Freddie Prinze Jr. Opens Up About Heat With John Cena In WWE
On this week's Wrestling with Freddie podcast from iHeart Media's My Cultra Network, former WWE creative team member Freddie Prinze Jr. was riding solo to discuss his time with the company. Prinze Jr. revealed that 16-time world champion, John Cena had a disliking for him, even calling him Ashton Kutcher, despite the actor having much respect for the now-Hollywood star.
"I've always said I respected John, even though he didn't like me whilst I was there because I was an actor, which he is now," Prinze Jr. explained. "But I always respected him, because John was willing to wear the crown during the G-rated era, and that was a crown that no top guy wanted."
A big turning point came during one of Prinze Jr.'s acting classes, in which Cena abruptly interrupted Freddie during a session to somewhat confront him. Freddie was working with Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins on a scene from Bad Boys as part of the class, when John Cena swung open the door, grabbed a folding chair, and sat in-between the two talents.
After taking John Cena outside of the room to discuss his reasoning for interrupting the acting class Freddie says Cena explained, "Look, maybe I'm a neanderthal but I just don't see how any of this s*** works."
Freddie then recounted that he responded by saying, "Hey man, not everybody can do what you do. I'm trying to get them to a level where you're at, or close to it, because if I don't, who the hell is!?"
Prinze Jr. revealed John shrugged his shoulders before he exclaimed, "Hey man, it's not like you're helping them out?" with Cena eventually walking away.
Later that night after the RAW taping, Prinze Jr. was flying on the WWE jet when he was approached by Vince McMahon. McMahon offered Freddie some hand sanitizer which ultimately turned into a rib after the Chairman got wind of his conversation earlier with John Cena.
"So, I'm on the jet. We're flying back to White Plains, New York, from whatever city we're in. Cleveland or wherever it was, and Vince has me hold out my hands he's got some hand sanitizer and he doesn't like germs," Prinze Jr. explains. "And so he starts to put hand sanitizer in my hands, and as a rib, won't stop. He just keeps squeezing it and squeezing it and he's just staring me down, and I'm staring him down.
"So I just let him empty the bottle and I just stand up and I slap it down in the sink in the bathroom, wipe my hands, I come back in and he's laughing, he thinks it's great and Kevin Dunn thinks it is the greatest joke that anyone has ever pulled off in the history of jokes. I sit down and Vince goes 'So, heard you had a little problem with Cena today?' 'Nah, man' I try to downplay it, 'Nah, I think he's just testing me, man, all of you guys like to test me.' He goes 'Ah, don't worry about it, I'm the only one who can fire you anyway!'"
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Wrestling with Freddie with an h/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.