It wouldn’t be a WrestleMania without John Cena, right? The former 16-time world champion made an appearance last night on the show of shows reprising his old Dr. of Thuganomics gimmick which set his early WWE days on fire.

Cena, coming out with a NY Yankees shirt with the #3 of Babe Ruth, interrupted Elias who was about to give his own WrestleMania concert. Cena rapped while dissing Elias, saying WWE stands for Wasted Wrestling Experiment for him. He closed the segment by hitting Elias with a mic, the five-knuckle shuffle, and the FU. This was Cena of 2004 rather than the Cena we came to know over the last few years.

Talking backstage following the segment, John Cena said that he wanted to do something as a surprise for the fans and a bit of entertainment and while he wasn’t supposed to be on the show originally, he immediately said yes to the idea when they brought it up to him.

“And I know I kind of look ridiculous and I’m in the 2004 way back machine, but I think it was really special and it was done all in the good heart of entertainment. I thought Elias put on a really creative performance, and I didn’t want to take a ton of time away from the event or the Superstars who have earned a chance to go out there, and do what they do,” Cena said.

He said that even though they were just there for a few minutes, it was awesome for him to be in front of the crowd and delivering on the surprise.

“So, that’s my one rabbit out of the hat, and I don’t know what I’m going to do after this, but I just wrapped a movie on Thursday. So, I didn’t want to do anything via satellite, I didn’t want to do nothing and not be here, but I was here and I was on the event, and they recommended me to do this and I thought it was a great idea.”

WORD LIFE!