"John Cena do okay?" - Former WWE Superstar sarcastically claims he didn't hear the 16-time world champion's name after beating him for a heavyweight title (Exclusive)

Former WWE star Simon Dean recently spoke about working alongside Jim Cornette and recalled beating John Cena.

During his time in WWE in the early 2000s, Dean beat Cena, who worked as The Prototype, for the OVW Heavyweight Championship.

Speaking on Sportskeeda Wrestling's latest edition of UnSKripted, Dean claimed that Jim Cornette wanted the 50-year-old star to work as a babyface like Ricky Morton.

Furthermore, the former OVW Heavyweight Champion sarcastically claimed that he hadn't heard of Cena's name after his run with WWE's developmental brand.

"Jimmy saw me like an underneath babyface like a Ricky Morton type, who could take a beating and sell and do some cool stuff and I was going to be different for the people of OVW. First I worked John Cena, who I knew from California, who I beat for the OVW Title. I don't know what's John up to these days, how did he do post-OVW? John Cena do okay? I never really heard his name after OVW. No all kidding aside, class act, great guy I'm so happy for his success. He's another guy who proved like, taking wrestling, the tools that you get in wrestling, what you learn from wrestling and go apply in the real world." - said Simon Dean. [17:56-18:35]

Watch the latest edition of UnSKripted:

Ricardo Rodriguez opened up about John Cena's influence

Former WWE star Ricardo Rodriguez was recently in a conversation on Sporstkeeda Wrestling's UnSKripted.

During the interview, he opened up about John Cena and how much he got to learn from the 16-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Rodriguez claimed that Cena's ability to control the crowd is one of his best aspects.

He said:

"I personally love John Cena. I got to learn so much from him, and just how he learned how to control the crowd was so amazing, and you can see him play the crowd like a fiddle, and anything he wanted. And that's something, when you're watching him, you're like, 'Holy heck, that's awesome'."

Cena is currently busy with his career in Hollywood. With WrestleMania 39 taking place in Hollywood, it will be interesting to see if the multi-time WWE World Champion will return for a surprise match or not.

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