WWE: John Cena on Him Not Being Surprised by Negative Fan Reaction to Him Saying He Loves Vince McMahon, Backstage Update on WWE’s Plans for Evolution 2 Event, More News

John Cena Comments on Him Not Being Surprised by Negative Fan Reaction to Him Saying He Loves Vince McMahon

As noted before, John Cena had stated in interviews with the Howard Stern Show and the New York Times earlier this year that he still loves and supports former TKO and WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon as a friend despite the sex trafficking allegations against McMahon.

US Weekly held a recent interview with Cena. One of the topics discussed included Cena’s thoughts about him defending his stance and comments about his continued support of McMahon.

“Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. Just like I’m entitled to have an emotional connection to somebody. I don’t hold anybody or how they feel or what they view as permissible or things that’ll make them angry, happy, excited, sad. That’s their right as a human being.”

Cena also gave his thoughts about if he was surprised over the negative reaction from fans over his initial comments.

“I’m not surprised about any of that.”

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Backstage Update on WWE’s Current Plans for Evolution 2 Event

As noted before, WWE is currently working on plans to potentially hold a new all-women’s Evolution event during the July 12th weekend in Atlanta, Georgia.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A article that several people spoken to within WWE stated that they have not been told anything regarding plans for a new Evolution 2 event.

Sapp reported that several talent spoken to reportedly stated the same thing about them not being told anything about this potential upcoming event.

Sapp also reported that most people within WWE have only heard about these potential plans through internet and fan chatter.

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WWE News & Notes

WWE filed a new trademark for “King of the Lucas” on May 11th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

WWE also filed a new trademark for “The High Ryze” on May 12th for similar purposes to the USPTO. This is the name of Wes Lee’s group with Tyriek Igwe and Tyson Dupont in WWE’s NXT brand.

PWInsider’s Stephen Fernandez reported that WWE recently filed opposition to a trademark for “Then Now & Forever” that was filed by Journey guitarist Neal Schon and his wife Michaela Schon. The Schon’s filing was for party and wedding event planning purposes. This is the same phrase for WWE’s intro signature to their shows.

Amazon recently announced during their 2025 Upfronts media event that they will be premiering a new American Gladiators reboot television series for their Amazon Prime service. It was also announced that The Miz will be the official host for this upcoming new reboot series.

WWE recently released two new videos to their WCW Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was the full April 15, 1996 episode of WCW Nitro. The second new video was a tag team match of Sting & Goldberg vs. Sid & Rick Steiner from the August 2, 1999 episode of WCW Nitro.

WWE also recently released five new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was a dark match of Sabu vs. Scott Taylor from the October 18, 1993 WWE Monday Night RAW taping. The second new video was an “Even more one-sided beatdowns: From the WWE Vault.” The third new video was a WWE World Heavyweight Championship Fatal Four-way match of Randy Orton vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins (c) from WWE Payback 2015. The fourth new video was a singles match of CM Punk vs. Val Venis from the May 15, 2005 episode of WWE Sunday Night Heat. The fifth new video was a WWE Undisputed Championship match of The Undertaker vs. Hulk Hogan (c) from WWE Judgement Day 2002.

WWE also recently released two new videos to their NXT Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was the full April 1, 2015 episode of WWE NXT. The second new video was the full April 8, 2015 episode of WWE NXT.

As noted before, Indi Hartwell was released by WWE this past November and recently signed with TNA Wrestling. In a recent interview with the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, Hartwell gave her thoughts about her release from WWE. Hartwell stated “I missed the call when they called me to release me, so I made the call to get fired. I had a text message, I didn’t see I had a missed call, and I had a text message saying, ‘Hey, it’s blah blah blah from [Talent Relations], can you call us back?’ I called back and I thought it was for a completely different topic. I had lost my voice as well, so when I called back, ‘Hey, sorry, I lost my voice.’ They’re like, ‘We’re calling with some unfortunate news.’ I was so confused because I wanted to say, ‘What do you mean? I’m on the show tonight. My match was taped last week. I’m on the show tonight.’ It was weird.” Hartwell also gave her thoughts about if there were any talk of her match being removed from the show. Hartwell stated “No, I don’t think so. It was already filmed and part of the story. It was weird. It happened a lot back in the day with 205 Live. People had filmed a match that week and then got released the day the match was going to air on 205 Live. Some people didn’t know that SmackDown was taped the week before, so they thought I got released and had to go out that night and wrestle.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

WWE recently announced several new matches for the card of this week’s WWE SmackDown show on May 16th in Greensboro, North Carolina:

• Men’s and Women’s Money in the Bank Qualifier matches