On WWE Monday Night Raw on June 27, John Cena returned to celebrate his twentieth WWE birthday.
The show was built around him as it opened with the WWE wrestlers and staff lining the backstage area as he entered to high five and welcome him, and various clips played throughout the night as wrestlers shared their thoughts and feelings about him.
It was in perfect line with the type of celebration the WWE does, with the twist of AEW stars Paul Wight (Big Show), Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan), and Chris Jericho appeared in pre-recorded messages.
It was a cool moment and only added to the feels for the night. It also continued the trend the WWE helped set by allowing AJ Styles to appear from his home during Impact Wrestling Slammiversary’s 20th anniversary pay-per-view.
Tony Kahn’s surprise
Given the hyped up war between the WWE and AEW, it seemed unlikely we’d expect to see any AEW talent appear on WWE programming, but Tony Kahn gave the okay when approached about it and the rest is history.
Fightful Select reported that AEW allowed it to happen without any hassle as Kahn gave his okay when WWE pitched the video appearances.
According to Fightful:
“We’re told that the situation was very straightforward in making it happen. The idea was pitched, and then AEW founder Tony Khan was contacted in order to see if he’d be okay with it. Given the circumstances surrounding the videos, he was said to be okay with the videos and provided approval. A WWE source told us that they were able to land virtually everyone they hoped to for the ‘congrats’ videos. These instances have been few and far between since AEW launched in 2019.”
It was a couple of cool moments as it showed that Kahn appreciates how much doing that meant to three of his stars that came over from WWE.
It also shows how he’s willing to work with anyone to a degree, and it could pose possibilities in the coming weeks and months for the WWE to allow more crossovers.
Though we suspect those will be limited to former WWE talent to avoid having to “break in” outsiders to the WWE way. It makes sense given the WWE knows their former talent and how they’ll react.
Seeing Danielson, Jericho, and Wight on WWE TV again gave the night a solid extra jolt as they were well received by most fans.
Is there anyone else you would’ve liked give a congratulations to John Cena? Let us know in the comments below.
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