It's Been a Decade Since John Cena Announced Osama bin Laden's Death on a WWE PPV

John Cena breaking the bin Laden news on a WWE PPV in 2011.
John Cena breaking the bin Laden news on a WWE PPV in 2011. /
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It has been a full decade since Osama bin Laden was killed by a team of Navy SEALs in a early morning raid in Pakistan. It was kind of a big deal. They made a movie about it and everything.

Well, when it happened, it was one of those moments where everyone remembers where they heard the news. Strangly, the professional wrestling world was a huge part of getting the news out. Approximately 11 minutes before President Obama adddressed the nation, The Rock tweeted about hearing shocking news that made him proud to be an America.

At 11:35pm, President Obama went on television.

And then twenty minutes later, during a WWE pay-per-view event, John Cena announced the news to the fans in attendance.

The Bin Laden news also coincided with a Mets - Phillies game on ESPN that night. As news spread through the crowd, more U-S-A chants broke out in the 9th. The game would go on for 14 innings.

Look at that crawl.

For a little more context, the third episode of Game of Thrones, "Lord Snow," had just aired on HBO and the Miami Heat had beaten the Boston Celtics, 99-90, in game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals that afternoon.

A little more than a year later, The Newsroom would take their crack at the news and make a couple pilots the first people to find out.

Even if the scene was a little too Sorkin-y, that was how people felt. You can see in this ESPN video featuring people who were at the Mets - Phillies game that night.

There was no normal way to find out about that news.