The Winding Road to the Funhouse

Throughout the history of WWE’s story-telling, there have been very few cases of what would be considered “long-term booking” that would stretch over the course of several years to tell a singular story or character arc. Unlike NJPW’s eventual coronation of Tetsuya Naito over the course of six years, Drew McIntyre’s ascension to the top, despite being told over the course of twelve years since his debut on Smackdown, did not carry the feeling of one, long, overarching narrative, with the Sinister Scotsman undergoing numerous character changes and even a three year tour of the Indies, TNA, and his old stomping grounds of ICW to retool his character in his own way before returning to WWE’s NXT brand. As another consequence, characters that would be presented in a feud against one another will simply “forget” the feud happened when their alignments happen to be the same, resulting in heels teaming together simply because “they’re heels” and ignoring the implications of a previous rivalry.

However, there are several cases that stand out as exceptions to this narrative dissonance usually present in WWE writing. The on-again/off-again friendship of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn has been a narrative that stretches not only since the NXT debut of the Prizefighter, but even beyond that to their time on the independent circuit and ROH together, and to this day, Zayn and Owens remain consistent in their history with one another. The ongoing story narrative of Ciampa and Gargano dates back to the 2015 Cruiserweight Classic, and despite a few stumbles due to unforeseeable circumstances, Ciampa and Gargano have told a unique, winding, and captivating narrative, with Gargano even subverting the trope of the two men teaming together because of their current story alignments by picking their feud right up where they left off, culminating in #OneFinalBeat.

The character of the Fiend seems to reward those at home who pay attention to the long-term character arcs at play, with the established kayfabe of how anyone who battles the Fiend “changes”, a fact that we’ve seen proven time and again since the Fiend’s inception. The story leading into the Firefly Funhouse match is likewise rewarding, playing off of the six year history of both Wyatt and Cena while also going beyond their personal history and delving into both men’s psyches in the grand mythos of WWE. To begin this deep dive into the Firefly Funhouse, we first have to go back to where the conflict all started: Wrestlemania 30.

Bray Wyatt: The Whole World In His Hands

Bray Wyatt’s initial conflict with John Cena began at the 2014 Royal Rumble where, after defeating Daniel Bryan and momentarily silencing the “YES!” movement, Wyatt would aim higher, costing John Cena the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Randy Orton, and then he would do so once more at the following Elimination Chamber PPV. Wyatt’s goal in standing in Cena’s way was simple: he viewed John Cena as a “fraud” and a “charlatan”, citing Cena as the leader of an “Era of Lies” that Wyatt wished to extinguish. Directly insulted by the insinuations, Cena challenged Bray Wyatt to a match at Wrestlemania 30, the first ever clash between the two polar opposites in their craft.

As mentioned before, Wyatt only sought to prove John Cena was not the “hero” that he made himself out to be, and in the conflict, numerous attempts at tempting Cena were made, offering him a steel chair to strike him in anger to show the world who he really was. Resisting the temptation (And fighting off interference from the other members of the Wyatt Family), Cena would defeat Wyatt in what was his first ever pinfall defeat outside of NXT. However, this victory wasn’t enough for Cena, looking to go further to humiliate the cult leader and challenging him to a Steel Cage Match at the following PPV, claiming that his message has been spreading through the WWE Universe and taking it upon himself to stop it, exemplified by a children’s choir singing what had become Wyatt’s “hymn” as Bray watched on at the horrified Cena.

This time, Cena would find himself on the losing end as Wyatt, once more with help from his family, would come out on top, escaping the cage after a distraction from one of his choir children allowed him to plant Cena with Sister Abigail. This resulted in the rubber match, with Wyatt decreeing that it should end with “Last Man Standing”. Cena would accept, and, with the Usos running back-up, Cena would defeat Wyatt, burying him under a storage crate after throwing him through another crate, leaving Wyatt crushed beneath him in both a literal and symbolic gesture: John Cena would go on to claim his 15th World Championship while Bray Wyatt would begin to spiral and meander for several years to the point where even if he came out on top in a feud, the person he beat would, more often than not, be allowed a spot higher on the card before Wyatt himself. After the World Title ladder match at the Money in the Bank PPV the following month, John Cena and Bray Wyatt would remain separated from each other, three years passing before they would meet again.

In the 2017 Elimination Chamber PPV, Bray Wyatt would find himself in the eponymous match along with John Cena, the then-WWE Champion on the Road to Wrestlemania. In a shocking moment, Wyatt would eliminate not only John Cena, but AJ Styles as well to claim his first WWE Championship, proving once and for all that Wyatt did indeed have the “Whole World In His Hands”. Two nights later, John Cena would invoke his rematch clause and claim that Wyatt had done a good job in “brainwashing” the crowd, noting his supporters chanting “You Deserve It!” to Wyatt with Cena decrying the chant, claiming that no man deserved anything: they have to earn it before making his challenge official, only to be interrupted by AJ Styles, leading to a Triple Threat match in which Bray Wyatt would walk away victorious. The glow of victory would not last long, however, as Randy Orton, having infiltrated his family and effectively separated Luke Harper from Wyatt, would burn the Wyatt Compound and take Wyatt’s championship at Wrestlemania 33 merely a month and a half later.

A Friendship That’ll Never Ever End

Bray Wyatt has credited his defeat to John Cena at Wrestlemania 30 to be the moment when the Fiend would start to manifest, referring to the Fiend as the “voices in his head” (An amusing reference to Cena’s greatest rival and the man who destroyed the Wyatt Compound) that he was trying to block out and ignore for years before finally listening to them and embracing those voices in 2019, resulting in the first sightings of the Firefly Funhouse before the arrival of the Fiend against Finn Balor, taking on some unfinished business with him and defeating him in only a few minutes. As this new, monstrous force, the Fiend, combined with the Firefly Funhouse host that was Bray Wyatt, would re-cultivate the momentum that he had lost before, capturing the Universal Championship at 2019’s Crown Jewel PPV event with the crowd firmly behind the new persona. By facing his failure, Wyatt was eventually able to make something else out of it, and while the Fiend would lose his Universal Championship to Goldberg, Goldberg himself would have no reason for the Fiend to “care”. At this point, the Fiend’s main targets all had some form of history or ill-feelings with Wyatt. Balor, Rollins, Strowman, Kane, figures in position of Authority, and, perhaps most pointedly, Daniel Bryan. In the end, Goldberg offered nothing to the Fiend, even genuinely showing no fear in the face of this unbeaten monster, allowing Goldberg to vanquish the Fiend, but in that defeat, opportunity knocked.

With Goldberg set to defend his Universal Championship at Wrestlemania, John Cena would appear on Smackdown to announce his future plans for the Grandest Stage of Them All. He would thank the crowd in his fine speech before claiming that he would step aside, unsure what the future holds for John Cena while stepping aside to allow the WWE’s future to shine at Wrestlemania that year, claiming to give the fans what they want, and as Cena would leave the ring, the Fiend picked his spot. Appearing behind John Cena, the Fiend would make his challenge, pointing at the Wrestlemania sign, and with barely a moment of consideration as the fans made their desires known, Cena accepted the challenge with a tip of the cap.

I’ve Turned Into a Monster

With the match set for Wrestlemania, Cena would discuss accepting the challenge, explaining that he was willing to step aside for the future of the business and to let the future thrive without him, citing the NXT wrestlers as the “future” while stating that Wyatt wasn’t the future, and instead chose to blame Cena for his failures, punctuating his words by stating that he was going to “finish the job he started six years ago” by ending the existence of the “most overhyped, overrated, and overvalued WWE superstar of all time”. Wyatt would respond by laughing at Cena, saying that in the end, Cena was the one who was sick while pointing out that Cena has the “great body” and the “beautiful girlfriends” and, in reality, while Cena claimed to care about the future, he only cared about himself, culminating in Wyatt hitting Cena with some hard truth: At Wrestlemania 30, the loss broke Wyatt, and the Fiend was the entity that put him back together, creating the Firefly Funhouse in the process. Due to the defeat at Wrestlemania 30, John Cena, in his own way, created the Fiend.

Two weeks later, Wyatt would dare Cena to step into his world, challenging him officially to a “Firefly Funhouse” match, citing that a “big star” like John Cena deserved something more than an ordinary match while also noting that he failed six years ago, but He won’t. Cena would reply the following week, stating that while he didn’t even know what a Firefly Funhouse match was, he felt that it’s exactly how the Fiend wanted it as he preyed on the uncertainty and fear of a given situation. He would go further to claim he showed weakness against Goldberg while also tearing down the Fiend, claiming that he was merely an “overfed lovechild of Wiz Khalifa and the WB Frog” and that a “poor man’s version of a bootleg Mr. Rogers” didn’t have a chance against him, once again claiming that he would finish what he started six years ago.

He would close by stating that the Fiend would need every advantage he could get and would still get his ass kicked before, with a smile and a laugh, he accepted the Fiend’s challenge, prompting an appearance from the residents of the Funhouse, with the Fiend staring Cena down from a platform across the barricade, locking eyes with his Wrestlemania opponent…before Bray Wyatt himself would appear behind Cena, bellowing out for Cena to “Let Him In”…and for the first time, Cena would show fear in the face of uncertainty, a theme that would encapsulate his trip into the Firefly Funhouse.

Then…

At Night 2 of Wrestlemania 36, we’d get our glimpse into the world of the Firefly Funhouse before the contest would even begin as Cena would make his entrance, and as he welcomes us to Wrestlemania, a distorted feed of past Wrestlemania introductions would play before we’re given the official introduction by Bray Wyatt, who tells us that, beyond the door is a world where “gods, demons, angels, and monsters” are all neighbors, surmising that we would get to see John Cena for who and what he really is as he would have to face his most dangerous opponent: himself. As Wyatt walks through the door, Cena is warped into the Funhouse, and after some goading from the inmates of the asylum, Cena follows suit, walking through the door, and we officially begin.

The first room that Cena enters is a dark void before being confronted by the Devil-horned puppet of Vince McMahon who gives him a speech about showing his Ruthless Aggression or else, he’s fired. One of the commonalities in regards to wrestlers coming to the WWE, at the time, was being stripped of everything and coming in as a blank slate. In recent times, that has seemed to stop as wrestlers come in using their names and characters from their previous circuits, but back then, it was more likely than not that Vince would dictate and determine who you would be, and in this case, Cena would be molded into Vince’s image of “Ruthless Aggression”.

Wyatt would come to a ring, calling out Cena word-for-word how Angle called him out in Cena’s debut night, and out came John Cena, dressed similarly to the guy he wore on that day as he marched to the ring, almost confused at first, but doing so nonetheless. He would enter the ring, and as he was asked what did he have that set him apart, Cena answered just like he did in the past: “Ruthless. Aggression!”…but as he took a swing on Wyatt, he missed. Cena could only then shout “RUTHLESS AGGRESSION!” before swinging again, missing as Wyatt mocks him. He mentions to Cena that this was the site of his greatest failure, mentioning that he could see why Cena almost got fired before telling Cena he “could look, but he can’t touch” to the tune of Nikki Bella’s theme music.

In one moment, all of Cena’s insecurities and failures of his past had been dug up and thrown in his face: his fear of failure as Cena faced the possibility of being fired in 2002. Perhaps his fear of commitment, fostered by a failed marriage in 2012 before being encapsulated by the years-long saga of his relationship with Nikki Bella, culminating in a marriage proposal at Wrestlemania 33…and then a separation the following year. Finally, Wyatt would ask Cena if this is really what he wanted to do with his life before the screen flashed imagery of Cena’s childhood, holding a cardboard WWE Championship. Before he could answer with anything other than “RUTHLESS AGGRESSION”, Cena would be give chase, following Wyatt to the next part of his personal hell.

As the scene changes, we’re met with the intro to Saturday Night’s Main Event, a former flagship show of the old WWF, right in line with the era that a young John Cena would be watching. Bray Wyatt, now dressed in his Muscleman gear, would introduce his tag-team partner as someone with seemingly little talent but was such a “physical specimen” that you couldn’t help but worship him. Introduced by the name of “Johnny Largemeat”, John Cena walked onto scene as he pumped iron, cutting a promo with the same style, platitudes, and vibe of old-school, meathead promos: shouting and yelling, speaking what amounted to empty words that the people, and his boss, wanted to hear as he continued to lift weights until his arms could lift anymore. As he couldn’t lift anymore, Wyatt would ask, “Whatcha gonna do when you realize that Egomania has been running wild on you?!” before throwing Cena into his next step, with “Egomania” proving to be a key piece of the Cenation puzzle.

…Now…

As we step into the next scene, John Cena is clad in the gear from his run as the “Doctor of Thuganomics”, complete with a lock-and-chain around his neck, a New York Yankees jersey, and his old theme music playing him to the ring, and as he gets on the mic, he immediately realizes: he’s unable to speak in anything but rhyme, forced to rap his promo on Wyatt the entire time, but something’s different here. Cena’s days as a rapper in WWE started as a freestyle, completely unscripted and unprompted and allowing Cena to showcase his character with the freedom he was afforded. The crowd would eat it up, the formula proving to be the thing John Cena needed to rise to the top of the roster. A character for the time rather than a caricature of a bygone era.

However, as Cena rhymed and rapped his lines about Bray, with no audience and no freedom, there was no punch in what he had to say. Instead, Cena’s jabs would be met with crickets, a contemplative Bray taking them in stride before the final line: “You were a disappointment before they even brought you to the dance/You’re a slut for opportunity; you’re blowin’ every chance”. As Cena posed triumphantly, Wyatt would question Cena for bringing up the concept of “chances”, stating that even with having to earn everything he’s gotten, it still gets taken from him, yet Cena is “untouchable…but not a hero”, calling him a bully for taking “the weaknesses of others and turning them into jokes”.

This goes back not only to Cena’s promo-style in general, but specifically, what Cena had said about Bray Wyatt in the past. Making fun of his weight because he wasn’t “built” like John Cena. Poking fun at Bray Wyatt’s spiral during the last six years. Claiming that he was the most overrated, overhyped, and overvalued superstar in the WWE. Cena’s “ego” runs wild in his promos, something that is often compared to many of the great mic-workers who would often elevate their opponents. After all, what good does it do if you put down your opponent on the microphone completely before wrestling them? If you lose, you look like a fool who lost a perceived fluke. If you win, you beat a perceived nobody.

From “behavioral problems outside of the ring” to “failed drug tests”, nothing was off-limits for Cena, and in one of the few times someone stood their ground on the mic during the verbal onslaught, CM Punk would call out Cena’s image as a facade, claiming that he represents the “Boston Red Sox”, but Cena had “become what he hated”, citing him as the “New York Yankees”, the exact team jersey he was wearing now nine years later.

Wyatt would say that “poor, lonely John Cena” was the man now, having had unlimited chances as the Golden Goose of the company before giving Cena “one last chance” to do the right thing. Cena, still trapped in his own arrogance, would throw “deez nuts dead in his face” before attempting to clothesline in the corner. Wyatt would teleport, Cena’s chain in hand, before laying him out with a right hand, bringing us to the next segment…and the site of Wyatt’s greatest failure.

The screen flickers, and we’re met with the familiar appearance of the leader of the Wyatt Family, speaking out about his first confrontation with John Cena as it was a “prophecy” from Sister Abigail as Wyatt had the “Whole World In His Hands”. Wyatt mentions that Cena was supposed to be a “man of the people” as the people sing along to the repurposed Hymn of the Wyatt Family, yet instead, Wrestlemania 30, rather than a “prophecy fulfilled” was the site of his own greatest failure, a failure that he would not come to terms with until five years later, giving birth to The Fiend.

In an effort to fix his failure, we are sent back to the ring, with Wyatt, clad in the garb of the cult leader, utters one word: “Run!” before running full-steam into an era-appropriately garbed Cena, dancing with his body and preparing to lay him out with Sister Abigail before Cena steps away. Wyatt would then start to drop to his knees, offering Cena a steel chair, imagery of Wrestlemania 30 flashing on screen as Wyatt begs Cena to “fix it”, referring to the same moment in their first match, Cena taking the high road and casting the chair aside six years ago. Wyatt tells Cena that he made the “wrong choice” back then, but now, he could make the “right one” and fix it… and the fear had broken down John Cena just enough to do it.

All of the fear that he claimed he didn’t feel before had come to surface, and the “good man” that he was had begun to crumble as John Cena would swing at Wyatt with his full force, missing only as the Wyatt Patriarch would vanish from his sight. His utter fear of perceived failure, a concept that he would rally against in interviews and even on the “After the Bell” podcast mere weeks before this match, had all come to the surface. Cena had constantly shunted aside his fear of failing, pushing it deeper down and away from himself rather than coping with it in a healthy fashion as he became “The Man” in the WWE. This fear of failure made him solitary, only further perpetuated by his divorce, and then the failed relationship with Nikki Bella, whereas Wyatt had faced his failure…and it gave birth to something greater than he had ever been on his own, and in a state of shock, Cena dropped the chair.

…Never…

We’re immediately brought to the final segment of the Firefly Funhouse, a recreation of NWO Monday Nitro’s introduction playing as Bray Wyatt stands in the ring, wearing an NWO Wolfpac shirt in reference to how he was the “red” in a world of “black and white”, as he would cut his promo exactly like Eric Bischoff, introducing the “coolest guy” in the wrestling world and bringing out John Cena, clad in NWO gear complete with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship draped on his shoulder, spray-painted for the New World Order. Cena would stride out to the classic theme of the group, even air-guitaring his World title like its original leader before hitting a “Too Sweet” on Wyatt…and promptly discarding the hat and gimmick, tackling Wyatt to the ground and unleashing his anger on him. At this moment, we’re met with a montage of Cena’s greatest failures:

• RVD at One Night Stand 2006
• Edge at New Year’s Revolution 2006
• Shawn Michaels at the Raw on April 23, 2007
• Batista at Elimination Chamber 2010
• The Miz at Wrestlemania 27
• CM Punk at Money in the Bank 2011
• The Rock at Wrestlemania 28
• Randy Orton at TLC 2013
• Brock Lesnar at Summerslam 2014
• AJ Styles at Summerslam 2016 (Symbolized by him leaving his armband in the ring after the match)
• Roman Reigns at No Mercy 2017
• The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 34

A list of failures. All failures that Cena had never faced head-on, instead choosing to just “forge ahead”, always being given another chance for just being who he was, and now, when faced with his own fear of failing, the man who preached for his audience to “Rise Above Hate” had given in completely to his own hate out of sheer self-preservation, his fear of failure eating him alive and making him act on his instinct and revealing the base man underneath the facade…and in his rage, we are brought to the current day, with Cena in his trademark gear applying full-mounted punches… to Huskus the Pig as the audience of the Firefly Funhouse watches on in horror. Cena, in disbelief, begins to stand up as the Fiend himself appears behind him, and as he turns around, the Fiend locks in the Mandible Claw, rendering Cena immobile before setting up the Sister Abigail.

As the Fiend holds Cena in place, we get one last reminder of Cena’s now-famous last words: “This Wrestlemania match is going to accomplish what should’ve happened six years ago: ending the existence of the most overrated, overhyped, overprivileged WWE Superstar in existence” as the Fiend plants Cena with Sister Abigail, locking in the Mandible Claw as Bray Wyatt himself, in his normal clothing, counts the three-count on the downed Cena. The Fiend is victorious, and in the blink of an eye, Cena vanishes from our sight, and we are left with three words: “Let Me In!”

A Wolf Amongst the Sheep

Cena’s appearance in the NWO gear was symbolic of “being a man of the people” and giving “the audience what they wanted”. Many fans wanted John Cena to, one day, turn “heel”, often citing that it “worked for Hogan”, so why not let John Cena run with it? However, Cena, for years, had refused to do so, citing how the children looked up to him as a hero and so long as “one child” chants his name, he would remain a babyface for that child… but as a “man of the people”, it would seem strange and short-sighted to discard the wants of the people for one child, and as he carried on this “super hero” persona, the children cheering for him and showering him with adulation would become a normal sound.

It brought the “poor, lonely John Cena” some solace in his decisions. It soothed his damaged ego, using the audience as a band-aid for his failures rather than facing them head-on, and with the band-aid removed, we saw Cena for exactly who he was: a bully who, when confronted with a threat to his position, would rather bury them six-feet underground for his own amusement than lift them up and bring them to his level to the joy of the crowd. After all, if Cena truly cared about lifting those around him, why would losses to Roman Reigns, AJ Styles, the Miz, RVD, Edge, and CM Punk all be considered among his greatest failures against men who, at the time, could’ve used that shine from Cena? Cena didn’t seek to “step aside” from Wrestlemania in an altruistic gesture of “giving the fans what they wanted”: he made a show of it because he couldn’t get enough of the crowd chanting his name one more time.

Cena has been not booked for Wrestlemania in the past: Wrestlemanias 32 and 35 both did not have John Cena on the card, instead allowing John Cena to surprise the audience at the events themselves. John Cena would also not be booked for Wrestlemania 34, yet he would continue to challenge the Undertaker until, at the night of the show, Taker would accept. So, why now? Why would Cena choose to make a big deal out of not being booked at Wrestlemania? The answer is the same as to why Cena chose to make those “special” appearances while not being booked: his ego had run rampant during his time at the top. At WM 32 and 35, Cena sought to put down any potential opposition, his ego not allowing the Wyatt Family to take out the Rock, and his ego not allowing Elias to go unscathed, coming through with a resurrection of the “Doctor of Thuganomics” persona and eviscerating him with a verbal tirade from which he has yet to recover.

And what of the Undertaker? Perhaps Cena smelled blood in the water, with the Undertaker having lost to both Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania by this point. Cena had no place on the card, so he challenged the Undertaker and was decimated for his transgressions. Cena, like many others, could’ve simply sat out a Wrestlemania and no one would’ve thought any differently of him, and yet his insatiable ego drove him to make an announcement about him not showing up to Wrestlemania…and that show of ego and hubris would prompt the Fiend.

Cena would make a show of listening to the crowd before accepting the challenge, and later, we find out that he only accepted the challenge for the opportunity to “finish what he started six years ago” with Bray Wyatt. Cena, deep down, didn’t do it for the audience’s approval: he was doing this for himself. Bray Wyatt had finally regained his steam. His momentum, and in accepting the challenge and putting him down as he did every time he got on the microphone, it showcased the man behind John Cena. “The true measure of a man is what he does when no one is watching”, and with no live audience to cater toward, Cena’s facade had slipped, further exemplified when he arrogantly laughed and “accepted” the challenge to the Firefly Funhouse, and in doing so, whether he realized it or not, he had sealed his own fate.

John Cena’s Sins Laid Bare

For 15 years, John Cena has been the flag-bearer of the WWE both in and out of the ring, but the path was not without its sacrifices. Wyatt had exposed Cena for what he had given up out of fear and self-preservation, the paranoid man who thought everyone was out to get him, ostracizing everyone until his paranoia became reality, a self-fulfilling prophecy marking the run of one of WWE’s greatest. His inability to face his failures would cause Cena to put barrier after barrier over his insecurities, using the audience and even the children as a shield, yet when that was gone, the real John Cena shined through, taking the limelight in the only way he knew how: by utterly decimating whom he thought was lesser.

Meanwhile, Bray Wyatt would find himself spiraling before mustering up the courage to finally face his inner fears, and in doing so, the monstrous entity known as “The Fiend” was born, and despite the monstrosity and despite the horrific form it had taken, Cena’s inability to handle his own failures appropriately resulted in all of his failures coming to life in front of his eyes and drawing out the bottled up and repressed anger and rage he had buried inside of himself…yet Wyatt, having been faced with his failings and coped with them through the Fiend, was able to let Cena’s verbal tirade roll off of his shoulders, being one of very few men to not let Cena’s attempt at a burial phase him.

Instead, he proved Cena to be a “liar” the very night Cena claimed he was “unafraid”… by scaring and bewildering Cena. By claiming the Fiend had showed weakness against Goldberg, Cena displayed a tacit ignorance to the Fiend’s goals, an act which would lead to Cena’s ultimate downfall. We may not know when his next appearance will be, but with the Fiend’s mission accomplished and the “wrong” from Wrestlemania 30 being “righted”, it is now more true than ever that when it comes to John Cena, we can’t see him.

~Fin