John Cena: Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins Doing Great Job Without Live WWE Audiences

John Cena praised Bray Wyatt and Seth Rollins for their work during the promotion's fanless era amid the COVID-19 pandemic to Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated.  

"Bray is obviously doing a great job," Cena said. "And Seth Rollins has done an unbelievable job of adapting to a crowdless environment."

Cena and Wyatt worked together on the Firefly Fun House match for WrestleMania 36. Rollins, who has been going by the Monday Night Messiah persona since last year, is working a program with Rey Mysterio Jr.

All Superstars have tackled the challenge of performing without live audiences, and Cena acknowledged that WWE programming has taken on a different feel sans fans: "I've always said that the most important superstar is the audience. I don't think we've ever seen a better indication of that than right now. The program is different."

However, Cena remained optimistic about WWE's programming until live fans can safely return to arenas while also acknowledging the obstacles that lie ahead:

"I firmly believe that not only will it survive, it will thrive, but it has to, as an entirety, embrace this process. I believe they're beginning to do that. The longer they go without an audience, they need to transform as an entirety what sports entertainment is. I think they're in this weird sort of middle ground, where they don't know when crowds will be let back in. If you truly commit to a paradigm shift, that may scare away the normalcy the viewers are used to seeing. So you kind of have to operate like there is an audience, but there isn't an audience.

"It's a very weird time. I don't think they've committed to transition yet, and that's absolutely justifiable because, eventually, people will be let back into turnstiles. It's very complicated. There isn't a clear-cut answer to be like, 'Just do this and it will be better.'"

WWE has been forced to forge ahead without audiences since March due to COVID-19, with shows taking place at its performance center in Orlando, Florida.

Of note, WrestleMania was held without fans for the first time since the event's inception in 1985.

WWE has been forced to get creative, but it has resulted in some entertaining television.

Of note, Blake Oestriecher of Forbes said that "WWE had two almost universally acclaimed hits at WrestleMania 36 in The Undertaker vs. AJ Styles in a Boneyard Match and the Firefly Fun House match."

During his angle with Randy Orton Jr. leading into their WrestleMania 36 match, Edge adopted the practice of speaking directly into the camera, breaking the fourth wall to connect with fans watching on television.

Edge spoke about that in an April episode of WWE Backstage:

"Before the first promo I did, it was an in-ring promo. And I looked at our camera guy and I said, 'OK, I'm coming right down the barrel' [first-person shot].

"And he went, 'What?' And I said, 'Yeah. I gotta come down the barrel.' And that was when that decision was made in my mind that I have to go straight to camera, straight to Randy and in essence to the audience.

"And that was fun, you know. I really just treated it like it was a monologue in theater or maybe an audition. And that was a lot of fun. That I think to me has been the most rewarding part of it so far.

"You know you always want your audience. I miss the audience, I miss that interaction and that instant gratification. But we're getting to delve into some different areas that we normally don't get to go to, and that to me is finding a different area of the craft, and that's fun."

WWE also held its Money in the Bank match at its headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, which featured fighting in WWE CEO Vince McMahon's office.

SuperStars have also been ringside cheering or booing their fellow wrestlers behind plexiglass.

The next big WWE event will be SummerSlam, which will be held Sunday, Aug. 23 at the WWE Performance Center. At least six titles will be on the line, including Sasha Banks vs. Asuka for the Raw Women's World title and Braun Strowman vs. Wyatt for the WWE Universal Championship.