John Cena is one of the best wrestlers in the world, but he’s still a controversial figure. He’s often labeled the most polarising superstar in the WWE, mostly based on his run as the face of the company. One such controversy is his ugly history with former superstar Alex Riley.

Why does Alex Riley hate John Cena?

In 2011, Alex Riley was on the fast track to become the next main event player in WWE. His competition was none other than the WWE Champion John Cena. Cena had just beaten Riley’s boss, The Miz, for the WWE Championship, and Riley would become his next challenger.

Unfortunately, certain backstage politics led to Riley being bumped down the card, and Cena’s reign as champion continued. For years Riley has blamed Cena for ruining his push, despite being favoured by Vince McMahon.

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He went from being a future main eventer to NXT fodder. Riley wrestled for the black and yellow brand till 2016, after which WWE released him for good. His career post WWE release didn’t materialise into success, and he remains in relative obscurity. And of course, he still blames Cena for it.

Speaking on the Hall of Fame podcast with Booker T, Riley confirmed that he and Cena didn’t like each other, although he didn’t take his name. He also mentioned how much Vince McMahon loved him, but Cena’s politics led to his career disappearing.

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Riley calls out Cena on Instagram

This year, Riley has taken his issues with John Cena public and posted a bunch of odd Instagram posts. He claims he is open to wrestling, but he’d only wrestle Cena for one match. However, he still has one condition, which is the unionization of wrestling.

In the past week, Riley has claimed on Instagram that he won’t return to WWE till sports entertainment is unionized. He claims this desire proves he cares about the business more than Cena and fellow WWE legend The Rock.

He called out Cena in several posts and even claimed he would “smack this man in the mouth “face-to-face” harder than he ever hit me ‘with my back turned.” Riley also boldly stated that the match against Cena would be the ratings explosion WWE needs.

There’s a high possibility this match would never happen, given Vince’s stance against unionization, let alone WWE’s relationship with Alex Riley. No matter how bizarre this situation, one can’t help but wonder is this match really goes down.

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