John Cena Joins NWO In INSANE WWE WrestleMania 36 Firefly Fun House Match

WrestleMania 36: Part 1's supercamp 'Boneyard' match rightly won plaudits as it took us on a (possibly last) ride of cemetery carnage, and so expectations were unusually high that part deux's similarly cinematic Firefly Fun House could deliver in equal measure.

Arguably, it surpassed them, delivering a truly bizarre but truly brilliant ghost train of psychological solipsism and self-reflection.

Throughout the 'match', if you can call it that, The Fiend subjected his career bête noir to numerous projections of his past, as well as manifestations of his internalised fears. If that sounds bonkers, it's because it was.

Such phantoms included John in gear closely resembling his debut getup, and the snapback and chains of his Basic Thuganomics era. Perhaps the most brilliant illusion came in the latter stages of the spectacle, when The Fiend force Cena to consider a topic repeated throughout his career: the temptation to turn heel in the face of perpetual backlash, à la Hulk Hogan in 1996.

At one point, The Fiend, bedecked in the red and black of the nWo wolfpac, introduced Cena from the ring. His words were echoed by former WCW honcho Eric Bischoff, as the screen cut to a 1997 Nitro set. Out waltzed John as a champ of a different kind: Hollywood Hogan.

Cena mimicked the Hulkster's nWo stylings on the ramp, giving us an alternate reality in which the perennial babyface turned to the dark side, much like Hogan's unthinkable shift when he formed the New World Order. It was, in a word, sublime.

The psychological torment eventually got to Cena, as he was caught in The Fiend's mandible claw and pinned. After the match, Titus O'Neil echoed the sentiments of many, exclaiming: "I don't know what I just saw."