5 Top WWE Superstars you didn't know were almost fired
Throughout WWE's history, one thing has been made clear over and over again - no Superstar is bigger than the business. You might be the face of the company, or very over with the WWE Universe, but that does not save you from the ax of getting fired.
We've seen many top WWE Superstars getting fired, and whether they or their fans liked it or not, the show went on with or without them. There have even been instances where the company fired Superstars only to rehire them shortly after.
That being said, there are many top WWE Superstars on the current roster who, you might not believe, were very close to being fired by WWE. Who are these Superstars and what did they do to be in that position? Let's find out in this article right here!
Also, be sure to comment below and let me know what do you think would have happened if WWE had fired them? It's interesting to wonder about the impact it would have had on WWE programming!
#5 WWE's Golden Boy - John Cena
Starting with one of WWE's greatest Superstars of all time, Mr. Hustle Loyalty Respect - John Cena. There are many interesting backstage stories about the 16-time World Champion, and one of them is that he was very close to being fired by WWE very early on in his career.
Before he became Super-Cena and the face of the company, he was struggling to connect with the fans. John Cena himself revealed the same in a recent WWE Network documentary:
“I was told that I would be getting my release at Christmas cuts because it just wasn’t working, and there was no argument there, it wasn’t”
It was during the European tour of WWE where Stephanie McMahon saw John Cena rapping alongside fellow WWE Superstars and asked him to do the same on TV. This little moment turned out to be huge for his career as the Doctor of Thuganomics was born, and the rest is history. Dave Meltzer revealed the following about the incident:
“John Cena worked OVW for a while, which is where he really learned his craft. He was called up too soon, which everyone knew, and there’s political reasons why that happened, and it nearly cost him his career. If it wasn’t for Stephanie McMahon taking a liking to him after they’d just about decided to let him go, he could’ve been gone.”
In an interview with Uproxx, John Cena stated:
“I was about to be fired. I was in a Becky Lynch-type scenario where I was forgotten and I was about to be let go and I took a chance on myself. I took a chance on redefining my character and it worked and I’ve never stopped. And I wasn’t the corporate headquarters first, second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth choice, but the audience began to make noise"
Well, isn't it awesome that things worked out for Cena at the right time? Because if they didn't, we would have missed out on one of the most successful WWE Superstars of the modern era of Professional Wrestling.