Why John Cena Didn't Beat The Shield in WWE Way Back in 2013

By Connor Casey

The Shield managed to establish itself as one of WWE's most dominant factions of the 2010s thanks to a long-running undefeated streak in six-man tag matches on TV and pay-per-views. But that streak almost didn't happen, as Jon Moxley (fka Dean Ambrose in WWE) confirmed in his new book Mox. The trio's second televised match was against John Cena, Ryback and Sheamus at the 2013 Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, and it took all three approaching with Vince McMahon in order to stop the initial plan of having Cena beat the trio. 

"If [we] went out there with Cena and took the f—in' schmootz and got pinned like everybody else, we would then become everybody else," Moxley wrote (h/t Bleacher Report). "It would kill us. I remember...being in the car with an uneasy feeling in my stomach. 'I ain't f—ing doing it,' I said. 'Whether they fire us or we get Cena'd and killed off...we're dead either way.'"

Moxley didn't hold back when describing the frustrations he had working in WWE throughout the book. 

"I had nothing even close to heat," Moxley wrote at one point. "I was once one of the most popular performers in all of WWE, and now I was lost in the ring in front of confused or apathetic audiences. I was Fn dead in the water, irreconcilable, a dog to be taken out back and shot ... and I knew it. I was fully aware of it through every slow and excruciating second, yet my objections went ignored or refuted, like that movie where the guy is still awake but paralyzed during open-heart surgery. If you sat through any of my segments on TV during this timeframe, you know what I'm talking about ... unless you blocked it from your memory. If you thought you were confused, imagine what it was like being me? S—, at least you had a remote control. I couldn't just turn the channel on my own life. I was in a living hell. Gee, it's fun reminiscing.

"I wasn't just depressed, I was angry," he added. "It's not like I don't like money. I don't WANT things to be this way. Why do they have to make it impossible? Why does everything have to be so Fn stupid? They're really gonna make me walk away from all this money, aren't they? They can't just write one good angle, let me cut one good Fn promo? F—! I can't believe it's come to this. There was a time I thought I'd be a lifer with WWE, but this whole place has gone Fn MAD, and I feel like I'm the only one who can see it ... buncha MFers just playing violins while the ship sinks and Vince continues to lose his mind. 'F— 'em, I'm just gonna go to Japan or something,' I tell Renee, while sipping on my third stiff drink. 'I'm telling you, April thirtieth, I'm Fn done.' I had been talking about leaving for months and my mind was long made up, but when I was in a bad mood or three drinks in, I would feel the need to reaffirm it for some reason, as if I suspected she didn't believe me."

Trending Now: