Former WWE Star Was Fired for ‘Spitting in John Cena’s Face’
The WWE star was swiftly fired for overstepping the mark in a chaotic closing segment involving John Cena.
Josh Lawless
A former WWE star was fired for spitting in the face of John Cena in one of the most shocking segments in WWE history.
17-time world champion Cena wrestles his final match on Saturday when he takes on 'the Ring General' Gunther, who won a tournament for the right to face arguably the greatest of all time.
Cena will officially retire the jorts and move into an ambassadorial role with WWE, where he was been involved in some of the most memorable moments.
But for all his triumphs, Cena has taken his fair share of beatings and will be looking to avoid that when he takes on the hard-hitting Gunther in Washington, D.C on Saturday Night's Main Event.
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One of his most brutal came back in 2010 as part of the Nexus storyline where a group of 'rookies' caused chaos to close out an episode of Monday Night Raw.
The seven men interrupted the main event between Cena and CM Punk, ripping up the ringside area and destroying everything in sight.
Cena was completely brutalised and was spat at by Daniel Bryan, one of the very best wrestlers on the independent scene who had signed with WWE.
But after Bryan's actions, which also included him choking out the ring announcer Justin Roberts, he ended up being fired just days later as because of the PG approach, Vince McMahon felt he had overstepped the mark.
"I got fired in 2010 for choking Justin Roberts' with a tie and spitting in John Cena's face," Bryan explained.
"They tell us to go out there and do a gang style beat down but they didn't tell me any rules.
"They didn't say anything was off limits so it's like, 'How was I supposed to know?!' The whole idea was that we had been portrayed as rookies and we're supposed to be feeling very disrespected.
"I'm like, 'OK I can relate to this' because I was a wrestler for 10 years - highly respected on the independent scene and then you're bringing me in and calling me a rookie and having The Miz as my coach.
"So I'm about to kick John Cena in the head, I say, 'You're not better than me' and I spit in his face. I didn't know no spitting was allowed.
"We get to the back and everybody's thrilled with how the segment goes. Except they're like, 'Hey, who was choking out Justin Roberts?' It was me. 'Who spit in John Cena's face?' - that was me too.
"I ended up getting fired. They brought me back a couple of months later."
Bryan was legitimately released by WWE but his exodus did not last that long as in a surprise twist, he returned as a surprise addition to Cena's team at SummerSlam for the 7-on-7 elimination tag match between team WWE and Nexus.
The final member, Bryan made both Heath Slater and Darren Young tap out and began a career which saw him become one of the most popular wrestlers in the history of WWE.
He beat Cena to become WWE champion at SummerSlam in 2013 and captured the title again in the main event of WrestleMania 30.
In an interesting twist, Cena and Bryan were very nearly brother-in laws as the Peacemaker star was previously engaged to Nikki Bella, twin sister of the 44-year-old's wife Brie.