Changed Plans for John Cena...

[ShinChan]

According to Sportskeeda.com, John Cena proposing to Nikki Bella at WrestleMania 33 drastically changed original plans for the PPV.

As we noted several months before WrestleMania 33, the plan in WWE was to have John Cena vs The Undertaker take place at ‘Mania in Orlando, however that match ended up being scrapped in favor of Nikki Bella and John Cena vs The Miz and Maryse, and The Undertaker vs Roman Reigns.

The idea for Cena to propose to Nikki Bella actually came from WWE Executive Kevin Dunn, who pitched it to Vince McMahon. McMahon then spent several weeks pitching the idea to Cena, and it’s being said that Cena was originally not a fan of the idea. When Cena finally agreed to do the proposal, he was given a brief WWE Title run which ended when Bray Wyatt won the Title at WWE Elimination Chamber. Initial Royal Rumble plans called for AJ Styles to drop the title to The Undertaker, who would then drop the title back to Styles at Elimination Chamber. Cena was originally supposed to eliminate The Dead Man from the chamber match, setting up their WrestleMania 33 bout.

Assuming that the above is true, I think that what was supposed to happen would've been much better than what happened.

Just thinking of matches like AJ Styles Vs. The Undertaker (dream match) and John Cena Vs. The Undertaker has me intrigued. But also can't get who would've got AJ Styles at Wrestlemania. You can't put Shane McMahon there as a title challenger. Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton were doing their own. I wonder who would've got the title match.

I think that the original scenario is much better. What about you?

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Yeah, a lot better. But is anybody surprised that Cena's selfish behaviour cost us a greater Mania card? I'm not.

 

[Navi]

So is the whole marriage proposal thing a story line and isn't going to happen? And yes I agree with Kapu that the scenario they originally had planned was better than the one we got.

 

[Stone Cold Tea]

I think he was proposing anyway but then they asked him to do it at 'Mania. Sucks that it cost us Styles vs 'Taker and 'Taker vs Cena but on the plus side Reigns is a made heel forever. Peaks and troughs my friend.

 

[Kodo Sawaki]

Sounds fishy just because one thing: Undertaker was suppose to win it at Rumble vs AJ, then do Chamber and lost, then do Wrestlemania with Cena. With all due respect to Taker, either those matches would be pretty short or he would broke in half during Chamber bout and be in wheelchair at Wrestlemania.

First thing that came out sounds way more plausible and that is that Cena wanted Nikki Wrestlemania moment so they did proposal thing. Otherwise would be crazy stupid to sideline Cena at the biggest stage of them all when you could have him in either with Undertaker as main event or in title match. Vince knew that, Dunn knew that, Cena knew that.

But also can't get who would've got AJ Styles at Wrestlemania.

According to that report, Orton would. Orton winning Rumble was always the plan. They would do Wyatt/Orton thing at Chamber and then Orton would get AJ at Wrestlemania. And yes, that would be great match and if that was the plan, shame it was changed.

 

[enviousdominous]

What I find most puzzling is that a squirrel like Kevin Dunn was allowed to implement ideas into the program.

It might have been good for the WWE in terms of validating the die-hard fans of Total Divas and Total Bellas. I don't watch either show, but I recently found out that a wife of one of my friends watches those two shows religiously with a group of women from around town and that they also rarely watch any other kind of WWE programming. After WrestleMania, the proposal was apparently all that they remembered from that show.

 

[Dagger Dias]

The original plans sound better for the most part, other than Taker having a brief title reign. At this point in his career it would have served no purpose. Styles could have retained the title entering into a triple threat with Randy Orton (who still wins the Rumble) and Bray Wyatt who would still have "summoned" bugs out onto the ring. This spares us of having the AJ VS Shane match and it also stops a pointless short title reign for Taker. Why would the original plans call for that if he's just going to lose it back to Styles again? Seriously? I hate short title reigns but they go from being annoying to being POINTLESS if you lose the title right back to the same guy you beat in the first place, at the next show. Cena VS Taker would have been way better than Cena/Nikki VS Miz/Maryse at least. I have no idea what Roman Reigns would have done in this scenario if Cena faced Taker, perhaps join Lesnar and Goldberg in the Universal Championship match going on to win it himself. Miz would probably end up in the Andre Battle Royal which Strowman could have won instead of Mojo, but that's a whole other discussion.

 

[The Perfect Max]

It's so hard to believe anyone could have seen the two scenarios, likely written down on paper, and someone pointed to Cena and Miz as the way to go. That just cannot be the same company that kicked Ted Turner's ass can it?

To be fair, I didn't actually mind the program between the Cenas and the Mizs. Miz and Maryse deserved something good at this year's WrestleMania as much as Cena because they've been golden since last year's night after WrestleMania Raw. But when you had the chance to do Taker and Cena, and surely SOMEONE must have known that this could be Taker's swan song, then someone please justify the decision.

Absolute madness.

 

[Aeon Mathix]

It makes me curious to see if this is actually true or not. What I mean by that is one of Cena's promos against Miz, I believe the first one during the build when Miz told Cena about the pull and politics he has behind the curtain and Cena responded by saying "if that were true do you really think I would be standing here with you during WrestleMania season? No I would be standing face to face with the Undertaker" and then he paused and held the mic up to the crowd while they went pretty ape shit for it. Makes me wonder if he wasn't happy with what Vince and Dunn wanted and was trying to stick it to them.

I was indifferent to the proposal. I can't stand Nikki Bella and knew the match would just be a showcase for Cena and Bella at the expense of The Miz who had arguably the best run of his career during the fall of last year. Would have been awesome to see Miz and Maryse pick up the victory with Nikki eating the pin. Everyone and their mother knew that wasn't going to happen and the match just ended up with the two of them looking like a low level boss fight for Cena and Nikki to overcome.

I'll always wonder why they never did Cena vs Taker at Mania. One of the most puzzling decisions that will be talked about for a long time. I get nowadays it wouldn't do anything for either, but what did the 4 matches with Triple H and Shawn do for anyone? Sometimes fans just want to see epic matches at Mania not caring what it would do for the future or any of that nonsense. It's the biggest show of the year, put the biggest match ups you have available on it. If you throw Styles vs Nakamura on there with no reason to do it but to get an incredible match on the card and something everyone wants to see do you really think anyone is going to complain? No.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

Vince will do what Vince whats. Vince wanted Reigns vs Undertaker, we got Reigns vs Undertaker. That leaves Cena without a match, so the proposal moved to Wrestlemania.

Only thing I don't get is how Styles-Orton did not happen. Wyatt vs Orton could have ended at EC. I guess the McMahons have to much ego, so a Shane match was going to happen anyways. So bring in AJ Styles in order to carry Shane into an entertaining match. Who else would do it? Ambrose or Wyatt?

Vince's selfishness cost him the greatest Mania of all time. Not that the end result was bad, but it could have been 10 times better.