3 WWE Superstars Vince McMahon expected to fail and 3 he tipped to succeed

#4 Vince McMahon expected John Cena to fail

One of the most interesting moments from the ‘Ruthless Aggression’ series on the WWE Network came when John Cena admitted he failed in the role that Vince McMahon wanted him to play in 2002.

Everything went according to plan at the start of Cena’s main-roster run, with his SmackDown debut against Kurt Angle going extremely well, but the up-and-coming Superstar struggled to maintain fans’ support in the months that followed.

As Cena explained, Vince McMahon did not expect him to turn around his career and the WWE Chairman was ready to fire the future 16-time World Champion just a few months after his debut.

“The WWE, they used to make a series of cuts around late November and around mid-May. I was told that I would be getting my release at Christmas cuts because it just wasn’t working, and there was no argument there, it wasn’t. They gave it to me on a silver platter – John Cena, Ruthless Aggression – and I failed, I messed it up.”

Cena may have had difficulty entertaining WWE fans at this stage of his career, but he knew how to get a reaction from the rest of the Superstars on Vince McMahon’s roster.

Shortly before he was due to be released, Cena entertained his fellow Superstars by rapping on the back of a bus. Vince McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie McMahon, enjoyed what she heard and asked him to portray a rapper on television, leading to his career being revitalized as “The Doctor of Thuganomics” character.