John Cena & The Big Reveal At The Academy Awards

This year at the Academy Awards, I was covering the show on a press pass for my film & TV outlet, Awards Daily. How this works is the show plays live on more monitors than you can shake a gold statue at (in what’s known as the Interview Room) while we in that room await the arrival of the winners, and, if we are enormously lucky (there were at least 200 of us in that space packed together like sardines), get to ask a question or two.

It’s a strange gig in that you are sort of covering two events at once—the televised stage show and then the backstage area too. So, there I was, live-blogging, trying to be of two minds throughout, when the award for Best Costumes was about to be announced. My eyes were switching from the monitors to the staging area where someone was taking questions. I say “someone” because once former professional wrestler (and surprisingly solid actor) John Cena took the stage wearing only an envelope, the interview room stopped cold. First came shock, mouths agape, and then uproarious laughter followed.

Cena, still sporting a body that could repel armor-piercing bullets, sidled his way onto center stage, looking hysterically uncomfortable (like I said, he’s a solid actor) and waxed poetic about the importance of costumes while wearing nothing more than the one he was born in. Okay, that’s not entirely true; he was wearing impossibly tight flesh-colored briefs. And when I say they were “impossibly tight,” let’s just say that a straight on shot would have revealed his religion. He was also allowed sandals, but let’s just say that was a lot of Cena onstage.

The bit was not only funny as a sight gag or a play on irony (having a naked man present Best Costumes) but also incredibly charming. When Cena expressed concern about opening the envelope in his exposed state, both the front and the back of the house was brought down again.

You have to hand it to Cena. It’s one thing to be that good-natured in presenting an award sans clothes, but he also deserves enormous credit for making it work as more than a gag. I know it’s going to be difficult for Cena to ever top the post-wrestling film career of The Rock, but on this night, when The Rock also got a turn on the mic during the show, Cena upstaged the GOAT.

David Phillips

David Phillips has been writing on boxing for just over a decade for The Sweet Science and NY Fights. He runs his own blog dedicated to the appreciation of classic and overlooked films, reelreframe.com, and writes on film and television for Awards Daily. His essay “My Black Grandpa” was shortlisted as “Best of Folklore” by The Bitter Southerner in 2018. Author of Goodnight to the Peoples. You can follow David on Twitter @BrotherJulius83

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