Three years ago during a WWE live event tour in India, Giovanni Vinci and Ludwig Kaiser of Imperium had the chance to face John Cena and Seth Rollins in tag team motion. Imperium got the possibility to most important event the show together with standing toe-to-toe with Cena, and through a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet on “Insight,” Vinci opened up in regards to the only time in his profession that he wrestled the 17-time World Champion.
“Man, it was such a surreal moment. It was announced that Cena was going to be on that show in India and it was sort of last minute. It was sort of thrown together. It was announced that Seth and Cena against Ludwig and I on the time, and I let you know that was the loudest response I’ve ever heard in my life. Like that constructing or the ground was vibrating. It was shaking after we were standing there. He did his entrance after which it’s almost such as you wear an actual life VR, those virtual reality things,” he explained. “He gets the tag and I get the tag, I’m like ‘Okay wrestling John Cena now.’ Crazy moment, like obviously you wish to still be skilled like 99% but that 1% behind your mind is like ‘Oh that is cool.'”
It has been well documented that Cena preferred to call a lot of his matches within the ring with little preparation beforehand, and his match against Imperium in India was no different, as Vinci claimed that almost all of the competition was improvised. In February 2025, Vinci was released from WWE after breaking off from Imperium and a short-lived singles run.
In the event you use any of the quotes in this text, please credit “Insight” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.