Gabbi Tuft's Unexpected Heat With John Cena Left Her Ready To Quit WWE

As John Cena continues to approach his retirement date on December 13, the talk of his legacy has come up quite a bit. For the most part, it's been largely positive, and why wouldn't it be; after all, Cena is arguably the most successful wrestler of this generation, a talent who proved to be a successful draw, a crossover star in the same vein as rivals Dave Batista and The Rock, and a really strong in-ring performer to boot. And he did it all while coming across as a decent human being, especially through his dealings with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, where Cena set the record for most wishes granted all the way back in 2022. In all likelihood, when fans look back on Cena's career, those will be the first things remembered.

For all the good Cena has done in and out of the ring, however, it doesn't mean that he's handled everything perfectly. The biggest example of this may be Cena's ongoing friendship with former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, who Cena has made clear he still is close with even as McMahon continues to face scrutiny over Janel Grant's lawsuit accusing McMahon of sex trafficking and abuse. But even separate from that scandal, there are other moments in Cena's career that don't entirely paint him in a great life. This includes a situation involving Gabbi Tuft. Wrestling fans will remember Tuft for her time in WWE as Tyler Reks back in the late 2000s/early 2010s, years before Tuft transitioned into becoming a woman. As Reks, Tuft largely found herself in the WWE's lower card. And it seems her chances weren't helped all that much thanks to an argument with Cena backstage.

While the exact date of the argument appears to be unclear, every other detail about it from Tuft's perspective is known, including that it all stemmed from Tuft's finishing move, the Burning Hammer. Most wrestling fans know the Burning Hammer as the rarely used "super" finishing move of wrestling legend Kenta Kobashi, a move so devastating that no one ever kicked out. What many may not know is Tuft adopted the finisher herself while wrestling in WWE, and according to her had used it for several months without incident while working on the lower level show "WWE Superstars." That changed after a match with Eddie Colon, where Tuft says Colon took the move by landing on his back instead of his stomach, making the Burning Hammer look more like Cena's FU/Attitude Adjustment. Tuft said Cena would smirk and tell her to use a different finisher in the back after, which Tuft took to mean Cena was joking.

But he wasn't, at least according to Tuft. After she used the move again in a match with Colon, Tuft says she returned to the backstage area, only to get chewed out immediately by Cena. Despite trying to explain that the move had been hit wrong and that she had gotten permission to use the move from Vince McMahon and others, Tuft says Cena continued to belittle her, and at one point even said "find another finisher, or you're fired." Tuft said she was left humiliated by the situation, and even debated quitting WWE, though she instead cooled down and chose to approach Cena again to apologize. As she remembers, Cena himself had not cooled down, even going as far to ask Tuft if she was stupid. In the end, Tuft agreed to come up with a new finisher, and says that communication between her and Cena was essentially done from that point forward.