During the height of The Nexus storyline in late 2010, John Cena was forced to join the faction. As part of the angle, he and David Otunga won the WWE Tag Team Championships from Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre at Bragging Rights. While this should have been a career highlight for Otunga, he revealed to Chris Van Vliet that Cena tried to pull a prank on him that ultimately soured the moment.
“He tried to rib me by taking the titles, and then he told me, ‘Hey, make sure you grab the titles and take them to the next town,’” Otunga explained. He noted that there are typically “TV titles” and “live event titles,” and Cena had instructed him to collect the live event belts. However, Cena had already taken them himself, hoping Otunga would panic when he couldn’t find them. “He wanted me to go crazy backstage, searching for it, and freak out. So I went and asked Drew for the titles, and he’s like, ‘Oh, I already gave them to Cena.’ Okay, that was the end of that.”
Because Otunga simply accepted that Cena had the belts and didn’t panic, the prank failed. However, Otunga claims that when they arrived at the next town, he was told Cena was angry with him. “I get to the building the next day, ‘Oh, man, what did you do? Cena is pissed at you!’ What? ‘Yeah, he’s mad. He’s looking for you. You gotta apologize to John Cena.’” Otunga was confused, as he knew Cena had the belts. He was told that Cena felt he should have looked harder and been more upset about “losing” the championships.
Otunga eventually apologized to smooth things over, but he found the situation absurd. “I literally went and apologized to John. ‘Hey, John, I’m sorry, I looked for the title. I didn’t understand. You know, I thought you had them.’ He was shoot mad at me though… That’s what I always said, which is always kind of funny to me. Hey, yeah, your joke didn’t work and you’re mad at me about it. But doesn’t that kind of fall on you playing your joke a little bit?”
John Cena is currently winding down his in-ring career with a retirement tour that will conclude in December 2025. He has stated that his final match will be at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13, 2025. A tournament is currently taking place on WWE television to decide who will face him in that historic final bout.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Insight With Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. You can subscribe to the podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
