3 Times John Cena allegedly didn't want to lose in WWE and 2 times he did

#1 John Cena didn’t want to lose against The Nexus (WWE SummerSlam 2010)

The most famous backstage story involving John Cena revolves around his role in the Team WWE vs. Nexus match at SummerSlam 2010.

The event was originally supposed to finish with The Nexus defeating a team of WWE all-stars. However, Cena allegedly pitched a different idea shortly before the show which led to him emerging as the sole survivor of the seven-on-seven elimination match.

Former Nexus member Heath Slater spoke about the last-minute change in a Q&A with Pro Wrestling Junkies in 2020. He said Chris Jericho and Edge came up with the original finish before Cena changed it on the day of the event.

“I’ll tell you this much. I’ve had so many people ask me that over the years. Honestly, I’m not sure if it’s 100 percent fact [John Cena being responsible for ending The Nexus’ push], but I could comfortably say it’s a 95 percent fact. The whole time we were there, we were going over. We were playing to win.

“Edge and Jericho basically came up with that whole match. They planned it all out and had where it was, how it should be, where I think the last one left was Wade [Barrett]. And then the next thing you know, four hours later, it was just not happening that way,” Slater said. [H/T Wrestling Inc.]

John Cena ended up in a two-on-one situation in the closing stages of the 35-minute match. In the final minute, he pinned Justin Gabriel before making Nexus leader Wade Barrett submit to his STF submission move.