Cena reflects on match with RVD at WWE’s ECW One Night Stand 2005 PPV

John Cena looks back at one of his most famous world title matches back in 2006.

That year the Cenation leader took on Rob Van Dam at ECW One Night Stand, where he entered the Hammerstein Ballroom with a target on his back as the ruckus ECW crowd demanded that RVD win or “they riot.” Cena commented on the classic atmosphere and the talent of his opponent in a new video on TikTok.

So, here’s a moment that’s probably most talked in my career in WWE; ECW: One Night Stand. Hammerstein Ballroom against Rob Van Dam where I had a championship match against Rob and an additional match against my t-shirt. Now, I knew the crowd was going to be hostile, but hostile does not even describe the atmosphere in the Hammerstein Ballroom. They love Rob and they hate me. This was probably the peak of polarization that would leak into the WWE for years when you hear the name John Cena. It was either ‘he sucks’ or ‘he’s my guy.’ There was no one in this building saying ‘he’s my guy.’ Rob and I went back and forth and you can see kind of a non virtuous side where I begin to push the boundaries of good and evil because I was trying everything and it seemed like the world was against me. Indeed, it was. Rob’s talent absolutely shows in this match, but the world right here is against me as I’m speared through a table by Darth Vader aka my arch-nemesis Edge. Rob gets a championship moment, which is fantastic and Edge and I go on to do some incredible things in the WWE. What a night at the Hammerstein Ballroom. No one would ever call this to happen.