Should The New York Crowd Feel Regret Booing John Cena at WWE’s ECW: One Night Stand 2006?

John Cena received one of the loudest negative reactions during his appearance at the 2006 ECW: One Night Stand event and the fans in the Hammerstein Ballroom might possibly be regretting their actions today.
John Cena has become one of the biggest names in WWE history. Following his debut in 2002, he channeled his inner Ruthless Aggression and became a popular character during that time. He ascended to the main event after his win over JBL at WrestleMania 21 and won his first WWE Championship. This began Cena’s road to becoming the next franchise player in the business.
However, one important pitstop on that road came at the one-night resurrection event of the hardcore brand of the 1990s, ECW. WWE announced that they would bring back the event after its success in 2005 which would be the start of the third brand of the company.
John Cena was the reigning WWE Champion at the time and received an interesting challenge in the weeks leading up to the event. Former ECW star and then-RAW member Rob Van Dam was the holder of the Money in the Bank briefcase. He came out on an episode of Monday Night RAW to announce that he would be cashing in on his contract at the ECW: One Night Stand event.
Rob Van Dam made the strategic move due to his popularity with the hardcore ECW fans for his past tenures. Moreover, fans slowly began to turn against John Cena at the time. However, The Champ was ready to face all odds.
The match was scheduled to be the main event of the show. Rob Van Dam received massive cheers from the fans in the old venue of ECW shows, the Hammerstein Ballroom in Philidelphia. However, as soon as John Cena’s music hit, he was showered with a loud chorus of boos and profane comments.

The ECW fans in attendance did not hold back in their quest to break Cena’s confidence with the loud, negative reactions. Moreover, Cena even did his signature, T-Shirt throwing in the crowd, only to have it thrown back to him.
It was perhaps one of the biggest sights of disrespect shown to any WWE superstar, especially towards the one who changed the business and became the face of the company. Moreover, it possibly left a bad taste in John Cena’s mouth for ECW and also led to him dropping the WWE title to RVD, with a little assistance from Edge.

With John Cena currently embarking on his Farewell tour set to retire at the end of 2025 and garnering the biggest positive reactions than ever, surely those ECW fans might have also joined the Cena bandwagon after showing him massive disrespect in 2006 to eliminate the regret they might possibly have.
Also read: WWE Superstar John Cena Names The Three Big Losses in His Wrestling Career and Why They Had to Happen