John Cena Reveals His Reaction To Infamous WWE ECW One Night Stand Match

"Man, it was awesome," Cena said, reflecting on the night. "There was a sign which actually was brought to this convention today that says, “If Cena wins, we riot,” and it’s a very famous sign that’s been memed and knocked off.”

The crowd had been treated to a wild show to that point, but RVD and Cena would be the headliners in front of 2,460 fans in attendance. The fans were all over Cena throughout the night, as the 17-time champion recalled, which got him thinking about how he and RVD could open up the match.

“Also, the audience was pretty bad. The event started at 7:00 and we weren’t on till last, and at about 7:00, they so audibly were chanting, “F U Cena.” So I knew by the time we went out at 10:00, it was going to be pretty gnarly," he said.

"So we get out there, and I have a wrestling match with my T-shirt before I have a wrestling match with Rob. And I look at the sign and I heard the crowd, and I don’t know. I would never do this again, and it was the most stupid decision of my life. But I told Rob, “Hey, let’s go out into the audience.” And I just wanted to see, like, what would happen.”

Cena and RVD would go more than 20 minutes that night, as RVD successfully cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase and defeated the future WWE Hall of Famer after an assist from Edge in a trenchcoat. It was a hallmark moment for the brand, and despite the craziness of the crowd, everything went according to plan.

That's something Cena is grateful for to this day.

“Thank you, everyone in the Hammerstein Ballroom that night, for being professional and being great fans, and letting me know how you feel here but not letting me know how you feel here ’cause I thought I was going to get my ass kicked. But everybody was real nice," he said. "So that was that’s a story I’ve never told.”

Cena is on his farewell tour currently, and will face R-Truth at Saturday Night's Main Event.

H/T WrestleZone for transcript assistance.