Remember Cena vs. the Fiend 2020 Wrestlemania

[Vice honcho room temperature]

Wow that was weird.

[Finish Uncle Muffin’s Story]

It was absolutely bonkers, but I think it was fun for its time. I don't know that I ever want to see a cinematic match again, but given the circumstances, it was certainly novel.

[chronocross]

I didn't know what to expect and I was thoroughly entertained, NWO Cena and 1980's Hanging and Banging Cena on SNME were my favorite parts.

[Jindrak Mark]

The one good thing about being forced to do a behind closed doors Wrestlemania was this and Styles/Undertaker were about a billion times better as cinematics than they would have been as regular matches in front of a crowd. Undertaker was too broken down to work a proper match and the Fiend gimmick usually meant terrible matches in the ring.

If I was Cena though I'd be pissed at the dumbass decision makers in the company though. I'm a celebrity who needs you far less than you need me, I do you a favor by returning and letting myself be humiliated in this glorious, goofy acid trip to put Wyatt over huge and rebuild him from the Goldberg loss then all the effort was for nothing because they fire him a year later.

[Zombie Mod is not a ghoul.]

no, but that's only because Micheal Cole has a life to live and cant spend 24 hours a day reminding me every 5 minutes what wwe has done

[rnrk supports BLM]

Coming out of this show, I was genuinely excited about the prospect of lockdown-era pro wrestling moving in unique, experimental directions. It's a shame that, even with periodic "cinematic" matches as a thing now, no one's really managed to replicate the same vibe.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

I thought it was a bunch of BS character assasination, personally. I have no idea why Cena let Bray bury his mystique and accuse him of being a “bully” like that after Fiend tried to kill people with mallets and drown them.

[Finish Uncle Muffin’s Story]

Feb 17, 2022 14:37:28 GMT -5 Clash, Never a Meter Maid said:

I thought it was a bunch of BS character assasination, personally. I have no idea why Cena let Bray bury his mystique and accuse him of being a “bully” like that after Fiend tried to kill people with mallets and drown them.

Because Cena's teflon and he owed him one after Mania 30.

[Deleted]

I loved Wyatt and The Fiend but I absolutely hated this.

It was too wacky and made no sense.

The Fiend would've been better as a Kane type character but instead they were doing ridiculous shit with him like burning him alive and coming back from it.

[mo]

It was awesome, I might have liked it more than the also amazing Boneyard Match. The Fiend gimmick brought out both the best and worst of WWE, but they knocked it out of the park with that one.

[67 more]

Feb 17, 2022 15:17:37 GMT -5 @negan said:

I loved Wyatt and The Fiend but I absolutely hated this.

It was too wacky and made no sense.

The Fiend would've been better as a Kane type character but instead they were doing ridiculous shit with him like burning him alive and coming back from it.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

"THIS IS SUCH GOOD SHIT!"

[King Devitt]

Feb 17, 2022 15:28:14 GMT -5 mo said:

It was awesome, I might have liked it more than the also amazing Boneyard Match. The Fiend gimmick brought out both the best and worst of WWE, but they knocked it out of the park with that one.

100% agreed.

It was cathartic to hear Cena called out as a character for the exact way I'd seen him for over a decade.

[Mozenrath]

It was fun for some novelty stuff, but I'm glad that Cena has Peacemaker, since him putting over Bray this much led to basically no real change for Bray's fortunes himself, and kind of made it where I don't even know how you'd walk back, like, any of this.

[repomark]

Loved it. It was so creative and you could tell Cena had plenty of input to it and was totally on board with the direction. Was so well done and could have set up some really interesting follow up (that obviously never happened).

Still wouldn’t call it a match though. But highly entertaining segment.

[bob]

absolutely loved it

[4real]

It was mental and I loved it. Shame WWE never really followed up on it. Also mental that Bray had Mania matches with Cena & Orton before getting fired.

[Kalmia]

I thought it was really clever, creative, and very well-executed, but I absolutely hated it because it made zero in-universe sense. Was it happening in Cena's head? Was the Fiend showing Cena what could have been? It was meta on a level that although fascinating, just doesn't fit with how WWE (or any wrestling) operates.

[A damn road sign]

Cena’s my all-time favourite guy and I absolutely loved it. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Savage Gambino]

Feb 18, 2022 1:13:54 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

It was fun for some novelty stuff, but I'm glad that Cena has Peacemaker, since him putting over Bray this much led to basically no real change for Bray's fortunes himself, and kind of made it where I don't even know how you'd walk back, like, any of this.

Two years later, with Bray gone from the company, I wouldn't be surprised if by John's next appearance, that whole episode was treated as non-canon.