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Former WWE World Champion Jake Hager has made surprising claims about John Cena, alleging that the Cenation Leader refused to put him over. In an interview on Chris Van Vliet, the 3-time WWE Champion—better known to fans as Jack Swagger—opened up about how challenging it was to work with Cena and recalled the details of his Money in the Bank cash-in back in 2010. The day after winning the briefcase at WrestleMania 26, Hager teased a potential showdown with then-WWE Champion John Cena. However, at the last moment, he backed out of the match and instead went on to successfully cash in against Chris Jericho, capturing the World Heavyweight Championship.
During the interview, the former WWE champion shared insightful details about things that went behind the scenes, preventing him from crashing the MITB contract on John Cena. “I hit Cena with the briefcase, I snuck up on him when he had one of his brilliant promo segments,” explained Hager. “Later, come to find out, he refused to do the job for me for the [WWE] Championship,” he said. Hager also pointed out that he wasn’t the only one who experienced the legend’s reluctance to elevate younger talents at the time.
Not the first John Cena pressing his creative control in WWE
Going back to a similar situation, there was a high-profile event which WWE fans won't forget about the creative control by Cena. At SummerSlam 2010, The Nexus clashed with Team WWE, captained by John Cena, in a bout that many fans felt should have ended in a victory for Wade Barrett’s faction. However, that wasn’t the case, and Barrett later revealed in an interview with Inside the Ropes that the outcome was altered at the request of both Vince McMahon and Cena. “We spoke to John Cena, and he reiterated the message from Vince that SummerSlam needs a happy ending,” said Barrett. I thought it was bulls— then, and I think it’s bulls— now. It was a bad decision,” Barrett said.
Ex-WWE star Jake, during this wrestling tenure, won the World Heavyweight, United States, and ECW titles. Jake is now running his own trucking business that involves shipments from warehouse to warehouse.
