Raj Giri of Wrestling INC recently interviewed Tyler Reks where he talked about his issues with John Cane and more. You can read some highlights below and check out the full interview HERE.
Wrestling INC: I have to ask about your issues about John Cena, and him lashing out at you for using the Burning Hammer finisher. What happened there?
Tuft: Well, we were at a house show and I was working Eddie Colon, who I knew pretty well. We were second or third on the card and I was going over using the Burning Hammer. When I put him up, he’s supposed to be looking at the ceiling. It’s like a moonsault for him and a sitout DDT for me. I don’t know what we did, we were hurrying or something. He didn’t land on his stomach, he landed on his back and it kind of looked like an F-U (Attitude Adjustment.) We were like, “oh crap, John Cena is going to be pissed.” We got to the back and John Cena was looking at a monitor and was just like, “ah, Reks. You’re going to have to find a new finisher.” He kind of smirked at me and I thought he was joking. I told him, “yeah man, sorry about that. It kind of got screwed up and we’ll make it right tomorrow.” I thought he was suggesting we get it right, not to make it look like his.
Personally I think the Burning Hammer– my version of it– looks way better than an F-U (laughs). I had approval from Vince and Arn and everybody. In a pre-session Arn asked me what my finisher was, and I said a Burning Hammer. He was like “It’s a WHAT?!” and Dustin/Goldust goes, “here man I’ll help you with it.” Arn asked if he was sure, and we had this whole thing where agents were watching and John Cena was at the announce table and they had me give it to a bunch of different guys. Arn asked if Goldust was okay, and he said yes and it was easy to take. Arn said I was cleared to use it, and nobody said anything.
I used it at Bragging Rights 2010 and John was literally across the ring from me when I hit Santino Marella with it and never said anything to me then. I’d been using it for 8 months on Superstars and everything before all this. I come backstage happy after a good match with Eddie all excited and John grabs me in front of everyone and says, “what do you think you’re doing? I thought I told you to get a new finisher.” I said, “yeah, I thought you were joking John. We hit it wrong last night. I’m really sorry.” He started yelling at me asking who gave me permission to use that. He belittled me, called me an idiot, and asked me if I enjoyed working here. I told him of course I do. He told me, “find another finisher or you’re fired.” I was humiliated, I was a full-grown man, why can’t we talk about this like human beings?
I went outside to cool down, and I was ready to quit, to walk out. That didn’t seem like a healthy workplace environment. I came back in and John Cena was sitting there by the curtain and I figured that I’d cooled off and he’d cooled off so I’ll try to apologize one more time. I said, “John, I’m super sorry about this. I really thought it was just a miscommunication.” He looks over at me and says, “what was there to be miscommunicated? I asked you to stop using that finisher, are you stupid?” He wouldn’t even allow me to apologize. Finally I was just like, yeah, I’ll find another finisher. He and I never really talked after that. That’s the whole story of John Cena making me feel like a six year old boy.
Wrestling INC: Did you have any issues with him before that?
Tuft: No, everything was cool. We never really talked much. We shook hands, and asked how each other were doing. I was intimidated by him because he was the top guy in the company. I came into the business and I saw John every night on Raw like, “this is awesome, I’d love an opportunity to work with him and know this guy,” and that never really happened. It never got to evolve past, “hey, how are you sir, nice to see you.” We never had any problems before that. We’d only really talked one or two times before that.
