Jonathan Coachman isn’t a fan of WWE dragging John Cena into Nikki Bella’s current storyline with Paige. In fact, the former WWE commentator thinks the company is outright disrespecting Cena by repeatedly using his history with Nikki as part of the rivalry.
Speaking on The Coach & Bro Show, Coachman questioned why WWE is still leaning so heavily on a relationship that ended years ago. Nikki and Cena were together for several years and were engaged before splitting in 2018, but both have long since moved on with their lives. Coachman pointed out that Cena is now married, making WWE’s decision to keep bringing up his past relationship with Nikki even stranger to him.
“How long ago did Nikki Bella date and do that reality show with John Cena? Probably more than five years ago. Cena is either married or in a long-term relationship with a beautiful young lady that resembles Nikki Bella.”
His bigger issue was what happened during Nikki’s October 16 match against Paige on SmackDown. The two women started breaking out Cena’s signature moves against each other, and the commentary team made sure viewers understood exactly why those references were being made.
Paige teased the Five Knuckle Shuffle before Nikki stopped her, while Nikki later put Paige in Cena’s STF. Paige then went even further by hitting Nikki with an Attitude Adjustment for a near fall. For Coachman, that wasn’t just a couple of harmless wrestling callbacks. He felt WWE was deliberately making Cena’s old relationship with Nikki part of the story and questioned why the company would want to do that to one of its biggest stars.
“So you put Nikki and Paige in a rivalry, and in the match, they do the ‘AAA,’ and the announcers say, ‘Clearly, that’s disrespecting because she dated Cena.’ Then Nikki did an STFU because that’s one of Cena’s moves.”
Coachman then directly questioned WWE’s creative thinking behind the whole thing. From his perspective, repeatedly connecting Nikki to Cena this many years later doesn’t do Cena any favors, especially when he’s moved on from that part of his life.
“Vince, as a creative, if you’re doing that, why are we doing storylines that completely disrespect John Cena at this point?”
Coachman also sees another problem with the angle: newer WWE fans might not even understand what they’re supposed to be watching. Nikki and Cena’s relationship was once a huge part of WWE’s reality television world, but that doesn’t necessarily mean every current viewer knows the history behind Paige using an Attitude Adjustment against her.
“And the new people probably don’t even know what they’re watching.”
Nikki and Paige clearly weren’t being subtle with the Cena references on SmackDown, especially once multiple signature moves started flying. Coachman just doesn’t understand why WWE believes a relationship that ended years ago needs to be brought back into the picture to make their current rivalry personal.
Whether WWE keeps leaning into the Cena references remains to be seen, but Coachman has made his position pretty clear. He thinks the company is digging up old history at Cena’s expense when Nikki and Paige should be able to make their feud personal without him.
What do you think about Jonathan Coachman accusing WWE of disrespecting John Cena with the Nikki Bella and Paige storyline? Let us know in the comments below.
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.
