Sports
Backstage Reaction to Fan Fury Over John Cena Losing Last Match
The true backstage reaction to the fan backlash that surrounded John Cena tapping out to Gunther in the final match of his WWE career has been revealed.
After forcing Cena to tap out, Gunther became only the fourth Superstar to ever achieve the feat. The other three men to claim a submission victory over the 17-time world champion were Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit.
Crucially, though, Cena hadn’t given up in more than 20 years and fans inside Washington DC’s Capital One Arena weren’t ready to see their hero surrender in his last bout. This was made clear during the match itself, as loud chants of “Don’t give up” filled the venue whenever ‘The Ring General’ looked to lock in his sleeper submission hold.
Ultimately, John eventually fell to the submission, tapping out with a resigned smile on his face at the end of the 23-minute battle. Almost immediately, though, fans made their disgust known as they showered WWE Chief Content Officer, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, with chants of “You f***** up!”
Report Reveals Real Backstage Reaction to John Cena Losing His Final WWE Match
During an appearance on the post-event panel, Triple H was constantly booed after being blamed as the man ultimately in charge of the decision to have Cena lose. ‘The Game’ tried to play the fan reaction as something he had been expecting.
However, Fightful Select rejected that claim, indicating that Levesque had a huge smile on his face at the end of the match, with no idea of the complaints he was about to face.
That report was backed up by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, who confirmed that the company was completely “blindsided” by the fury around the call to have Cena tap out. Such was the level of anger surrounding the result that Gunther needed additional security just to make his way back into his bus outside the arena at the end of the night.
Meltzer stated:
“There are many people in WWE who did not agree with that decision [John Cena losing], but the guy in charge [Triple H] did it. The one thing that I can say is that even though they may say something different publicly, they were blindsided by that reaction. The idea that we did it, we knew it was going to get heat, it’s just the price we pay. When they’re all chanting and he’s going, ‘Oh, I thought it would be louder’, that was a defence mechanism…. I was told there was no discussion of a reaction.”
Despite the negative reaction to Saturday’s result, WWE is set to double down on the decision to portray Gunther as something of a ‘career killer’, with plans already being discussed for the Austrian to retire two other WWE legends in 2026.
