During his years as host on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart often took mental jabs at those he was talking about and interacting with. But on Sunday night, when he took over hosting duties for WWE’s SummerSlam pay-per-view, things definitely got physical as he blasted John Cena in the stomach with a chair. As you might have imagined, Cena didn’t take too kindly to this, and got a small slice of revenge the next night on Raw. Check it out!
When Jon Stewart hopped into the ring and allowed his previous “enemy” Seth Rollins to not only retain the WWE Heavyweight Championship belt, but also to win the U.S. belt, it seemed like a left-field writers room decision that was only meant to infuriate fans and confuse casual viewers. And while that probably was the case in more ways than not, at least Stewart himself had a solid enough reason for it: he didn’t want to see John Cena tying Ric Flair’s record of winning the Heavyweight belt 16 times in his career. Hell, there’s a part of me that feels the same way, not wanting to see the old guard get matched by the modern guard. (Cena isn’t exactly new.)
That said, you won’t find me saying that out loud in front of an audience in the same building where Cena is in attendance. Sure, it’s all “fake” and everything, but I’m still far too out of shape to properly survive Cena’s Attitude Adjustment without feeling the need to call for all the stretchers. I wonder if Rob Riggle and John Hodgman were waiting around backstage to take Stewart to the hospital if he needed it. Or at least to offer advice on shaving his stomach the next time he gets tossed around on live TV.
It still feels weird to see Stewart getting caught up in the world of the WWE, and I’m anxious to see just how long he continues to pop up. Sure, if he wants to go off and create some important films revolving around politics or other global affairs, that’d be fine. But if he wants to stick around and become Sting’s manager, now that the face-painted icon is back, we’d be perfectly okay with that, too. Maybe Stephen Amell could give him some pointers in the meantime.
