Released WWE star has major praise for John Cena
Tony Nese has praised John Cena for watching WWE’s cruiserweight superstars compete in matches on 205 Live after episodes of SmackDown.
The cruiserweight-only show, which debuted in 2016, used to air live on the WWE Network immediately after SmackDown on Tuesdays. While many superstars left the arena when SmackDown ended, Cena would stay late to watch 205 Live from the backstage area.
Speaking to Matt Rehwoldt (f.k.a. Aiden English) on Straight Shooting, Nese recalled how Cena even watched 205 Live when his segment ended two hours earlier.
“He’s probably one of the coolest, greatest guys that I’ve ever met,” Nese said. “Because when we first started Cena was on the road pretty much full-time, and he would be the first segment on SmackDown and then he’d stay the whole show to sit at the chair and watch the monitor. He would sit all through 205, watch everyone’s match.”
Nese added that Cena happily gave up his time to offer feedback to 205 Live stars backstage after their matches. As the tweet above shows, WWE cameras once captured footage of Cena watching 205 Live with no fans in attendance at the Performance Center.
John Cena also tried to help Matt Rehwoldt
Following his call-up from NXT in 2016, Matt Rehwoldt often went several months without appearing on WWE television. He became a 205 Live commentator in 2019 before receiving his release in 2020.
Rehwoldt echoed Nese’s sentiments about John Cena going out of his way to help other superstars.
“He did a lot of that stuff with me too,” Rehwoldt said. “When I wasn’t booked, he’d sit down with me in the arena and be like, ‘What’s going on? Have you talked to this guy? What have you got going on in your head?’ And I’m like, ‘Don’t you have a main event tonight leading into SummerSlam? Why are you talking to Aiden f***ing English over here?’ But he did and he cared and stuff like that.”
John Cena made his return to WWE at Sunday’s Money in the Bank event. Although it has not yet been confirmed, he looks set to challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam on August 21.
Please credit Straight Shooting and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.