10 Rare Times Wrestlers Were Self-Aware
1. John Cena
John Cena has often gently mocked himself - he'd openly poke fun at his own gear, his limited move set - but it was always designed, surgically, to get himself over as the self-effacing good guy. He didn't really think he was dorky or unskilled; you see, self-deprecation was just another of his many virtues!
Cena however destroyed the myth surrounding him to incredibly potent effect at WrestleMania 36.
This was tremendous sucker-punch booking: Cena was typically bullish in the build, reducing the Fiend's supernatural aura to nothing. This felt - deliberately, brilliantly, as it transpired - like the worst of Cena's most rank, self-preserving impulses. The carefree Cena wasn't scared of the entity that reduced Seth Rollins to a quivering mess of ugly crying because of course he wasn't. He was John Cena.
In one of the most audacious WWE presentations ever - Cena stepped through the curtains of the PG Black Lodge to confront his ugly shadow self in a funny yet sobering trip through his psyche filtered through the lens of pro wrestling's aesthetic history - Cena revealed himself to be a nasty bully punching down into the face of Huskus the Pig Boy and the many performers the puppet represented.
Cena reportedly added much to the Firefly Fun House himself, using the pseudo-match as penance for the worst of his pro wrestling career.