— On a recent episode of his “83 Weeks” podcast, Eric Bischoff graded John Cena’s final WWE run a “C.”
The former WCW President shared a critical perspective on how WWE handled the creative direction for Cena’s last chapter, suggesting the booking didn’t fully match the stature of the legendary performer.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On John Cena’s recent decisive loss to Brock Lesnar: “If the story going forward is as you previously laid out, and this ends up with John and Brock in John’s final match, and John finally overcomes, it’s a redemption story. I love redemption stories, they always work for me. If it’s a Disney redemption story, I’ll actually shed a tear or two. If there’s a dog involved, I’ll be a bawling idiot. So, I hope that that is the case. If it’s not the case, and it was just what they did that night, that would be worrisome to me.”
On not following up on it: “If it’s part of a story, I think it’d be a great story, because redemptions always work. If it wasn’t part of the story and it was, ‘Well, here’s what we’re going to do tonight, and why?’ Ennh, not good. But we’ll find out.”
On the overall final run for John Cena: “I’d give it a C. Now, if you take the heel turn or whatever that was, take that out and just look at the rest of it, probably a B, maybe an A- or a B. It’s been pretty good, except for the way it started.”
On fans wanting to see their heroes go out on a high note: “Just give everybody what they want, to see the guy go out on top. Everybody would love to see Babe Ruth hit his last home run. Nobody wants to see Babe Ruth strike out. Know what I mean? If you could go back in time. How many people would say, ‘I want to go back in time. I want to be there when Babe Ruth grabs his last at bat, but I want to see him strike out.’ No. Same thing here.”
— During her appearance on the “Kate Mackz” podcast, Charlotte Flair shared that her initial pitch for a WWE ring name was “Elizabeth Reid.”
Ultimately, WWE decided on “Charlotte,” tying her persona to both her father, Hall of Famer Ric Flair, and his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On pitching Elizabeth Reid for her ring name: “I pitched a few names. I pitched Elizabeth Reid. I loved Miss Elizabeth and then my little brother’s name was Reid. They were like, ‘No, your dad’s from Charlotte. We’re naming you Charlotte.’”
On going with Charlotte over Ashley Flair: “I could have gone by Ashley Flair. Probably, being Ric’s kid, it was like, ‘We’re gonna give her a stage name, like, not to be Ashley Flair. When I first started, I wasn’t Charlotte Flair. I was just Charlotte. They didn’t attach my last name until, like, four or five years later.”
— On a recent episode of the “Road Trip After Hours” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long shared that he would love to see Steve Austin take on John Cena in Cena’s retirement match.
Cena is set to wrestle for the final time on Saturday, December 13th, at Saturday Night’s Main Event in Washington, DC.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On wanting John Cena vs. Steve Austin for Cena’s final match: “Well, if it was me and I know it wouldn’t happen- and I may be just thinking outside the box… but what I would like to have? I would have brought someone in special and I don’t know whether Steve would, you know, I’m pretty sure he might do business, (John) Cena and Stone Cold Steve Austin, that’s what I would have liked to seen.”
On Austin walking away from wrestling in 2003 being a good reason why Cena and Austin would make good opponents: “Well that’s why it would work so good. Because he’s one of those guys that didn’t go back on his word, he didn’t go back. But just here, if you build it right and get a story to go on, then that’s something that may excite him and it makes him want to come back. It’s easy to do!”
