John Cena was interviewed on the Notsam Wrestling podcast. We have some transcribed highlights below but be sure to scroll down to hear the entire interview.
John Cena on working with Austin Theory:
“Austin (Theory) is great and easy to work with. We wrote that together. He was in every step of the process. There comes a point where, you know, sometimes people need creative solitude. So like, I’m gonna go away and write my thing and then come back and run it by you and see if it’s okay, and there are some guys who are just like, ‘See you out there.'”
“I can dress for weddings or funerals. Just tell me what color suit to wear. I respect everyone’s process, but I do know from all my experience, if you do not have something they care about, you do not have something. That’s it. So my job is to make them care. This is not a process that I just do with Austin Theory. If you track back, and I’ve missed a bunch of times, too. I’ve tried to care. I’ve been too quirky at times. I tried to be funny and failed, but I’m trying. I’m always trying to make you care. That’s been the way since I was doing raps. People would want to hear the lines and then people wouldn’t want to hear the lines. It was like, yeah, you can do your rap thing. I’m just gonna kick the crap out of you in the ring. Fine. That doesn’t matter. What matters is me making them connect and believe because if they believe then maybe they laugh, then they feel sad for me when he kicks the crap out of me. Then I can get away with something like, my ethos is persistence because years from now people gonna be like, ‘Yeah, that’s actually kind of what he does. He just keeps showing up. He’s just here a lot.”
On him mentioning to the Rock on TV that he had notes written on his forearm building up their WrestleMania XXVIII match:
“I’d like to think that I gave every chance to speak my best. The thing with our matchup and I think the thing that some people might not have seen was it is supposed to be Michael Jordan, LeBron James, both in their prime. To do that in this scenario, you do not have to elevate The Rock. He is and always will be in his own universe. I don’t have to give any more steam to that rocket. To make the billing The Billing, you need to elevate John. So I was punching from underneath, but still punching and just looking for whatever. Once again, Dwayne was doing so many things like he always does. He splits atoms and makes it work. All I was doing was WWE. That’s it, and laser focused, and realizing this as the opportunity of a lifetime, and realizing also that like, this isn’t Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali. Right now, this is Mike Tyson, Peter McNeely, and this isn’t going to draw money. So ‘F’ it. Here we go, and of course there are ramifications and it led to some genuine emotions between the two of us, but when it all began to melt away was when we decided the path of the match the day before.”
“Dwayne could see not only how easy I was to work with, but how adamant I wanted to like, these are great ideas. Let’s do whatever, man. I want to make sure you’re comfortable. I can do this, but I don’t know. What do you think? Then afterwards, not in the performance, not like being too smart,or winking at the camera or like, ‘F’ this guy. No, being fully invested in the whole body of work, losing with humility, with embarrassment, and staying there, and being degraded and humiliated in front of a stadium to give Rock his moment.”
“The moment the ice began to melt was right after when the first thing I did was I went to apologize to his mom. I said, ‘Being in the business, I hope now you can understand I just wanted to sell tickets and I’m sorry if I made you feel a certain way. That was not my intention. But also from my perspective, it was kind of like a surprise party where if I told you the gig, I think maybe it would have ruined some stuff.’ She gave me a great hug and told me thank you.”
“Then the next thing, I went in to say the exact same thing to Dwayne and he couldn’t have been more gracious. I know that the build wasn’t easy on him. He has the world in the palm of his hand and to come back and be kicked in the nuts by some cheap shot kid who’s trying to make a name for himself, that sucks. He’s trying to give to the business. Like, ‘What is this?’ I get his perspective. ‘What the ‘F’ is this guy doing? I’m trying to try to do the business a favor here.’ But then I explained my perspective to him, and obviously, I couldn’t just be like, I’m authentic. I had to prove it out there, prove my authenticity, and then say, ‘Hey, man. I just wanted to pack the place and I just wanted people to be interested, and I did it the wrong way. We should have collaborated. We should have talked in hindsight, and I should have asked you what’s the best way to make us equals. Instead, I did it myself and in turn, created a huge space between us and that was my fault.”
Cena feels the Pandemic era helped Roman Reign’s develope as a character:
“To get him in a space to speak and have him not be able to craft what he wants to say is a young man trying to find his way. Fast forward to where he doesn’t have to say a fu**ing word. That’s a man who knows who he is. Period. Is he a different human being? Yes. Authentically, I believe what he’s doing. This is why I was just really trying to hammer this home with Theory. It took Roman 10 years, eight years, eight years at the top, pushed for eight years for the light bulb to go off like, ‘I’m doing it my way. I will work with who they say, I will hit my times, but I’m going to be who I really am, and I’m gonna take these facets.'”
“Whether it was the pandemic that gave him his nuance, because he’s such a nuanced performer. He’s a film performer in live entertainment and I think maybe the absence of people not only allowed him to be more nuanced, but it killed the polarization. You can’t boo him just because you want to be on TV with your audience that night because there is no audience.”
“He’s really good. When you took away that thing that I built, that, ‘Okay, the company is pushing this guy? Go against him just to do the thing. But he’s really good. Forget it. It’s gonna be awesome. Chaos. We run the asylum.’ I love that, but it doesn’t help someone like Roman find confidence, and performing without an audience, in my mind. like, you could just see a different human being. Everyone was like, now they’re into it because he’s into it. I believe it. He doesn’t have to go out there And say suffering succotash anymore. He gives himself, so whatever they want, ‘Build this issue with this person.’ ‘I got.’ He’s super self aware. He’s aware of others. His ring awareness, like, he’s always been incredibly athletic. He’s always been a sponge, but he’s a very intellectual individual as well. People don’t necessarily know that about him. He’s super smart and he just needed that perfect storm to get going.”
“So when I talk to somebody like Theory who’s got stars in his eyes, and at 25 thinks he’s got a long road in front of him, I’m like, ‘Man, you really need to start now, failing. Don’t just perform, fail, like a lot, and then one day, you’ll get it. You need to have like 85 suffering succotash moments.'”
So many gems in this @JohnCena interview. He was unbelievable to talk to – my jaw dropped at this story of Brock Lesnar & @steveaustinBSR coming up with the Summerslam finish
Full interview – https://t.co/vQpuTXTpDt pic.twitter.com/Jqig7e0Oy4
— Sam Roberts (@notsam) May 22, 2023
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit the Notsam Wrestling podcast with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
