The main event at WrestleMania 28 featured John Cena and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and it was The Rock who came out on top. Cena was able to get his revenge on Johnson at WrestleMania 29 but didn’t like putting The Rock over. Former WWE referee Mike Chioda spoke on Monday Mailbag and said that Cena had “a bit of a problem” losing to Johnson at WrestleMania 28 because Cena was the one who carried WWE for the last decade.
“I’ve always admired the Rock over the years in working with him, and then, Rock set me up to be the referee for that match when he came back with Cena. And I was like, ‘Awesome,’” Chioda said, as reported by Cultaholic. “Had this match, you know, Rock wanted me to do it and everything, and I think Cena had a little bit of a problem doing the job. Here is Cena, carrying the torch for the last ten years I think at that time, and he was busting him a— day in, day out. And here comes The Rock, back after so many years of being in Hollywood, and he’s got to job out to The Rock?”
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Chioda went on to say that Johnson was a “big Hollywood star” at that point, and there was some heat. The former WWE official added that “you’ve got to go where the money goes. I mean, they put Rock over, and I was happy about that.” Chioda then stated that both Cena and Johnson were too proud to job at WrestleMania 28.
“Here are two guys that were making big money,” he said. “And that’s why, it’s not even like, ‘Okay, I’m getting big money for this match. I’ll do the job.’ It becomes about ego and pride. It really does. When it comes down to it, money is not even the issue. It becomes an ego thing and a pride thing.”
As mentioned, Cena and Johnson battled again at WrestleMania 29 for the WWE Championship. This time, Cena defeated The Rock and won the title for the 11th time in his career. The interesting thing about this is Cena was mad at Johnson for leaving WWE to do movies. Cena is now a part-time wrestler who is currently working on TV and film projects.
