An independent wrestling star has opened up about her interaction with 17-time WWE World Champion John Cena during Bayley’s Lodestone Wrestling camp.
In late 2025, Bayley hosted the inaugural Lodestone Wrestling seminar in Orlando, FL – an all-women’s wrestling camp that invited rising stars from within the independent wrestling scene to perform in front of, and learn from, several notable names from within WWE.
As well as Bayley, Charlotte Flair and other female WWE stars, John Cena also showed up to impart some wisdom to the trainees, with Cena spending eight hours at the camp in total.
Reflecting on their experience at Lodestone, English independent star Safire Reed and her HYPERACTIVE tag team partner Anita Vaughn, spoke with BODYSLAM.NET and reflected on meeting Cena.
Recalling her disbelief at seeing Cena show up to Lodestone, unannounced, Reed said:
“Honestly I’m still speechless when I think about it because no one knew, no one knew other than the wrestlers that probably knew that he was coming. None of us had an idea.
“Literally I was about to get changed for my match, I said to one of the girls should I get changed? It was Lyra (Valkyria), Lyra was like ‘just give it a couple minutes.’ And then I turn around and I just see John Cena walks in and I start tearing up, I’m like ‘I need to get myself together, keep it together.’
“It was amazing because obviously it’s like boom, here’s like 10 tons of pressure, but then it was also like once you’re out there and doing your thing, it kind of goes away. Obviously having John Cena watch your match is a lot different to just feeling nervous behind the curtain. But again, once you’re in there and you’re wrestling and doing your thing you just start having fun and that pressure is kind of on again.
“It was amazing to meet your childhood hero and be able to stand there for like 20 minutes and give everyone feedback, but then have everyone sat down and he’s just sat there talking to us.
“There out of pure kindness because he wants to help the business and he wants to help us, and he wants to see everyone thrive and learn from this.
“I honestly don’t have the words but it was such an incredible thing to be a part of, especially when he is who he is and how much I still look up to him, and I’m sure everyone does.”
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Following the success of Lodestone 2025 Bayley shared an update on hosting another camp in the future – click here for full details.
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