Breaking down The Young Bucks' subtle link to John Cena's WWE WrestleMania 41 victory
At WrestleMania 41, John Cena finally captured his 17th World Championship. The Cenation Leader managed to overcome The American Nightmare, courtesy of Travis Scott's interference.
Unfortunately, many fans are not too thrilled about how Cena broke Ric Flair's record for the most World Title reigns. In the final moments of the contest, The Franchise Player hit Cody Rhodes with a low blow and then blasted him with the Undisputed WWE Championship.
Surprisingly, it was enough for the veteran to secure a three-count over The American Nightmare. While Cena winning the Undisputed WWE Title at WrestleMania 41 was a heartwarming moment, the finish to his match with Rhodes left a lot to be desired.
Fans were not thrilled as there was barely any buildup to the finish from a storytelling perspective, as the match ended right when things had started to pick up.
The audience was also expecting appearances from The Rock, Paul Heyman, and Seth Rollins, all of whom are suspected to be working together. Instead, the Las Vegas crowd only got an inconsequential interference from Travis Scott, whose appearance added nothing to the World Title bout at WrestleMania 41.
On the Road to WrestleMania, John Cena has been quite vocal about not giving the fans what they want. Interestingly, The Franchise Player might have followed a similar strategy to AEW's Executive Vice Presidents, The Young Bucks, at WrestleMania 41.
Breaking down the ending of WrestleMania 41 - How John Cena's mindset parallels The Young Bucks' thinking
In early 2024, The Young Bucks turned heel and began terrorizing the AEW roster. The duo later joined forces with Kazuchika Okada and Jack Perry to form The New Elite, which kept the Jacksonville-based promotion in its stranglehold for the next few months.
During this time, Matthew and Nicholas Jackson fully embraced their cocky sides, as they deliberately started annoying the audience with their promos and in-ring performance.
Speaking on the Tunnel Talk podcast, The Bucks revealed that they had bad matches during their heel run on purpose. The Young Bucks wanted to generate heel heat by tricking the audience into believing they were "washed".
The Bucks deliberately delivered boring matches and underwhelming performances, earning the shouts of "undeserving" and "uninteresting" from the audience. The duo held back from doing any super-athletic, exciting moves, which earned them the fans' recognition in the first place.
It was an intriguing way for The Bucks to intensify their onscreen conflict with the fans, where the undeserving heels always triumphed over legitimately talented babyfaces.
The Young Bucks deprived the fans of what they wished to see for months. Interestingly, John Cena has come up with a similar plan for his ongoing heel run, and his strategy was at full display at WrestleMania 41.
After The Cenation Leader turned heel at Elimination Chamber 2025, the audience expected him to debut a new look and a new theme song. However, the Franchise Player bluntly refused to change the content of his character, as he wanted the fans to suffer by not giving them what they wanted.
At WrestleMania 41, John Cena had arguably the most underwhelming entrance on the Grandest Stage of Them All. The Cenation Leader entered the arena with no music package, no extra props, and no colorful lighting, which certainly left a section of the audience disappointed.
The entire structure of the match could have been put together by John Cena himself, who was against the idea of pleasing the fans throughout this storyline. The absence of The Rock and Seth Rollins could also have been by design.
During the main event, fans had expected Cena to deliver a performance of a lifetime, as it was the final time he was gracing The Show of Shows with his presence. However, the match failed to meet the high standards set by other wrestlers over the two nights of WrestleMania.
While their personas are entirely different, the resemblance between the routes taken by The Young Bucks and John Cena for their respective heel runs seems uncanny.