“Congratulations, a Star Is Born”: Bruce Prichard Recalls John Cena Saving Vince McMahon From a Horrible Embarrassment in Public After Getting Snubbed by a 6X WWE Champion in 2006

It’s unbelievable, but for some fans, John Cena is more of a Hollywood star than a WWE wrestler. Through TikTok and his beloved roles as Peacemaker or Jakob Toretto, being a movie star has become his identity. But this wouldn’t have been the path for the 16-time world champion if he didn’t appear in his first movie in 2006.

A former WWE executive just revealed WWE’s reason behind putting Cena in WWE produced The Marine, even though he was a new star in the company.

How did John Cena save Vince McMahon from massive embarrassment?

In a podcast episode of Something to Wrestle, Bruce Prichard revealed details about The Marine. When the co-host, Conrad asked Prichard about why WWE put Cena on it, he only had one answer. Prichard said that Steve Austin didn’t want to do it. A simple no from the six-time WWE Champion set the wheels in motion for Cena’s Hollywood career.

Delving more into his reason, Prichard said, “Steve was the guy we were looking to do something with. Steve wasn’t working full time and Steve was looking for this but I just don’t think Steve was interested in this and didn’t want to do it. We had already committed to the movie. How about Cena? Congratulations, now a star is born.”

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While The Marine wasn’t instrumental in launching Cena’s career, ‘The Champ’ has talked about the experience he gained while shooting the movie. Also saving the company from such embarrassment definitely must have elevated his position in front of Vince McMahon. But in a what-if situation where Austin would’ve agreed to do the movie, the roles of both of these stars might have changed.

Steve Austin’s filmography vs John Cena’s filmography

This revelation about Austin’s Hollywood start beckons a look through the filmography of both stars. While Austin was done with WWE in the mid-2000s, he didn’t go to Hollywood at the first chance he got, like The Rock. Instead, his first movie, The Longest Yard came out in 2005. After that, Austin had a series of direct-to-video movies that never broke out into the mainstream.

Paralleling his trajectory into Hollywood, John Cena, much like Dwayne Johnson, became a top movie star. Having worked in the DCEU and Fast and Furious franchises, his resume speaks for itself. Even now, he is about to appear in one of the most anticipated movies in 2023, Barbie.

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Tell us what you think about Cena replacing Austin The Marine in the comments below.