John Cena recently spoke with ESPN about the business side of WWE. During the interview, he was asked about WWE owning the trademark to his name. Cena stated that he looks at it as a joint venture as they gave him a platform to showcase his brand in nearly 200 countries around the world. He noted that they’d become a global cultural phenomenon where people receive their product and aware of their storylines all over the world. He noted that there is a lot of room for individuality and for personally pushing for expansion of what he can be. He added that The Rock was a pioneer in that space.
Last year, WWE released a Cena t-shirt that appeared to be inspired by the Pabst Blue Ribbon logo and the beer company issued a tweet teasing “a chokehold called Cease & Desist.” This led to WWE pulling the t-shirt. When asked about it, he said that WWE was well within its right in terms of parody necessary and that they quickly changed the design within hours. He thought it was pretty much social media suicide for them and that it the brewery ultimately realized WWE’s power and actively reached out to establish an open relationship.
You can read the full interview here.
