John Cena has looked back at his first match against The Rock at WrestleMania 28, revealing that he knew the result a year in advance.
Following Rock’s interference in the main event of WrestleMania 27, which allowed The Miz to retain the WWE Championship over Cena, the stage was set for the 2 icons to clash one year later. On April 1, 2012, both men headlined the Show of Shows in Miami, Florida in front of approximately 80,000 people. With 1.2 million pay-per-view buys, this was also one of the most bought Manias in the history of the event.
The closing moments of the 30-minute match saw Cena attempt to mock Rock’s signature People’s Elbow, only to run into a Rock Bottom and lose the match in what was a rather surprising result. However, while reflecting on his WWE and acting career while speaking with Vanity Fair, the 17-time World Champion admitted at the start of the video he knew he was losing a year ahead of time:
“You would think that, man, going to the actual stage is gonna be the worst part. That was the easy part. Here’s some inside stuff, I knew I was losing the year before the fight, that is breaking news here now.”
Breaking down the match and the rivalry, Cena first jokingly referenced that the match was billed as once in a lifetime, even though they ran the match back the following year:
“So this is WrestleMania 28 in Miami, John Cena vs. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, once in a lifetime [winks], although we did it again the next year.”
In the lead-up to the match, Cena got personal while cutting promos on The Rock, noting that the Hollywood star left the fans and that there were promo notes written on his hand, the latter causing Rock to take offence to and led to legitimate animosity behind the scenes. Referencing the personal promos, Cena stated that they were able to blur the lines to help build the match:
“What was special about this was a lot of the moments along the way crossed the lines of hey, I know this is sports entertainment, but man those guys hate each other.”
John Cena Remained On The Ramp After Losing To The Rock
The post-match scenes were also memorable as a dejected Cena was seen sitting on the ramp as Rock celebrated. When recalling that scene and what happened next, Cena wanted to maximise the loss and added that he apologised to The Rock and Rock’s mother after the match:
“I hold this one very close to my heart, because right after this I specifically stayed out there when usually you are supposed to get the hell out of there and let the winner have their moment. I wanted to say out there and soak in the embarrassment that I let the entire fanbase down. That way it would help further my story. But after the show is over, the first thing I do is apologise to Dwayne’s mother, becasue she was the first person I saw. I apologised and said, ‘I hpe you understand I was just trying to do what was best for tonight. She having the experience and wisdom of course, she was extremely gracious and a class act like she always is. But it was important to me to get that weight off my backpack. Then I went to apologise to Dwayne.”
Closing out the recollection, Cena once again reiterated that despite his comments, he always knew he would be the one taking the loss:
“All of those promos you see, all those speeches, every single one of them, I knew that I was gonna finish second place. So amazingly enough, getting to the stage was like a catharsis. Like finally we can do this.”
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featured image: WWE
