Why Kenny Dykstra Blames John Cena For Ruining His WWE Career

John Cena might finally have turned on fans, and since this week's episode of "WWE Raw" Cena promises to "ruin wrestling" for fans, but over the years he's been accused by many of sabotaging their careers. One prominent example of this is former Spirit Squad leader Kenny Dykstra, who seemed poised for a breakout like Nic Nemeth (Dolph Ziggler), only to falter and essentially be forgotten by most fans.

As a part of the Spirit Squad, Dykstra saw the most success in WWE, winning the World Tag Team Championships a single time, as well as being in a feud with D-Generation X before the faction was broken up. Similarly to Nemeth, Dykstra underwent a repackaging and entered into the midcard as a singles talent; however, it would be his real-life relationship with Mickie James that reportedly led to his career in WWE taking a nosedive. 

According to contemporary reports, Dykstra found out about an affair between James & Cena when he caught her franticly searching through online rumors concerning the two, eventually breaking down and confessing to him. He then heard more rumors from others, further confirming James' claims. Following his discovery, Dykstra was transferred from "RAW" — where Cena was at the time — to "SmackDown," which he claims was something that the "Champ" facilitated through politicking. Dykstra then languished on "SmackDown" before being released from WWE in November 2008.

During an exchange on X, years ago, Kenny Dykstra spilled all the dirt he had on Mickie James and John Cena, recalling the episode that led to him finding out as well as the aforementioned move to "SmackDown." However, the former Spirit Squad leader then claimed that the push James got at the time, including her winning championship gold, was because of her newfound association with Cena. However, things wouldn't end too well for James despite being the face of the women's division for a while.

According to Dykstra, James had hopes for a serious relationship with Cena, who instead ended up getting married to his high-school sweetheart, Liz Huberdeau, leading to a backstage episode when James couldn't deal with Cena's decision to pick someone else. By November 2009, James — like Dykstra — was moved from "Raw" to "SmackDown," where she had to deal with the unfortunate "Piggy James" storyline, and her eventual release by April 2010.

Looking back at his career, Dykstra also made the claim that he was poised for an Intercontinental Championship run, suggesting that WWE once saw the same potential in him they saw in Nemeth. Interestingly, by 2016, Dykstra returned to WWE for a brief tenure alongside fellow Spirit Squad member Mike Mondo in an angle with Nemeth. Since 2021, Dykstra has been working with WWE, mainly in the Performance Center, where he coaches and produces, and has appeared occasionally as an official to break up stars from brawling during rivalries.