John Cena's backstage politicking probably ruined up-and-coming star's push, according to ex-WWE employee

Former WWE manager Dutch Mantell recently spoke about John Cena using his power backstage to halt a push.

Cena has arguably been the biggest star for the company over the last two decades. He managed to win 16 world championships during his stint with the company, equalling Ric Flair's record. He also won two Royal Rumbles, the Money in the Bank ladder match, and headlined WrestleMania multiple times. He also had considerable backstage influence and may have used it against Alex Riley.

Alex Riley was introduced as The Miz's lackey in WWE and had a good start to his career. He gained popularity in his role, especially during Miz's rivalry with Cena. Riley would later turn face and team up with Cena, but his WWE career never took off, and he was ultimately released in 2016.

On a recent episode of Story Time with Dutch Mantell, the wrestling veteran spoke about the time when Cena halted Alex Riley's push. The former WWE employee suggested that the Franchise Player probably got in the ear of Vince McMahon, leading to Riley's downfall. Mantell felt there was no way of confirming this story, but there was a high chance that it had happened.

"I heard about it. I remeber earlier I was talking that it doesn't take a lot to lose your push. Not with Vince, not with him in charge. It could be anything. So probably Cena didn't like Alex Riley. So he probably just went and poured his heart out to Vince. Well, we can fix that, they didn't tell Riley nothing and just stopped pushing him. I don't know if it's true, but Alex Riley, we'll never know if it's true or not. But his thesis on it, or his final thought on it is probably true because I've seen it done and it was probably done in this case." [From 56:37 - 57:33]

You can watch the full podcast here:

---

Mantell also feels John Cena was limited in the ring

During another episode of the same podcast, Dutch spoke about John Cena's in-ring skills. He stated that Cena was never a great in-ring technician but had a lot of charisma.

"He [McMahon] was the only one who would give him a shot because John Cena in a wrestling ring; he's not that talented. But he's a good rapper, and I think that's what Vince saw, and the 'You can't see me.' They took that and made a character out of that and made him tons of money," said Mantell.

Cena's last match on WWE television came at Crown Jewel against Solo Sikoa. The legendary performer has not been seen in a WWE ring since. However, fans have held out hope of seeing the star soon, especially with WrestleMania 40 fast approaching.

---

Do you agree with Mantell's comments about John Cena politicking backstage? Let us know in the comments section below.

---

If you use the quotes from this article, please credit Story Time with Dutch Mantell and add an H/T to Sportskeeda for the transcript.