John Cena knew walking into ECW One Night Stand 2006 was going to be ugly — but even he didn’t expect the crowd to come at him quite that hard. Nearly two decades later, Cena says the infamous night against Rob Van Dam is still one of his favorite wrestling environments ever.
Cena opened up about the match during a Q&A at Tampa Bay Comic Convention after a fan asked whether he expected the savage reaction from the ECW crowd. There was no hesitation from Cena. He knew exactly what he was walking into.
“Okay. Harsh reaction. Two-parter. That’s great. ECW One Night Stand versus RVD. Was I expecting a hostile crowd? There are kids here, so I’m going to mind my language. I was absolutely effing expecting a hostile crowd.”
Cena explained that the entire match was built around two completely opposite sides of the wrestling world. He was WWE’s top company guy, while Rob Van Dam represented the scrappy ECW crowd that had spent years fighting against everything WWE represented.
“So, the story there, if you guys don’t know, the company conglomerate of John Cena versus the ever underdog of ECW, me being the forever company man against ECW’s Rob Van Dam, ECW’s company man, but like ECW’s always an underdog.”
Cena even remembered a promo he cut before the match where he said losing would make him one of the biggest “goats” in wrestling. Back then, he wasn’t talking about being the greatest of all time.
“I did a monologue right before that match saying if I lose, I will go down as the biggest goat in professional wrestling. Back then, goat meant a different thing. It meant that you sucked. The prediction turned out okay. I ended up one of the biggest goats in professional wrestling.”
For all the hatred being dumped on him that night, Cena says he never looked back on it as a miserable experience. In fact, he called it one of his favorite environments because the crowd took complete control of the atmosphere.
“So, I kind of knew what I was talking about. Um but also just a situation where I kind of knew what I was walking into. That was one of the favorite environments that I’ve ever been in. Because anytime that a performance is truly property of the audience, it becomes beautiful.”
Cena compared that kind of crowd reaction to jazz, where the performance can move in whatever direction the moment demands.
“And I guess that’s more of how I perform. I’m more like a jazz musician. And anytime the music just kind of takes you where you want to go, that’s where it’s beautiful.”
He even compared One Night Stand to his recent match against AJ Styles in Perth, where Cena says fans were literally calling out moves and influencing what happened inside the ring.
“I’ve had moments where like the audience is in control. The most recent one would be the AJ Styles match in Perth, where the audience was literally calling out spots. And we were only to like, ‘Well, okay, I’ll try to hit a 619 or I’ll hit an RKO.’ It’s amazing when it becomes a product of all of us.”
Then came the detail nobody who watched One Night Stand will forget — Cena’s own shirt becoming part of the match after the ECW crowd kept throwing it back at him. Cena knew the crowd was going to be brutal, but even he had to admit they took the hostility to another level.
“ECW One Night Stand was a product of all of us. I got to have a wrestling match with a t-shirt that night.”
“So, I knew they were going to be salty. I just didn’t know they were going to be that salty.”
That night has gone down as one of the most hostile atmospheres Cena ever faced, but that’s exactly why he still remembers it so fondly. The ECW crowd didn’t just boo him — they became part of the match, and Cena loved every second of the chaos.
Do you think ECW One Night Stand 2006 was the most hostile crowd John Cena ever faced, or was there another night that topped it? Drop your thoughts in the comments and let us know.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
