Bruce Prichard Says Paul Heyman Was Against John Cena As a Rapper

On the latest episode of Something To Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard talked about the controversial storyline where John Cena was stabbed in a nightclub by Carlito’s bodyguard, Jesus. Prichard admitted the angle was not a good one.

The 2004 storyline was designed to write Cena off television so he could film The Marine. Prichard explained that the creative team was trying to find a way to do a “shooting” angle without using guns. You can check out some highlights below:

On the Angle:

“Yeah, horrible idea. But it was in the vein of going off — and again, horrible idea — there seemed to be a rash of just shooting, stabbings. Can’t do a shooting, so make it real. Make it real life. ‘What would happen, man?’ What if Carlito had somebody go to jump John in a nightclub and then got stabbed?

“Yeah, not great. But the thinking behind it was, ‘Do something out of the ring.’ Do something that you don’t necessarily have to see, but you can talk about.”

On Stabbing Angles Never Happening Again:

“I definitely hope so. I don’t think we’ll see another. I don’t think we’ll see another stabbing. He didn’t see that one, but you saw the big scar. Well, maybe you didn’t.”

On Paul Heyman Being Against Turning Cena Into a Rapper:

“Actually, I wanted so badly for John to do Vanilla Ice at the — Cincinnati when we had the big Halloween party. And frankly, everybody was kind of against it. To quote Paul Heyman, ‘You will destroy John Cena his career if we make him a rapper.’ Quote.”

On Pitching the Angle to Vince:

“We got there, and we got back from the tour. John and I were walking backstage, and ran into Vince. And I — on the spot, no prep, no nothing — said, ‘John, do a rap on Vince.’ And he looked Vince up and down and cut a rap on him and ripped him to shreds. To his face. Yeah, it was great. And Vince said, ‘Oh, my God, that’s awesome. Who wrote that?’ And he’s like, ‘Nobody, I just did it.’ ‘He did it?’ He goes, ‘That’s what I do.’

“And so, a lot of people will take credit for John and promos and raps and things that he did during that time. That’s John. All that stuff, the raps, all those things, those promos, that was John. That was coming out of his head. Sometimes he’d write him down. Sometimes he wouldn’t. But John would do raps with the audience, with people lining up in the back where the wrestlers came in. And they would want to rap battle with him. And he would do it. Just freestyle, and do it right off the cuff and destroy people. That’s just the knack he had. And he was really, really good at it.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something To Wrestle With an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.