Arn Anderson Explains How John Cena Matches Were Put Together

Finally we know the secret of the John Cena shoulder tackle, shoulder tackle, ducked punch, back drop, five knuckle shuffle and then failed attitude adjustment attempt.

I’ll start by saying that John Cena has had a lot of great matches in WWE, but they do all involve the above spot. It turns out Arn Anderson is the man behind “90-95%” of Cena’s matches, as he explained in an exclusive interview with Fightful.

“The last couple of years, some other guys have taken some of John’s matches. But, predominantly, I think you would probably say, if you went back and made a count I’ve had probably made 90-95%. I was always responsible for mechanics and psychology and basics and just how to guiding John of “Don’t do this and here’s why.” It was never “Don’t do this, do something different.” I always tried to have a very understandable conversation with John, I would never say “John, don’t do this, this is dumb.” Don’t do this, and let me explain to you why. He was very receptive. John is a good human being and he has got a good heart. The [Make-A-Wish Foundation] stuff he does alone, not having children, in my mind should get him a one way ticket to heaven. Because I’ve seen all the kids he’s changed their lives. When you don’t have kids, that speaks pretty much for who the human being is.”

Anderson explained that despite how it may have seemed to fans, Cena was relatively error prone in his early days, and that this was something the two of them worked hard to eradicate.

“But John would listen. John made a lot of mistakes in things that he wanted to try to do. It took a few years, just like it does for everybody, for John to get a basic knowledge of what makes sense and what doesn’t make sense. ‘This is too much, this isn’t enough.’ We had a good relationship. Once John started his move to Hollywood and all that stuff, I didn’t see him nearly as regularly. It’s like a lot of friends you have within each job. You could live in the same town as your best friends, you don’t pick up the phone and talk to them every day. We kinda lost touched when he was gone and he would come back, we’d work together.”

Cena’s time as a full-time WWE wrestler are very much at an end, but could we see him back in the ring for WrestleMania 36? Randy Orton has challenged him to a match, which you can read about here.

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