John Cena gave off signs of the dark side WWE fans have been seeing after bullying his fellow superstars into getting involved with his surprise hobby.
Record 17-time world champion Cena, who is calling time on his decorated career at the end of 2025, rematches Cody Rhodes in a 'Street' Fight for his undisputed WWE title at SummerSlam on Sunday.
The two renew their intense rivalry in Cena's final SummerSlam appearance at the MetLife Stadium but many years back, the pair of WWE icons were on the same team and spending huge funds on Clash of Clans, the multiplayer mobile game which has over two billion lifetime downloads.
One of the biggest and highest-paid WWE stars who made a successful transition into Hollywood, Cena once splashed out on 55 suits in one sitting and also acquired a luxury car collection.
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However, according to former WWE champion Big E, "captain" Cena also spent "six figures" on improving his Clash of Clans base after "bullying" his peers to join him in the clan and secret WhatsApp chat which included many WWE employees and actor Stephen Amell.
John Cena got WWE colleagues involved in his surprise hobby
Cena took proceedings very seriously and would always be one to avoid backstage if things had not gone to plan in the game.
"Essentially John Cena kind of bullied us all into playing," Big E told SPORTbible.
"The name of our clan and we had a group chat on WhatsApp for years and years, is the ‘Nicky clan’ - named after the dude who runs his social media - a good friend of mine called Nicky Sampogna. He wasn’t even in the clan, we just named it after him in his honour.
“We would have times where if we had a bad attack and it was the day of a Raw or Smackdown and Cena was there, I would walk down the hallway and I would see Cena from afar and I would turn and walk the other way because you knew he was going to berate you for being bad at war."
Big E added: “It was a lot of pressure to be good. Billy Kidman spent at least $20,000, Cena spent I’m sure six figures and I know Cody spent a ton of money.
“Me, I did it the old fashioned way. I just worked hard every single day and built my stuff up. I got to town hall 14.
“There were signs the evil was deep within him [Cena] all this time. There was so many of us involved. Woods played for a bit and I think Stephen Amell, the actor, he was in the clan. He’s a good friend of Cody’s.
“We had a group chat for quite some time and that was a big part of our backstage life.”
Cena's last Summerslam
Cena's first appearance at SummerSlam came in 2004 when he faced Booker T in the United States and his 16th and final encounter will be against Rhodes, many view as his heir to the throne of being the face of the company.
The 48-year-old's final ever bout will come in December in his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts.
Topics: John Cena, WWE, Wrestling, Summerslam, Cody Rhodes
Josh Lawless