John Cena touted a rising WWE NXT star as one to watch in 2018, but his career in the company didn’t pan out that way.
Before Cena’s 2025 WWE retirement tour, the 17-time champion was the face of the company for nearly two decades.
Cena often held a watchful eye over the rising WWE stars, and even helped put over the likes of CM Punk and Bryan Danielson during their early days in the company.
Asked who he was excited about in WWE NXT in 2018, Cena opted for a star who ended up being fired three years later.
John Cena tipped Velveteen Dream for huge WWE success in 2018
At a MegaCon panel in 2018, Cena was asked which WWE NXT star he’d most like to work with out of Adam Cole, Ricochet, and Velveteen Dream.
The 17-time champion didn’t hesitate to name Dream and even named him as a natural successor to his role as face of the company.
“You know how in the Star Wars movies the old Jedis can look at the rookie Jedis and be like, ‘I think that’s the one’?” Cena asked the crowd in attendance.
“I kinda have a weird, odd midichlorian feeling about Velveteen Dream. I think there’s something special there.”
This, of course, didn’t work out the way Cena had planned. Dream was let go by WWE in 2021 after five months of inactivity on the roster.
Interestingly, the other two men Cena was asked about didn’t land a huge role on the WWE main roster either.
Ricochet had the best go of it, winning several mid-card championships on the main roster, before leaving for AEW in 2024. The star is yet to win a title in Tony Khan’s company.
Adam Cole looked set to become WWE’s next big star after a monstrous run in NXT, but Vince McMahon never truly backed him. The star is also in AEW and main evented All In with MJF in front of over 80,000 fans.
Why did John Cena tip Velveteen Dream for success?
While Cena’s prediction looks laughable now, there was a time when Dream looked set to become a huge star.
He won the NXT North American Championship in WWE NXT and held the belt for over 200 days after beating Johnny Gargano for the title.
He was also awarded Rivalry of the Year by the company for his excellent programme with Aleister Black in 2017.
Things turned sour for Dream during the later stages of his six years with WWE, but it’s easy to see why Cena was so hot on the star.