A Facebook (FB) post by a Bangladeshi man that gained traction among Filipinos has claimed that wrestler John Cena was killed in a car accident.
Not true. In fact, a week after the death hoax was published, Cena fought in the Aug. 21 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Summer Slam event and lost to fellow wrestler Roman Reigns.
Snopes, back in 2016, fact-checked a similar death hoax about Cena. Fact-checking organization Fact Crescendo and Agence France-Presse in Thailand also debunked a rumor this month about Cena allegedly dying from COVID-19.
The fake post published on Aug. 15 was captioned: “(OUR MAN JOHN CENA)was involved in accident Yesterday and he is died.our man JOHN CENA RIP.pls pray for him may her soul rest in perfect Peace (sic).”
With it was a photo set that included manipulated images and photos taken out of context. One of these was a grayscale photo of Cena that is at least 10 years old, edited to bear out the text, “RIP 1977-2021.”
Another made it look like Cena was lying in a casket, using a manipulated 2019 funeral photo of American street performer Christopher Dennis. Photos of Dennis in picture frames flanking a casket were overlaid with two photos of the wrestler: one captured during a film event and another during a wrestling match.
Netizens pointed out the photo’s poor editing in the comments section, with one user calling it “ugly” and “unconvincing.”
The images taken out of context include:
- a screen capture showing WWE wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson touching the casket of his father, Rocky Johnson. The original video was uploaded Feb. 8, 2020 on The Rock’s official Instagram account;
- a picture of Cena in a hospital bed being kissed by former girlfriend and wrestler Nikki Bella before an elbow surgery, uploaded Nov. 18, 2013 by E! Online;
- a photo of Cena in a hospital bed with Bella and hospital staff by his bedside, also from the E! Online article;
- a photo of mourners looking at the casket of the late American congressman John Lewis during his funeral on July 30, 2020 taken by an Associated Press photographer;
- a photo showing WWE wrestler Mark Henry as a pallbearer of the late American actor Michael Clarke Duncan, as shown in a Sept. 11, 2012 article by the Associated Press; and
- a photo of a road crash posted on a website in 2010.
The death hoax on Cena got over 400 reactions, 150 comments, and 1,000 shares on FB. Several people of different nationalities reiterated in the comment section that the wrestler is still alive.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
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