John Cena's cameo on ‘The Bear’ crushed by critics: why that's wrong

The newly-retiring WWE superstar stormed into the fake Chicago restaurant. We dug it. Others, not so much.

John Cena during Wrestlemania Night 1 at SoFi Stadium. / Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

John Cena announcing his retirement from the WWE isn't the most talked-about Cena debate. It's his controversial cameo on "The Bear."

We can all agree that “The Bear” is the greatest piece of television about a dysfunctional, Chicago-based, family-run restaurant in the history of the medium. 

Okay, “The Bear” is the only television show about a dysfunctional, Chicago-based, family-run restaurant in the history of the medium, but you get the point.

On season three, episode five of the justifiably acclaimed series, wrestler-turned-author-turned-thespian John Cena rolled into chef Carmy “The Bear” Berzatto’s eponymous eatery, playing the role of Sammy Fak, one of the series’ many, many Faks.

People who get paid to pontificate about TV weren’t impressed.

Men’s Health wrote that Cena, “...felt out of tune with the rest of the show,” while Indie Wire went snarky, saying, “[Some] have compared the moment to the awkward meme-ability sometimes characteristic of television written by A.I.” The Washington Post cited Cena’s guest shot as the most distracting cameo of the season, kvetching, “Wrestling fans like me will always be distracted by seeing the 16-time world champion on the screen, particularly when his character is so very, very Cena-like.” Finally, The Ringer’s Van Latham was just nasty, citing Cena’s appearance as, “...abominable.”

Yikes.

Our team, on the other hand, feels that Cena – who, over the past 18-ish years, has demonstrated a deft comic touch in such vehicles as Barbie, Trainwreck, and Blockers – crushed it. From the moment he burst into the restaurant’s dining room, Cena/Sammy demonstrated a tangible joy in psychologically torturing his fictional brothers, Neal and Ted, dropping plenty of insults and blowing plenty of cigarette smoke…and it was straight-up hilarious.

So we’re remaining on Team Cena, in part because he’s good at comedy, and forthcoming "Jackpot" – which premieres on August 15 – looks pretty darn funny. As far as we’re concerned, the more Sammy Fak, the better.

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