John Cena has Logan Paul all hot under the collar and angry at everyone and everything.
Cena meets Paul at WWE’s Clash in Paris as part of his epic year-long retirement tour.
Away from the storyline-driven world of professional wrestling, Cena has long been an admirer of the influencer turned wrestler’s talents.
Regularly advocating for his spot in the grappling world to be legitimised by fans, Cena is one of several top WWE stars to be quietly won over by the trash-talking YouTube star.
In the high-speed soap opera world that is WWE, however, the two men, firmly in character to do not like each other at all.
Earlier in 2025, the pair were briefly allies in a tag team storyline, tangling with Jey Uso and Cody Rhodes at Money in the Bank.
As quickly as that alliance forged on screen, it was in tatters within weeks with the pair at odds and each other’s throats.
That set the table for their eventual showdown, with Clash in Paris confirmed as the stage.
Marketed as one of the biggest bouts of Cena’s farewell tour, the match pits veteran against upstart in a story built on mistrust and resentment.
To build the match, Cena and Paul stood toe to toe in Ireland last week as WWE brought one of its flagship shows, SmackDown, overseas.
Live on Netflix, the two stars traded some fairly heavy blows – Cena blasting Paul as a ‘disappointment’, while the relative youngster talked up his own achievements and his desire to be accepted in the grappling universe.
Things turned physical, of course, with Cena laying out Paul in the ring before Paul returned the favour backstage at the end of the show.
Logan Paul erupts with furious rant aimed at Cena and McGregor
Prowling backstage minutes later and filming content for his own YouTube channel, the 30-year-old was spitting with rage.
In a newly released video, he attacked Cena and seemingly all wrestling fans – even managing a dig at Conor McGregor in the process.
Pacing back and forth, he fumed: “People are stupid, bro, so stupid – especially the Irish.
“I’ve decided I hate this city [but] what do you expect in Dublin? That’s why I said: everyone’s a drunk, washed-up failure – including Conor McGregor.”
Paul eyed the camera directly when naming McGregor as a pointed jab at the MMA icon, but his ire soon turned back to the business at hand – Cena.
“John Cena says I take from the WWE, yeah right. Do you know many f****** moments I’ve given these people? How many impressions I’ve given this company?
“Why do you think I’m hired? Seriously, why do you think I have a job here? They now know I’m a great wrestler, that’s why I still have a job.
“Why I was hired is to reach people who don’t watch WWE. Yes, at one point I was an outsider, but for him to tell people [that] I take from this industry? The f****** audacity, bro.”
Cena and Paul will settle their storyline differences in the ring and will no doubt stay tight behind the WWE scenes, but his punch out at McGregor is likely to sting a little longer.
What happened to Conor McGregor’s fight with Logan Paul?
The Paul brothers have a long history of calling out McGregor, dating back to 2017 when Logan openly mused about facing him and Jake regularly baited him on social media.
Their names were constantly tied to the former UFC champion during the early YouTube boxing boom, as they looked to legitimise themselves by chasing the sport’s biggest crossover star.
In late 2024, McGregor even entered preliminary agreements for an exhibition boxing match with Logan Paul, though the UFC ultimately blocked it from happening.
Then, at the start of 2025, McGregor turned his attention to Jake Paul directly, appearing alongside both brothers in Washington but promising to “slap the head off” them in typically brash and, dare we say it, WWE fashion.