Alex Riley Discusses John Cena Not Liking Him During His WWE Stint, Offending Cena Backstage

Alex Riley was recently interviewed with Chris Van Vliet and discussed how he believes John Cena didn’t like him and the impact that had on his WWE career. According to Riley, Cena did not like him and he said that the two had some type of incident that left Cena offended. Highlights are below.

On John Cena not liking him and the impact it had on his career: “It’s hard to really put a label on it. And I don’t, ya know. I think it came down to, really at the end, two men, just not liking each other, you know what I mean? And I think that as sad as that is, it had an impact on my career, because he is who he is, and I don’t think that goes without saying in other businesses. I just happened to be in a situation, I think, where right from the start, it was just, he didn’t like me. I just don’t think he did. And I tried to change that, I tried to change that the best I could, I worked very hard and tried to do the best I could to grow and learn and fit in in the way that a wrestler fits in and he wanted me to fit in, and it just kind of got to the point, a little bit, with, even some of the other guys would kind of be like, ‘What’s up with that?’ I go, ‘Yeah, I don’t know, I don’t know.’ So it was a tough situation.”

On if John Cena ever told him he didn’t like him or if this was something he heard from other wrestlers: “I would hear that from others, but it was not, yeah, I would hear that from other wrestlers from time to time and it certainly didn’t seem that way when we would interact. It’s a tough thing. It’s wrestling, you know what I mean? It’s something where you do the best you can to learn in a way that is productive and that will get you better, and I tried to do that the best I could, I really did. I tried to do the best I could. And it just didn’t work out.”

On an incident he had with Cena that he thinks left Cena offended: “There was one, either mistake that I made or he made, where we got really crossed and we kind of got into a little bit of an argument, and I didn’t think it was going to, I went to him immediately the next day and tried to apologize for whatever had happened and I think he was pretty offended. And again, I think it was two grown men that just didn’t see eye-to-eye at the time, but yeah, I think so, I’m not holding any grudges or anything like that. It’s not something that, I certainly don’t want it hanging over my neck for the rest of my life.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Chris Van Vliet with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.