John Cena on WrestleMania Proposal: Only One Other Person Knew In Advance

One of the big moments on last night’s WWE WrestleMania event in Orlando, and one designed for maximum mainstream attention, saw John Cena, the company’s biggest mainstream star, proposing to girlfriend Nikki Bella (Stephanie Nichole Garcia-Colace) in the middle of the ring. On Monday morning, Cena and Bella appeared on NBC’s The Today Show to discuss the proposal. Of particular note, Cena claimed that while telling someone in advance was a necessity, he kept it close to the vest.

“Just because the fact that it is a giant production, as Al [Roker] saw, there needed to be at least one other person who knew,” Cena explained. “I never actually would have thought that he would have proposed in front of all those people,” Bella added, “but that’s home for us. WWE is our home. It’s where we met, it’s our passion, it’s our life. So for me, it’s kind of like he’s, you know, my prince charming and he’s just saying ‘I want her to be my queen’ at our home, in front of our family. And honestly, I could not ask for it to be any other way.”

The comments from both strain credulity a bit, as they previously were involved in an ongoing narrative about Cena’s longtime hesitancy to get married. Their opponents Sunday spent several weeks on WWE’s SmackDown Live claiming that the Cena/Bella relationship was a sham with lines like “Real people in actual relationships that aren’t just for T.V. get married!”

Cena’s mother was also on hand Sunday to witness the festivities from the front row. “I slide into the ring, and I look at the massive audience, and the first person I see is my mom,” said Cena. “They probably caught it on camera, but I said ‘holy…bleep,’ and I’m like ‘That’s my mom!’”

[image via screengrab]