Ex-WWE Stars Respond To John Cena 'Backstage Bullying' Claims

Otunga spoke on his official YouTube channel about his relationship with Cena and how he felt mistreated by the legendary WWE star. He called one interaction "the worst memory I have of my entire career."

The former WWE star, who held the tag titles with Cena, suggested he was once kicked out of a locker room by the 48-year-old. He also said that Cena once was "kicking my ass", "cussing me out", and "telling me how terrible I am" during a match.

He explained:

"It was the worst I’ve ever been cussed out or disrespected… to the point where I questioned if I even wanted to work there anymore."

Otunga's accusations were put to former WWE wrestlers Maven and Rene Dupree, both of whom have worked with Cena. Dupree spoke positively about his time with Cena on Cafe de Rene with Rene Dupree:

"My experience with John was always good but again this is before he got that mega mega push and was a top guy."

Maven got in contact with Otunga after hearing his comments and said after texting back and forth:

"You can tell, and you could see in his delivery, that this is something that’s ate at him for years."

He added:

"If what he says has credence, I don’t know, I wasn’t there. But he talked more about the Alex Riley/Kevin Kiley incident. There’s just a lot that doesn’t sit well with him...

"You can just tell, there’s animosity, there’s bad blood. Now, could that bad blood be, ‘He got a bigger push than me’ – I don’t know, like I said, I wasn’t there."

Otunga's comments come on the same week Cena calls time on his career. The timing of his comments was alluded to by Maven when explaining why he's now speaking out:

"Texting back and forth, I’ll give you the book report version of what we talked about – he’s held in his truth for so many years, and now his truth… he’s done with that, he’s at that stage, the Maven and Stevie (Richards) stage with WWE where he’s not looking for anything from them."

Otunga left WWE around 2019 after moving into an analyst role in the latter stages of his time in the company. He spent a significant period of his main roster spell involved in storylines with Cena as part of the Nexus angle, including winning the WWE Tag Team Championships.

Alex Riley on Incident With John Cena

Maven claimed that his discussions with Otunga involved the former WWE star recalling an incident that occurred between Cena and Alex Riley. He was another new arrival on the main roster at the time and was The Miz's rookie on the gameshow version of WWE NXT.

Riley was involved in a feud between Miz and Cena, but turned babyface and started his own rivalry with Miz. But he was released by the company in May 2016 after several injuries and rumored conflict with Cena.

He opened up about their relationship back in January 2017 during an appearance on Jim Ross' Report podcast:

"I’ll put it this way. There was an incident and it certainly changed the path of my career. I don’t want to discuss it right now, but I will one day, for sure. I will one day. It was a tough situation at times, I guess we can leave it at that. … and, honestly, JR, I struggle with the morality of even talking about it and I’m not into blowing up anybody else at this point, but I promise you this, I will address it one day for sure. You don’t want to know. It was a tough situation."

Riley took a hiatus from wrestling after his release but returned to the business and signed with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in early 2023. He has also taken up several acting roles over the years, but a WWE return hasn't occurred.