John Cena has discussed the epic Firely Funhouse match and how they had to pivot massively.
Returning at the start of 2020, Cena had no clear direction for WrestleMania 36. As the lights went out and the camera panned around, The Fiend could be seen in the background. A nod from Cena made the Mania match official, a rematch from 5 years prior.
With everything set for April, the world would then change in a way that no one could have predicted. The COVID-19 pandemic affected everyone greatly, including professional wrestling. With no fans allowed to be in attendance for the show, WWE got creative in a big way. The cinematic Firely Funhouse match saw Wyatt take a meta look at Cena, pointing out the flaws in his career before ultimately being victorious.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Cena confirmed that the original plan was a standard match for WrestleMania 36, noting how he found out about the stipulation and how he loved the chance to be creative:
“Yeah, and then things happened. And I remember three days before we filmed the Firefly Funhouse match. It was the last TV taping where they came in and they’re like, you’re gonna have a Firefly Funhouse match. And I remember there was three people in one of the conference rooms in NXT with me, I said, What’s a Firefly Funhouse match? They said, I don’t know. I said great! What can we do? And that was like, oh, man, again control the controllable. I wish we had an audience. Performers are like I wish there could be blood. I wish we could do chair shots to the head. I wish we could swear I wish I could flip people off. Control the controllable, use the tools in your tool belt. How do we make something entertaining over a two day period with no audience? And they gave us a stipulation.
Everybody else has a regular match. And it’s your stip like it’s your stip. It’s not a doctor of Thuganomics match or hustle, loyalty, respect match, that’s completely different. You have these definitive characters, you have all this ammunition, you have all this personality. And that’s what people really radiate towards. Holy sh*t we can make this a meta look at my life and we can get away with it. What do we have up in the warehouse, we have the fist, we have the blue cage. I can get some NWO stuff, we can make this work.
“Bray Couldn’t Have Been Better”: John Cena
Cena continued, noting that he was nervous about the match due to the amazing Boneyard match that took place the night before:
And I remember this the only match I’ve ever written from start to finish. And my poor wife, I made her print it out and I’m writing and giving her paper. [She said] What is this? What does it even mean? I said just print it, I need it. And somewhere I still have the original draft in my handwriting of the Firefly Funhouse. But man Bray couldn’t have been better. He knew what was up. And he knew the whole thing. I wrote it the night before. So I’m trying to text these guys like I got something weird and I think I might have sent a picture of the draft. And I still in my phone. I don’t have it with me. But I have saved a text that I sent him the night of the match, especially after we saw The Undertaker’s match tonight before Oh, my man, they crushed it, and there was a whole lot more physicality, we got one punch. And I text him how nervous I was. But I wanted to thank him for being so brave and trusting me and I think I couldn’t have done any more. And I think we gave it our best shot. And hopefully it works. And it was an effort that I am very proud of.”
During a previous interview, John Cena discussed his upcoming retirement.
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