John Cena went into ECW One Night Stand 2006 expecting a hostile crowd, and the crowd still managed to surprise him.
During a panel at Tampa Bay Comic Convention on Friday, Cena looked back on his match with Rob Van Dam and said it remains one of his favorite environments of his entire career.
“Was I expecting a hostile crowd? There are kids here, so I’m going to mind my language. I was absolutely effing expecting a hostile crowd.”
Cena said the night became special because the crowd took ownership of the match.
“That was one of the favorite environments that I’ve ever been in. Because any time that a performance is truly property of the audience, it becomes beautiful. ECW One Night Stand was a product of all of us. I got to have a wrestling match with a t-shirt that night. So I knew they were going to be salty. I just didn’t know they were going to be that salty.”
The t-shirt moment came before the match even got going. Cena tried to throw his shirt to the fans, who kept throwing it back into the ring, and it turned into an unplanned part of the show.
ECW One Night Stand took place on June 11, 2006, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. Cena, then the WWE Champion, defended the title against Van Dam, who had cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to get the match on ECW’s home turf.
RVD won the title after Edge interfered and put Cena through a table with a Spear. Van Dam followed with the Five-Star Frog Splash, and Paul Heyman counted the pin to close out one of the most memorable nights of Cena’s career.