WWE Considered Hiring Controversial Star For John Cena Feud

WWE

A current WWE executive has revealed a previous creative discussion for John Cena in 2004, which included the hiring of an extremely controversial former ECW star.

The angle in question was the already infamous feud with Carlito in late 2004 over the United States Championship, a story that saw Cena ‘stabbed’ whilst at a nightclub, writing him off TV for a while.

While it was eventually revealed to be none other than Carlito’s bodyguard Jesús, another idea batted around the WWE creative team was for ECW legend New Jack to be behind the attack, leading to a match between the two.

Speaking on his Something to Wrestle podcast, Bruce Prichard revealed the discussions to potentially bring in ‘The Original Gangsta’ into WWE.

Prichard said:

“There was definitely talks to New Jack.

“I don’t think anybody wanted to touch him because of his reputation and unpredictability.

“But, yes, it may have been during this time that he was actually discussed, but never to the point of, ‘Alright, who is gonna go pitch that one to Vince?’

“The reputation preceded itself.”

Prichard also revealed that Paul Heyman warned them off the idea, saying:

“Paul was like, ‘Ok, you may get your controversy, but it may not be the kind of controversy you really want to have.’”

Cena concluded the angle by defeating Jesús in a street fight at Armageddon 2004, the latter’s final WWE match just one month after debuting in the company.

Prichard also recently explained how WWE came to the decision that Cena was to become the face of the company, despite other generational talents such as Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar and Batista  being in his same developmental class, click here to find out more.

Transcript courtesy of WrestlingINC

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• new jack
• ecw
• John Cena
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