Before he was a hero to kids and a multi-time world champion, John Cena was the doctor of
thuganomics.
He debuted in 2002 and was instantly put into feuds with big names like Kurt Angle, Chris
Benoit, The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar.
He won his first United States Championship from The Big Show at WrestleMania 20, and
his second following a best-of-five series against Booker T.
But it was the first feud following that second win that WWE would rather you forget.
It was a storyline that closely echoed a real-life tragedy and left a sour taste in many fan’s
mouths, but also could have seen the WWE debut of an ECW legend.
I am Luke Owen and do you remember when John Cena was stabbed on Smackdown?
Title: Carlito Caribbean Cool Debuts
The year is 2004, and John Cena had just won his second US championship from Booker T at
No Mercy.
Just five days later, Cena was interrupted by a debuting Carlito Caribbean Cool.
Carlito decided that Cena taking five matches to win the championship was not cool, and
he could do it in just one.
Which he proved late that night when he defeated Cena to win the United States Championship
following a chain shot.
Title: John Cena ‘Stabbed’
On the following Monday Night Raw, commentator Jim Ross announced that John Cena had been
attacked at a nightclub in Boston and was now in hospital.
On Smackdown, general manager Teddy Long told his roster that Cena wasn’t just attacked
- he was stabbed in the kidney and was fighting for his life.
Well, he actually said that during the “mee-laaay” he received several “puncture wounds”
and a “tremendous amount of damage” was done to his kidneys.
While everyone seemed shocked and upset by the news, Carlito told Teddy after the announcement
that “hip hop guys” like Cena had situations like this coming.
It was later revealed that eye witnesses put Carlito at the scene.
Obviously this news was terrible for all involved, but it did allow John Cena to go to Australia
to film The Marine.
That’s right, Cena’s stabbing was just a storyline.
Title: Carlito & Jesus
Two weeks later when Josh Matthews was interviewing The Cool One about whether he stabbed Cena,
Carlito’s new bodyguard Jesus - who was also reportedly at the scene of the crime
- debuted and threatened Josh.
Jesus was portrayed by Aaron Aguilera, who had previously been in WWE in 2000 as part
of Los Conquistadors.
Now it’s likely I’ll never do an episode of Remember When about the angle between Edge,
Christian, The Hardyz and Los Conquistadors, so, in short, he was Conquistador Uno - the
stand-in for Edge - while Conquistador Dos was The Fallen Angel Christopher Daniels.
Title: Super Cena Returns
Carlito and Jesus had a few weeks together on Smackdown, but sadly Carlito suffered a
serious shoulder separation, which was set to put him on the shelf for a several months.
John Cena returned just one month after being stabbed in the kidneys and won the US Championship
for a third time from the injured Carlito.
It was announced that Cena would defend his championship against Jesus at Armageddon in
December, which Bryan Alvarez noted:
“Between that and [Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall vs. A.J.
Styles, Jeff Hardy and Randy Savage] in TNA, this is going to be a hell of a month for
s****y PPV matches.”
- Bryan Alvarez, Figure Four Weekly #492, 29th November, 2004
Unsurprisingly, Cena beat Jesus at Armageddon and the angle was finished.
John Cena went into a feud with JBL for the WWE Championship in the new year, Carlito
feuded with Teddy Long and Jesus - who was injured going into his match with Cena at
Armageddon - had surgery and was released in April 2005.
At the time there are those who felt the story was very distasteful.
In September that year, TNA wrestler Johnny Devine was involved in an altercation after
a show and was stabbed in the stomach with major surgery implications.
But there are also a lot of uncomfortable correlations between this storyline and the
real-life death of Bruiser Brody.
Title: The Death Of Bruiser Brody
On July 26th 1988, Bruiser Brody was set to perform for WWC in Puetro Rico, a promotion
run by Carlito’s father Carlos Colon.
Former WWE manager and current TNA creative Dutch Mantell would later recall that something
wasn’t quite right about that night when they walked into the locker room and neither
Colon or Jose Gonzalez - who wrestled as The Invader - spoke to them.
“I’ve always been able to feel tension in a dressing room … and boy I felt it heavy
that night.
But I couldn’t place it, I didn’t know where the tension was coming from.”
- Dutch Mantell, The Sun, July 17th, 2017
Later in the night, Gonzalez allegedly asked Brody to step into the showers so they could
talk business, and he stabbed him in the stomach with a butcher knife.
The ambulance showed up 45 minutes later, and Brody died in the operating theatre later
that night.
Gonzalez pleaded self-defence, walked free and continued to wrestle until 2006.
WrestleCrap put it best noting the similarities between Brody’s death and the John Cena
“stabbing” angle:
“Given Jesús’s “shady past” and the accusations from Teddy Long that he too had
been in the club the night Cena was stabbed, the story became even more tasteless in its
resemblance to the Brody case: Bruiser Brody had been stabbed by a Puerto Rican wrestler
working for Carlos Colón, while John Cena had been stabbed by a Puerto Rican wrestler
working for Carlito.”
WrestleCrap, February 2nd 2017
Title: Who Really Did Stab John Cena?
One other interesting note from the John Cena storyline is that a lot of fans believe the
case went “unsolved”, although it was heavily hinted that Jesus was the one who
stabbed Cena.
One person who claimed the storyline was set to continue into 2005 was ECW legend New Jack,
who told the crowd at an IWA-Mid South show that he had signed a deal with WWE and would
be revealed as the attacker.
Nothing has been confirmed or denied since, but some believe this was just New Jack screwing
rumours rather than struggling to come to a deal.
“Based on what we've been told, I would be highly skeptical of that being the case
at this point.”
- Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer, January 2005
He would later claim this deal falling through was because of John Cena, who also kept him
from working the ECW reunion show later that year.
Well it was either that, or his multiple arrests.
Could go either way.