Last night's SmackDown took place in Dublin, Ireland, and with a red-hot crowd in attendance, John Cena and Logan Paul met in the ring for a war of words.
The 17-time WWE Champion started by acknowledging Paul's in-ring skills, and called "The Maverick" a future WWE Champion and WrestleMania main eventer. He also labelled the YouTuber a disappointment and made a point of knocking over the PRIME display at ringside, ridiculing Paul for using WWE to sell his products.
In the blistering promo, Cena declared Paul a "parasite" who only had 23 matches compared to his 23 years in the business. Naming his Clash in Paris opponent an opportunity thief, Cena said he would have much preferred to face Dominik Mysterio, AJ Styles, Seth Rollins, and Jacob Fatu.
He blamed the influencer for robbing fans of those matches and demanded that the former United States Champion bring his A-Game to the upcoming PLE.
When Paul tried getting physical with the Leader of the Cenation, he received a well-deserved Attitude Adjustment for his troubles.
Later that night, SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis caught up with Cena backstage and revealed that he'd heard from Brock Lesnar. Unfortunately, before he could say any more, Paul laid Cena out with a punch and made his escape.
The expectation is still that we'll get Cena vs. Lesnar at next month's Wrestlepalooza PLE on September 20. However, it's also possible that The Beast could make a surprise return in front of French fans at Clash in Paris.
"I’m a little disappointed in Cena personally, like as a fan and as a guy who knows him," Paul recently said of Cena's babyface turn. "I saw the heel turn and I was like, 'Alright, welcome to the bright side, you can just be yourself and people will accept you for that.'"
"But then the switch-up back to trying to be a babyface makes me feel like he’s seeking outside validation," he continued. "I loved, loved John Cena. We had a tag [team] and I got to work with him a little bit and see what he was really like. I wish he would be more like me. Just be himself."
You can see some highlights from SmackDown in the X posts below.