John Cena recently shared a previously untold story about his infamous, highly hostile match against Rob Van Dam at WWE’s One Night Stand event in 2006, held in the ECW stronghold of the Hammerstein Ballroom. Speaking at the Philadelphia Fan Expo, Cena recalled the intense atmosphere.
“The audience was pretty bad,” Cena said, noting chants of “F you Cena” started hours before his main event match. “I knew by the time we went out at 10 o’clock it was going to be pretty gnarly.” He mentioned a famous fan sign, “If Cena wins, we riot,” which was even present at the expo.
Then came the new detail. “I would never do this again, and it was the most stupid decision of my life, but I told Rob, hey, let’s, let’s go out into the audience,” Cena revealed. “And I just wanted to see, like, what would happen… I thought I was gonna get my ass kicked, but everybody was real nice.” He thanked the Hammerstein Ballroom fans for their professionalism that night, even amidst the vocal animosity, for not turning the situation physical when he made that “stupid choice.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Mike Kampke with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
