Freddie Prinze Jr. Recalls Confrontation With WWE's John Cena
Cena and Prinze Jr. didn’t always see eye-to-eye during Prinze Jr.’s time in WWE
John Cena is making a name for himself in Hollywood, with his turn as Peacemaker in last year’s The Suicide Squad earning rave reviews, leading to Cena’s character getting his own spin-off TV show.
However, during his time as the face of WWE, Cena didn’t see eye-to-eye with actor Freddie Prinze Jr., with Prinze Jr. revealing on the Wrestling With Freddie podcast that Cena didn’t like him because he was an actor, not a wrestler, even calling the Scooby Doo star ‘Ashton Kutcher’:
“I’ve always said I respected John, even though he didn’t like me whilst I was there because I was an actor, which he is now,” Prinze Jr. explained. “But I always respected him, because John was willing to wear the crown during the PG-rated era, and that was a crown that no top guy wanted.”
One of Prinze Jr.’s roles in WWE was helming acting classes to help talent sharpen their acting skills. During one class with Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins, Cena interrupted, grabbing a chair and parking himself between The Major Brothers. Prinze Jr. took Cena outside and asked why he interrupted, with Cena saying “Look, maybe I’m a neanderthal but I just don’t see how any of this s*** works.”
Freddie responded by saying, “Hey man, not everybody can do what you do. I’m trying to get them to a level where you’re at, or close to it, because if I don’t, who the hell is!?” Cena apparently shrugged his shoulders and said, “Hey man, it’s not like you’re helping them out?” before walking away.
Prinze Jr. revealed how word got out about his and Cena’s ‘chat’, with Prinze Jr. ending up on the receiving end of a rib on the WWE private jet:
“So, I’m on the jet. We’re flying back to White Plains, New York, from whatever city we’re in. Cleveland or wherever it was, and Vince has me hold out my hands he’s got some hand sanitiser and he doesn’t like germs,” Prinze Jr. explains. “And so he starts to put hand sanitiser in my hands, and as a rib, won’t stop. He just keeps squeezing it and squeezing it and he’s just staring me down, and I’m staring him down.
“So I just let him empty the bottle and I just stand up and I slap it down in the sink in the bathroom, wipe my hands, I come back in and he’s laughing, he thinks it’s great and Kevin Dunn thinks it is the greatest joke that anyone has ever pulled off in the history of jokes. I sit down and Vince goes ‘So, heard you had a little problem with Cena today?’ ‘Nah, man’ I try to downplay it, ‘Nah, I think he’s just testing me, man, all of you guys like to test me.’ He goes ‘Ah, don’t worry about it, I’m the only one who can fire you anyway!'”
H/T: Wrestling Inc.
