As the John Cena Retirement Tour nears its end, reflections are pouring in far and wide from those who have played a part in Cena’s legendary career and few were more influential in the early days than WWE Hall of Famer Arn Anderson. Appearing on “Busted Open Radio,” Anderson reflected on his first interactions with Cena after his call-up to “WWE SmackDown” in 2002.
“[Cena] was green in his thought process,” said Anderson, who quickly became the agent (or producer) for Cena’s matches and right away, knew there was work to be done. “He was trying to find his way and experimenting with the rapper stuff and all that, which I knew would never work, but [that wasn’t my] call.” Soon, “Double A” would notice Cena’s confidence growing, maybe too quickly, but knowing another lesson was afoot, the veteran was fine with letting his protege test the waters some. “I saw John begin to question me and I would say, ‘Okay, that’s a valid point. Try it your way. Tomorrow, we’ll try it my way,'” Anderson recalled. “[He’d established] a confidence that I was gonna take care of him and protect him and sometimes that would involve having to be a bit firm.”
One such instance involved learning a tough lesson from fellow WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle. “Some guy in the audience had one of those hands and John spotted it,” Anderson remembered. “Now, they’re in the middle of the match. This is an Olympic gold medalist. He just leaves Kurt, goes [about] 10 rows deep, takes the hand and folds it into a [middle] finger. He goes back over the rail [and] Kurt hit him with a Belly-to-Belly on the floor and threw him in the ring and stomped his brains out. When he came back through the curtain, I went, ‘Uh, learn anything tonight?’ And he had this [wide-eyed] look on his face. Oh yeah, cause he had just got the dogs*** kicked out of him by somebody that could do it and not have any repercussions.”
