WWE Made Last-Minute Change During John Cena’s Pipe Bomb Segment

WWE quietly called an audible during the June 20 episode of SmackDown after fans noticed CM Punk lying motionless in the ring for an awkwardly long time while John Cena cut his scathing pipe bomb promo.

During a recent Q&A session, WrestleVotes revealed that the scene wasn’t originally supposed to play out that way—but someone backstage decided to tweak things mid-segment to make it feel more natural.

“It’s funny you say that because I heard on Saturday that if you go back and rewatch the segment, you’ll see after about five minutes of him laying there, a referee slides into the ring to check on him. I heard they did that to make it seem less cringy that he was just lying there. So that wasn’t supposed to be the case, but someone in the back said, ‘He can’t just lay there for 10 minutes, send somebody out,’ and that’s what they did.”

The entire segment saw Cena unleash a brutal promo on Punk, calling him Mr. TKO and name-dropping Claudio Castagnoli, Nic Nemeth, and Matt Cardona to stir the pot even more. The moment got a massive reaction, but Punk’s extended nap on the mat had some fans scratching their heads—until the referee made the situation feel more believable.

The decision to adjust the scene on the fly turned out to be a smart one. Fans have since pointed out that without the referee’s involvement, the visual of Punk lying motionless for nearly 10 minutes could’ve derailed an otherwise electric promo.

The tension between Cena and Punk is far from over. Cena is set to defend the Undisputed WWE Championship against Punk at Night of Champions on June 28, with Cena holding the upper hand after dismantling Punk verbally—and physically—on SmackDown.

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