Rob Van Dam Has A Theory About The Names John Cena Mentioned In WWE Reverse Pipe Bomb

In the lead up to John Cena's match with CM Punk at WWE Night Of Champions, the wrestling world was shocked when Cena cut a reverse pipe bomb promo on the "Best in the World" on "WWE SmackDown." The most memorable part of Cena's rendition of the promo was when he broke the fourth wall as Punk had, in his case naming AEW star Claudio Castagnoli, TNA star Nic Nemeth, and "The Indy God" Matt Cardona. Although fans have theorized that Cena specifically listed the previously mentioned wrestlers as a coded reference to people Punk has had personal issues with in the past — the first names of Cardona and Nemeth referring to Matt and Nick Jackson, aka AEW EVPs The Young Bucks, with the "CC" initials of Castagonoli referring to Colt Cabana — Rob Van Dam theorizes there's a much simpler reason Castagnoli, Nemeth and Cardona were named.

"Maybe those were guys that Cena got fired from WWE," Van Dam suggested on his "1 Of A Kind" podcast.

In addition to naming wrestlers from outside promotions, Cena tried his best to recreate some of Punk's iconic promo from 2011 word for word, as he used similar lines and mannerisms from the original speech. At Night Of Champions, Cena managed to retain the Undisputed WWE Title after Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed interfered in the match to line up a possible Seth Rollins Money In The Bank cash-in. However, after Sami Zayn and Penta fought off both Breakker and Reed, Rollins did enough to prevent Punk from winning the title, but was unable to stop Cena from picking up the win and immediately leaving the ring. 

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "1 Of A Kind" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.