, ‘Let’s make this as good as we can, let’s make this great.’ And sharing that sentiment, let’s give the fans the best damn thing we can."
Bauer said that same mindset has carried over into other projects Cena has worked on outside of the ring, including the "Peacemaker" series and the commercials he’s on.
Cena’s in-ring career will culminate in a match with the winner of the Last Time is Now Tournament. The winner will get a shot at Cena and presumably will carry the torch for the company into 2026.
Cena has four scheduled dates left. The first of which is Monday night in Boston.
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