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Vince McMahon Hated Any Talent Being Compared To John Cena Except This Superstar Says EX WWE Wrestler
Vince McMahon never liked that wrestlers were compared to his favorite superstar, John Cena. Find out who he is.
For Vince McMahon, John Cena was irreplaceable. The former WWE Chairman never liked any WWE talent to be compared to his favorite superstar, or in fact the face of the company. However, one talent was an exception to this.
He was none other than The Big Dog, Roman Reigns. This has been revealed by ex-WWE superstar EC3, who said that for years WWE would never present any talent on par with John Cena, until they stumbled across Roman Reigns.
“Vince also hated, to my recollection, anybody being compared to John Cena. So, it's funny that he would compare Roman to him. Roman obviously was the next 'The guy,' but I do remember," EC3 said while speaking to Sportskeeda’s The Wrestling Outlaws.
That was in 2013, when John Cena was gearing to take a backseat, and WWE wanted to make a new babyface. Roman Reigns emerged as their ultimate choice. It was so much that a top babyface in the company who was emerging as a massive face was outrightly told that the company doesn’t have plans for him, but they are looking to install Roman Reigns as the face of the WWE.
And who was that wrestler? It was Daniel Bryan after his WrestleMania 30 win, and he became the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Bryan recently revealed that Vince McMahon told him on his face after the WrestleMania 30 win that they didn’t have anything planned for him, and instead, Roman Reigns would fill in the void left by John Cena.
Bryan made this revelation recently in conversation with Fightful Select. “Even in WWE, when I won the World Championship at WrestleMania 30, I wasn't their guy, right? They still had plans as far as, like, 'Okay, we really want to transition to Roman Reigns being the guy.' Vince legitimately sat me down and told me that,” he said.
Vince McMahon said to Bryan that they will have a couple of title defenses for him until SummerSlam, when he would face Brock Lesnar and then Lesnar would destroy Bryan and win the WWE Championship. Then plans would be made for Reigns vs Lesnar, where Reigns would beat Lesnar and become the new top babyface.
This plan was never carried out as Bryan was stripped of his WWE Championship by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, who were playing as The Authority, because of his neck injury. He had to undergo some surgeries, which he did, and returned in November 2014.
However, within two years Bryan had to announce his WWE retirement as his neck injury reached a tipping point where wrestling was life-threatening for him.
As for Roman Reigns, the company struggled to install him as the babyface, and they tried every trick from their bag, but none worked. The creative team literally had a hard time pushing him as a babyface, as the WWE Universe was rejecting him outrightly.
Reigns’ efforts came to fruition only when he turned heel at SummerSlam 2020, when he returned and attacked Braun Strowman and Late Bray Wyatt. Soon thereafter. Reigns aligned with Paul Heyman, and The Bloodline story started to take shape. The rest is history.
Reigns continued to retain the WWE Championship for 1,316 days, and his reign came to an end only four years later at WrestleMania 40, against Cody Rhodes. At present, Reigns is one of the top babyfaces since his SummerSlam return and is preparing to exact revenge against his cousin, Solo Sikoa, for hijacking The Bloodline faction in his absence.
Also Read: John Cena Explains Why Roman Reigns Is Bigger GOAT Than The Rock in WWE
