Bruce Prichard Shuts Down Rumors That John Cena Buried WWE Talent

Bruce Prichard isn’t letting long-standing rumors about John Cena go unchallenged.

While speaking on Something To Wrestle, the veteran WWE executive pushed back hard on claims that the 16-time world champion ever tried to sabotage or bury other wrestlers during his run on top. Prichard said he’s never witnessed anything close to Cena holding people back—and in fact, it’s quite the opposite.

“Never experienced it. Never. And I would think that during the time I was there — and even now — I have never experienced John Cena doing that to anyone. To the contrary, John Cena has always been the type of performer who says, ‘Tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it.’”

Prichard also noted that Cena was often proactive in trying to help push others, frequently pitching storylines that would help elevate talent around him.

“John’s always going to try and make it better. But I have never experienced John coming in and trying to hold anybody down. To the contrary, I’ve seen John say, ‘What if we did something with him? What if we did something with her? What if we did something with them?’”

Prichard doubled down on Cena’s approach to working with others. The longtime executive also took a swipe at wrestling journalists—specifically naming Dave Meltzer—and blamed them for pushing this narrative.

“He came up with plenty of ideas for other people, trying to elevate talent because he was always looking for the next person to work with.”

“The only place I’ve ever seen the negative stuff is from the [Dave] Meltzers and the sheets, who are probably just repeating whatever somebody may have said somewhere.”

In his view, critics of Cena are just repeating a tired pattern of blaming top stars for their own lack of success.

“They said it about Hogan. Savage. Warrior. Bret. Shawn. Steve. Rock. They said it about anybody — anybody who had achieved a level of success others hadn’t. ‘Well, of course I’m not there because they don’t want me there.’ It’s much easier to blame someone else than look in a mirror.”

With Cena set to wrestle his final match at Saturday Night’s Main Event, Prichard’s remarks add another to the perspective to the legacy conversations surrounding the WWE icon.

What’s your take on Bruce Prichard’s defense of John Cena? Do you think Cena’s critics have a point, or is this just another case of the top guy getting blamed? Sound off in the comments and let us know.