One of John Cena’s most popular Hollywood roles came about because a different WWE legend passed on the job.
During an appearance on The Howard Stern Show, director James Gunn said Dave Bautista — who he worked with on Guardians of the Galaxy — was his first choice to play Peacemaker in the Suicide Squad movie. With Bautista being offered other roles that were better financial options, Gunn moved on to Cena.
“It was Dave Bautista, who’s a good friend of mine,” Gunn said about his first choice for Peacemaker. “Obviously, he plays Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy. And I wrote the character of Peacemaker for him and we offered him the role, but he was offered two other movies and we weren’t paying him a lot, and so he had to go where the money was.
“And I had always been a fan of John since Trainwreck especially. I thought he was so, so funny in that movie that I met with him. We talked. We became instant, instant friends. And since then, I’ve worked with him more than any other actor.”
The Peacemaker character — which originated in DC Comics — has been spun off into its own HBO Max show starring Cena. Season two of the series is currently airing.
Gunn praised Cena as a fantastic guy and fantastic actor and said they’ll be doing more projects together on top of what they’ve already done.
Bautista had his final WWE match in 2019. While the temptation to come out of retirement is there, he knows his time in the ring is over and refuses to tarnish the great ending his career had.
The end of Cena’s in-ring career is only three months away. He has eight WWE appearances on his retirement tour, which will conclude on Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13.
In the first segment of Monday’s Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez shared some news regarding the second season of John Cena’s Peacemaker and the casting of Andy Kaufman for a possible new season of Dark Side of the Ring.
Peacemaker filming
Alvarez reported that the second season of HBO Max’s breakout show featuring Cena’s Peacemaker character from the DC Universe is being filmed now.
Alvarez opined that is why Cena didn’t announce he would be at this month’s SummerSlam when he did his special Raw appearance to celebrate his 20 years in the company, rather saying he would return soon.
It’s expected the new season will debut in 2023.
Andy Kaufman
On Sunday’s Wrestling Observer Radio, Alvarez and Dave Meltzer had a discussion about Dark Side of the Ring and were unsure whether the show would return for a fourth season.
On Monday’s WOL, Alvarez said he was not sure if the series is filming now, but he has seen a casting notice for a Vice show that is being directed by Dark Side of the Ring co-creator Jason Eisener. One of the characters they are looking to cast is Andy Kaufman.
The late comedian was involved in a famous 1982 angle in Memphis, Tennessee, with Jerry Lawler. The storyline partially played out on Late Night with David Letterman and Memphis wrestling shows and was part of the 1998 Man on the Moon movie on Kaufman’s life.
It’s possible the character(s) may be cast for the Dwayne Johnson Seven Bucks Productions series on the territories that Dark Side co-creators Evan Husney and Eisener are working on for Vice.
No fourth season has officially been announced for the popular series.
John Cena’s Peacemaker series is returning to HBO Max for a second season.
Ahead of the show’s season one finale, Cena and series creator James Gunn announced that Peacemaker has officially been picked up for season two. Gunn will direct and write all of the season two episodes.
In addition to starring in the HBO Max series, Cena also played the Peacemaker character in last year’s The Suicide Squad movie. The final episode of Peacemaker season one premieres at 3 a.m. Eastern time/midnight Pacific overnight tonight.
“I am incredibly honored and humbled by the response to Peacemaker and the experience of playing this character,” Cena said in a statement. “Thank you to James Gunn, Peter Safran, HBO Max, the crew, and my castmates who worked tirelessly to make this unforgettable series.”
“Creating Peacemaker has been one of the true highlights of my life, both professionally and otherwise, with John Cena and the incredible creative team around me, as well as our partners at HBO Max,” Gunn said. “To have something we all love so much be loved by the audience in turn has been a wonderful experience. I can’t wait for folks to see where Team Peacemaker goes in Season Two!”
Cena returned to the WWE ring last summer for a run that included facing Roman Reigns at SummerSlam. While promoting season one of Peacemaker last month, Cena appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and was asked if he’ll be returning to WWE for this year’s WrestleMania. Cena said he doesn’t know if he’s going to be able to make WrestleMania, but he isn’t done with WWE by a long shot.
“WrestleMania is usually in the cusp of late March, early April. I don’t know if I’m going to make it this year. That’s a good conundrum to have because there’s a lot of good opportunities coming up, which I would love to take. And if all those things line up, I don’t know if I’ll be able to make WrestleMania,” Cena said.
“But I will tell you and everybody out there watching, I’m not done with WWE by a long shot. That’s my home, I love it. I was able to go back during the summer for a few months and entertain audiences when they welcomed audiences back to arenas. So, I’ve far from had my last performance.”
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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
We have two shows up on the site, a Friday night show covering AEW and WWE from Friday as well as a Saturday night show covering the fallout and all the weekend news. We’ll be back Monday night covering Raw and the G-1 A block finals.
The A block G-1 finals are at 5 a.m. Monday morning from the Yokohama Budokan:
Satoshi Kojima vs. Great O’Khan non-tournament
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Toru Yano
Shingo Takagi vs. Yujiro Takahashi
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tanga Loa
Kota Ibushi vs. KENTA
Ibushi, KENTA, Sabre and Takagi are all 6-2. If there is a tie in the standings at 7-2, the key match results to determine the winner are that Takagi lost to Ibushi and Sabre but beat KENTA. Sabre lost to KENTA but beat Ibushi and Takagi.
Regarding the ratings from Friday, the numbers and demos for the complete shows should be out about 4 p.m. Eastern but the quarters will likely be out a few hours later and minute-by-minute not until Tuesday. The Dynamite numbers from last night will be out Tuesday morning.
We’re doing a few weekend polls. The first is for Friday–What company presented the best overall product and what was the best match of the night to [email protected] Also we’re doing a poll on the A block finals from Yokohama, thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match.
We’re also looking for reports from WWE last night in Rio Rancho, NM and tonight in El Paso, TX, as well as New Japan tonight in Philadelphia to [email protected]
Thanks to Travis L, Brandon Botah, Jorge Camacho and Eddie T for reports on shows this past weekend.
Nothing from Friday, nor yesterday’s UFC cracked the Google charts. The only stuff for the week was boxer Mickey Garcia was No. 18 yesterday with 50,000 searches; Joe Rogan was No. 7 on Thursday with his crackpot theories on COVID with 200,000, and Chuck Liddell was No 14 on Monday with 50,000. Liddell filed for divorce Friday from wife Heidi.
Right now the planned main events for the 12/26 show in Madison Square Garden are Big E vs. Bobby Lashley for the WWE title and Becky Lynch vs Bianca Belair.
Chris Jericho said that Junior Dos Santos was a natural at this. He said that they trained with him for one hour on Friday and that was it. This was a Tony Khan idea of using ATT as a heel group with Dan Lambert. Dos Santos did great for someone with no training in his first match Paige VanZant has come across as a real heel star the last two nights.
People were raving about the Pac vs. Andrade match that was taped last night and airs on television this coming Friday. Most called it the best match in Rampage history or the second best to Nick Jackson vs. Bryan Danielson. Keep in mind the first episode of Rampage was the first Kenny Omega vs. Christian Cage match.
Bellator last night had a show in Phoenix where Vadim Nemkov dominated Julius Anglickas to retain the light heavyweight title, finishing via Kimura at 4:24 of the fourth round. In the other light heavyweight Grand Prix tournament match, Corey Anderson dropped Ryan Bader right away and won with punches on the ground at :51 of the first round. Anderson faces Nemkov for the title and a $1 million tournament Grand Prix final at a date not yet announced. Brent Primus likely earned a lightweight title match by beating Benson Henderson 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.
Gabriel Kidd has returned to New Japan, and did a promo talking about spending 18 months at the New Japan dojo during the pandemic and how that led to issues in communicating with his family. Kidd said that, in May, he wound up on top of a building with the thought of jumping off, but the two things that stopped him were the love of his mom and pro wrestling and how he had been picturing this moment of returning for a while now.
WWE
The 12/27 Raw show will be from Detroit.
OTHER NOTES
Impact will be airing a Daffney tribute show on Thursday at 10 p.m. on AXS.
Defy Wrestling from Thursday night in Los Angeles: Kevin Blackwood b Yuya Uemura, Super Panda won three-way over Jordan Oasis and Adriel Noctus, Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf b Matt Vandergriff & Titus Alexander, Eddie Kingston b Rocky Romero, Viva Van b Sandra Moone, Christopher Daniels b Daniel Garcia, Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl b Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs. Sean Waltman and Damian 666 were at the show. Next show is 10/19 in Seattle at Washington Hall with Homicide and Jacob Fatu, and 11/20 in Seattle headlined by Tom Lawlor vs. Jon Moxley.
Insane Wrestling Revolution from Thursday night in Monroe, MI: Sam Beale b Bryan Castle, Kenny Urban b Nate Bock, Aaron Orion & Jack Price b DBA & Mysterious Movado, Alex Cluckey b Ben Boone, Shane Douglas & Dread King Logan b Rhino & Tommy Dreamer, Rod Lee b Dr. X, Trey Miguel b N8 Mattson, Trey Miguel b Kenny Urban, Trey Miguel b Malcolm Monroe,Trey Miguel b Sam Beale, Trey Miguel b Madman Fulton. Next show is 12/29 at the FOP Hall in on-roe with Trey Miguel vs. Petey Williams, Rhino& Dreamer vs. Chinstrap Jesus & Nate Bock plus Konnor of The Ascension and John E. Bravo (thanks to Leonard Brand)
EPW from Western Australia last night before more than 400 fans: Gavin McGavin b Kaz Jordan, Marcius Pitt b Edith Night, Cut Throat and The Some b Dan Moore, Michael Morleone b Joel Hagam, Aaron Hawk b Jesse Lambert, Damian Slater b Robby Heart, Bruno Nitro b Chris L Lazareth, Julian Ward b Davis Storm. Told the main event was great. Lambert got a big reaction Next show is 11/27. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
SICW from last night in East Carondelet, IL: Waco b David Lee Walker, Big Texan & Ax Allwardt b Shawn Santel & Mauler McDarby-DQ, Danny Dollar b Rick Ruby, Bobby D b Superstar Steve Fender, Gary Jackson DCOR Kowalski, Flash Flanagan & Jason Breed b Ken Kasa in a handicap match to win the tag titles, Attila Khan b Gil Rogers. (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)
Memphis Wrestling over the weekend did an angle where Shane Russell, the son of Lance Russell, was attacked. Crazzy Steve and The Boogeyman are at today’s tapings.
