FU Cena (2006)
From 2003 – early 2025, John Cena was the consummate good guy… save for one night in 2006.
Rob Van Dam elected to cash in his MITB briefcase at ECW One Night Stand and had the ultimate home court advantage. The hostile crowd at the Hammerstein Ballroom hated Cena with a passion, hurling toilet paper at him; repeatedly tossing his shirt back at him as if it was an opposing team’s home run baseball; and showering him with brutal NSFW chants. They threatened to riot if Cena won.
At first, visibly shaken by the vitriol, Cena started to embrace it as the match went on, wrestling as a villain. He beat down the underdog RVD for a majority of the contest (a role reversal for Cena) and nailed him in the head with steel steps. He even knocked out the referee.
This wasn’t Super Cena. This was Lex Luther. Edge slid out from under the ring and speared Big Match John through a table. As fans chanted “Thank you, Edge,” RVD frog-splashed Cena, and Paul Heyman counted the pinfall.
Plankton had a better shot of stealing the Krabby Patty secret formula than John Cena did of losing in 2006. Rob Van Dam had never really reached main event status. On this night, everything we thought we knew changed
