Heath Slater Recalls John Cena’s Furious Reaction to Pool Noodle Beatdown at WWE Live Event

Heath Slater recently looked back on a bizarre moment involving John Cena during his time with The Nexus while speaking to Kenny McIntosh of Inside The Ropes. Slater, who debuted with The Nexus in 2010, recounted how the group made waves from the start, targeting Cena in their impactful television debut and continuing the rivalry at live events and pay-per-views.

However, Slater revealed that one particular WWE live event took a comedic turn that left John Cena furious backstage.

“Funny story on that. One time, there was a live event. John Cena was working somebody. It was a cage match. We all ran down, jumped the cage, got in, let the guys in and we beat the s—t out of Cena. Next thing you know, Santino, Morrison, Kofi, all the babyfaces run out, but they have foam pool noodles. They’re running down and they’re just in the ring hitting us with them and we’re selling it. But then we see it and we start fighting back, what the hell?”

According to Slater, what was intended to be a serious and intense post-match beatdown quickly descended into something closer to a slapstick comedy routine. The moment did not sit well with Cena, who erupted in anger once the group returned backstage.

“We get in the back and Cena is so mad, he picks up this red stool and overhand throws it on the ground and shatters it. And he’s like, “Guys, what the f—k? You guys are coming in here while we’re trying to build this group up, make them killers and everything, and you’re fighting with pool noodles?””

Slater noted that while the outburst was intense, it also revealed just how much Cena cared about maintaining the integrity of the storyline and protecting The Nexus’ presentation.

“He went off on them trying to protect us, to where I just was like Cena is invested a little bit, so that’s kind of cool. But yeah, that was just one time where it was like, we were supposed to be killers. Don’t treat us like we’re not killers. That pack of hyenas. But they came down with pool noodles just swinging on us. We were just like, what the hell are you doing?”

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