Watch: MS Dhoni becomes John Cena, uses WWE legend's iconic gesture to turn down DRS request during LSG vs CSK IPL tie

MS Dhoni kept the Indian cricket-WWE association strong when he pulled off John Cena's move while keeping wicket during the IPL 2023 match between LSG and CSK.

The great MS Dhoni pulled a leaf out of John Cena's book to deny a DRS request to his bowler during Wednesday's IPL 2023 match between Lucknow Super Giants and Chennai Super Kings at the Ekana stadium. LSG are back in action since the infamous Virat Kohli-Gautam Gambhir spat and Dhoni ensured he took some attention away from the fracas from 2 days ago by first, making a blockbuster statement on his IPL future and then stealing the show by recreating Super Cena's iconic gesture.

Did MS Dhoni just...? (Screengrab)

Indian cricketers' fascination with WWE is nothing new. Kohli is the most evident of the lot, often using famous catchphrases during matches. KKR's Venkatesh Iyer is another youngster who is pretty captivated by the WWE as his social media accounts would indicate. Even the WWE has been pretty vocal towards its support towards Indian cricket. They presented Mumbai Indians with a custom-made championship belt when they won the IPL title for the fifth time in 2020 and very recently wished Sachin Tendulkar on his 50th birthday with the legendary Triple H sending his best for SRT.

And today, Dhoni kept the Indian cricket-WWE association strong while keeping wicket. The incident took place in the sixth over when Maheesh Theekshana rapped LSG opener Manan Vohra on the pads. After a huge appeal ensued but umpire Anil Choudhary remained unmoved, the CSK spinner felt the call was closer than many expected. He then turned to Dhoni… because, well… who better than him to take the DRS, but this time around, the CSK captain wasn't quite convinced and informed the same to Theekshana.

But how did he do it? By using Cena's epic 'You can't see me' catchphrase. Not sure if Dhoni used those words, but he surely shook his hands in front of his face. Now, it could well be a way to demonstrate that he didn't exactly see where the ball impacted and that his view might have been compromised, but at that moment, Dhoni's act had Cena vibes written all over him.

Watch the video below:

Cena's 'You can't see me' is a phrase that has been synonymous with his 21-year-long WWE career. When Cena debuted his 'Doctor of Thuganomics' gimmick in early 2002, he started using it. Two decades later, as Cena successfully inspired a whole generation of wrestling fans, it remains one of the most common and famous gestures and has even become the butt of several jokes and centre of endless memes.

During his appearance on The Graham Norton Show some years back, Cena revealed that his popular 'you can't see me' originated with him watching the music video of the hit pop number 'In Da Club'. It was in fact a dance step that was showcased in 50 Cent's video, which Cena picked up. He explained his brother had imitated the dance from the music video, where Tony Yayo bops his head with his hand in front of his face.

His brother had said, "It looked like it's ridiculous". Cena added "He goes, no man, Tony Yayo does this thing. And I'm like, I'll do it on TV, And he's like, 'I dare you to do it on TV.'" While adding more about the dare, Cena added, "And now for 15 years, I have been doing this because of a dare".