Odd Rivalries: Kevin Federline vs John Cena
Kevin Federline is mainly remembered for the brief period when he was married to Britney Spears. Still, the former backing dancer was releasing his first solo rap album in the fall of 2006 to boost sales, and he appeared on WWE television. With a very successful backup dancing career, performing alongside Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson, Pink and Destiny Child, it was clear that he didn’t feel uneasy performing inside a wrestling ring since he was an athletic and agile performer.
Known as K-Fed, Federline showed up as the guest of Johnny Nitro and Melina on the October 16th, 2006, episode of Monday Night RAW. Portrayed in the media negatively, K-Fed was immediately portrayed as a heel, which was a natural fit. With immediate effect, he verbally assaulted the crowd behind the microphone while focusing on the audience’s lack of respect for the trio and the fact they didn’t deserve to hear him rap in person.
This brought out John Cena, who was happy to insult the trio in the form of a rap. After a comment about his wife, Federline attacked Cena, with Nitro joining in on the attack. The segment's conclusion saw John Cena deliver an Attitude Adjustment to Federline.
John Cena and K-Fed from the OCT. 16, 2006 episode of Raw. Credit: WWE Network
Kevin Federline's appearance grabbed mainstream attention, achieving the goal they set themselves out to accomplish. K-Fed made another appearance on the following week’s RAW, where he accompanied King Booker to the ring, an opponent of John Cena, at the upcoming pay-per-view Cyber Sunday. With a comical line, Booker labelled Federline a treasure. John Cena, who came out to interrupt, began a verbal back-and-forth with Federline. Later in the evening, John Cena would defeat Johnny Nitro. K-Fed accompanied Nitro to ringside, where K-Fed proceeded to slap Cena.
At the following pay-per-view, Cyber Sunday, John Cena, King Booker and The Big Show fought in a champion of champions match. With the audience voting for King Booker to defend his World Heavyweight Championship, it appeared that John Cena had won the match. Still, Kevin Federline rushed into the ring, where he struck Cena with a championship belt, which cost him the match.
Kevin Federline’s reputation outside of wrestling followed him as he entered the wrestling world. Executive Producer Bruce Pritchard spoke about how his reputation was different than reality while working with K-Fed on his podcast ‘Something to Wrestle.’
“Kevin Federline was probably one of the celebrities that I had the most fun with. Because he was so cool, so happy to be there, such a big fan. And there was a little — not a little bit, there was probably a lot of fear in him. Because he knew he was out of his league and out of his element, but he was such a big fan, he was so happy to be there.
I walked into dealing with Kevin ready to hate him, because he came across like a real arrogant d–k, the way that he was portrayed in the media. All the stories about him and Britney. And when he first came to us, he was still married to Britney, and then midway through I think they got divorced and what have you. But I found Kevin, man he was on time. He did everything he was asked to do. And you said, ‘Kevin I need you to be here at such and such a time and do this.’ ‘Yes, sir!’ And he did it, he nailed it. So contrary probably to popular belief, he was really a super, super f–king guy to work with.”
K-Fed obviously was looking for any kind of promotion that he could get in a positive light and we are always looking for any kind of interaction that we can get with people that are popular at the time. K-Fed fit both of those. Britney (Spears) was never discussed. Britney was not discussed up front. I think there was a general feeling amongst those in creative that if we are good with Kevin and he likes it and it does positive things for him, then this is a great opportunity for maybe Britney to show up at an event. Down the line maybe get Britney involved in something.
There was that half that said maybe we can get Britney at some point along the way, even if it was a quick appearance on television. But K-Fed, I mean, man, everybody rolled their eyes at it. Everybody was like, oh f**k, what are we going to do with this guy? This guy walks in with an entourage with three guys. He has his own dressing room, but he wants to hang out in the hallway. He wants to hang out and go to catering. He has his spread in the dressing room and is in awe of everything around him, just absolute awe. He couldn’t have been more respectful, he couldn’t have been nicer, and cooperative. It was ‘Whatever you guys want to do, I’m up for it. You name it, I’m in. Just tell me what you want to do.’
“He would just stare like holy s**t, not believing where he was. I dare say intimated by his surroundings. John Cena is a pro. I think John saw the exact same thing that everybody else saw and this was going to get publicity. This would get people talking about things. Then when he met Kevin, he thought, ok, this guy’s alright. Kevin Federline, and I don’t for the life of me, I don’t get how this guy got such a bad reputation even beforehand because when you meet him and you work with him and you’re around him for more than 10 minutes, he is a very charming guy. He is a genuinely nice guy. I think, but he is not pretentious. He isn’t like ‘I’m a big star. Do you know who my wife is?’ None of that stuff. He was basically a guy living the dream and happy to do it. He was willing to listen and just was so thankful to be accepted into this other world.”
Following Cyber Sunday, Kevin Federline made another appearance on Monday Night RAW. On this occasion, he challenged John Cena to face him one-on-one on the New Year’s Day edition of Raw from Miami. After Cena accepted, Federline reappeared on the December 18th episode of RAW to promote the match.
In an interview with Jim Ross, he promised to overcome the odds and shock the world by defeating John Cena. Good old JR expressed his opinion on the whole storyline and experience on his podcast Grilling JR.
“The K-Fed thing was set up for he and [John] Cena to have a match on New Year’s Day. RAW that year was on January 1 and we were in Miami……it wasn’t like calling Rock and Stone Cold, I’ll tell you that. My hats off to John Cena for going along with it, pulling it out of the bottom of the ninth type deal, making it something. I guess K-Fed did a little better than some of us perceived he might. The K-Fed dates and the target being January 1 – Vince’s idea was its counterprogramming. All the football is gonna be on and we’re gonna counterprogram it. I don’t know how the ratings were on January 1, but nonetheless, Vince’s idea was to counterprogram football with sports entertainment “
On New Year’s Day, K-Fed vs John Cena opened that evening’s show with the stipulation being a No Disqualification match.
After some stalling tactics from Federline, Johnny Nitro and Umaga assisted Federline as he picked up a shocking victory over Cena. Federline would celebrate his victory throughout the show and sit on commentary for the main event as John Cena found himself in another match. After Cena cleared the ring after his match, K-Fed found himself alone with Cena. John Cena ended the celebrity’s time with WWE with an Attitude Adjustment.
K-Fed receiving an Attitude Adjustment during the January 1, 2007 episode of Raw. Credit: WWE Network
Arn Anderson worked with John Cena and Kevin Federline for their New Year’s Day match, and he spoke about the experience on his podcast.
Yep, yes sir, and it was rotten. What did anybody think it was gonna be? I flew out couple weeks beforehand with John, and we met him, Federline. Someone had a ring out there in the West Coast. For a couple of hours we tried to show him just some basics and no offence to Kevin, you just don’t walk in this business and pick it up in an afternoon. You just don’t.”
“I’ve never been a proponent of having actors come into our business. Our guys have to bow down to the freaking actors!”
Based on their lack of effort or respect for the wrestling business, there have been far worse celebrity appearances within WWE. K-Fed did make regular appearances and seemingly exceeded expectations.
In classifying this Kevin Federline experiment as a success, the result is very much undetermined. While his appearances generated mainstream attention, they never brought Britney Spears to an event. According to Nielsen Soundscan, K-Fed’s album only sold 16,000 copies in the United States.
I guess you can’t win them all.
