According to former WWE head writer Vince Russo, John Cena must believe the first half of his current farewell tour was “totally wasted” by the company.
Russo’s criticism centers on the storyline that saw Cena turn heel at Elimination Chamber, attack Cody Rhodes, and win a historic 17th World Championship at WrestleMania. However, in the build-up to SummerSlam, Cena dropped the heel persona and became a babyface again. On his Writing with Russo show, Russo claimed this abrupt shift was the result of issues behind the scenes.
“Well, he’s gotta think the first half of it was totally wasted,” Russo stated. “Bro, listen, obviously, something went down behind the scenes, we don’t know about. There was some kind of falling out with Rock, and they were not able to see this thing through, I guess, the way they thought they were going to see it through.”
Russo added that the situation was unfortunate for Cena, whose time was mismanaged in a key moment of his career.
“But it’s really unfortunate for Cena because this was it. This was the last run, and they wasted half of his time in an angle that went absolutely nowhere,” Russo said. “They didn’t try to cover it, and he just lost a lot of time, not to mention what he lost in merch money for a couple of months there.”
The abandoned angle has been replaced by a feud with Brock Lesnar. Lesnar returned to WWE after nearly two years by ambushing Cena following his Undisputed Championship match against Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam. He later appeared on the September 5th episode of SmackDown, hitting Cena with an F5 after his match with United States Champion Sami Zayn and issuing a challenge.
The criticism from Russo comes at a critical time, as Cena recently confirmed via an Instagram post that only seven dates remain in his WWE career.
His next confirmed appearance will be his match against Brock Lesnar at the Wrestlepalooza Premium Live Event on September 20. WWE has added the “One last time” stipulation, confirming it will be the final singles encounter between the two rivals, whose last one-on-one match was in 2014.