John Cena may have one of his most formidable opponents yet, as Joy Behar and The View questioned the WWE star’s recent remarks.
Earlier this week, an episode of The View presented a clip from Cena’s appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
McAfee’s show arrived after WrestleMania 41, where Cena won the major championship for a record 17th time after returning to WWE.
However, Cena’s return was labeled a retirement tour, as he seems intent on ending his WWE career and moving on to other ventures.
With that could come television and movie roles, along with other gigs that he would appear in.
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Speaking about appearance, Cena claimed the fans “bullied” him into getting a hair transplant.
The View debated Cena’s rant about ‘bullying’ over hair transplant
With a live crowd of fans seated behind them, McAfee mentioned that the WWE fans’ “hair shaming” of Cena made him better now that he has hair “growing in full” on his head.
“You chant and you make me feel small, and you embarrass me like y’all don’t know what that’s like. That’s straight up bullying and that’s just not cool,” he said, with McAfee agreeing.
“So thank you for bullying me into getting surgical hair replacement, like that’s how far y’all pushed me,” Cena added, and McAfee seemed amused.
After the clip ended, Joy Behar asked her fellow co-hosts, “Does this show that guys are as sensitive as women in some respects?”
Sunny Hostin said balding is a common issue for men by age 50, and she also thinks men are “concerned about their bellies too.”
“It’s a myth that men don’t get insecure about their looks and women, at least for all of the societal pressure and unrealistic beauty standards, we at least can do things like put on makeup and make ourselves feel a little better,” Alyssa Farah Griffin said.
“Straight men don’t really do that. You have to wake up and live in the face you have for that day,” she added.
Joy and Ana mentioned a double standard and Cena’s WWE schtick
However, Joy called out a double standard that exists, suggesting men have a “pass” when they get older with white or grey hair since people say they look “distinguished” then.
“If a woman has grey hair, they say she looks old,” Joy contended, adding, “So [men] have an advantage in a way.”
Ana Navarro suggested that Cena’s statements were “tongue in cheek” and “nobody bullied him.”
However, Sara Haines felt it was legitimate that Cena felt this way since he did so on a panel featuring other men in front of the fans.
Some of her co-hosts agreed, indicating Cena is a very charitable guy who is highly requested for Make-A-Wish, so for him to say these things may carry more weight as a public figure calling out “bullying.”
Fans slammed ‘low class’ show for an ’embarrassing’ take
In the YouTube comment section, many individuals blasted The View and the show’s co-hosts for their takes about Cena’s bullying remarks on McAfee’s show.
“Wow, I can’t believe how much they mocked him. This is extremely disappointing. Men are often told to express themselves more and John did something very rare in a setting like that and you just proved why men don’t,” a commenter wrote.
Another said, “They clearly don’t know what heel work in pro wrestling is.”
“Omg horrible example. Cena is playing a character. Omg this is embarrassing,” a commenter wrote.
Another wrote, “I clicked on this to see if John Cena actually appeared on a low class show like The View. Happpy to see he didn’t.”
Many WWE fans typically cheer for Cena as a good guy, but things changed during his return. Leading up to his big WrestleMania 41 match, he turned against the fans, suggesting they were the problem, and chastised them through speeches in the ring on WWE Raw.
After winning the championship from Cody Rhodes in nefarious fashion, Cena told fans he would retire with the championship belt to take it away from them so WWE could start over. He may have been further trolling fans in his post-WrestleMania interviews.
It’s unclear if any of Cena’s remarks during The Pat McAfee Show included genuine, heartfelt opinions from the WWE star about changing his appearance to appease fans. Still, The View and the show’s co-hosts seemed to believe so.
