John Cena opens up about working with The Rock in WWE.
The former 16-time world champion recently appeared on Josh Horowitz’s‘Happy Sad Confused’ podcast to discuss a wide range of topics, including a conversation about having another huge matchup following his participation at this year’s WrestleMania 39. When the show hosts asked Cena about having another showdown with The Rock, Cena declared that he will have to break his losing streak first.
I’m so old. I haven’t won a match in like five years. No one notices, thank you, but if you check the stats, I’m on a bit of a slump. He’s not exactly an easy opponent. I need to get somebody really easy to get another win on the board before I go knocking on The Rock’s door again.
Cena would later elaborate on his epic feud with The Great One, which included two WrestleMania main events over ten years ago. He says that the only thing he feels bad about is the shots he took at Rocky for being in Hollywood as he now understands that life very well.
I would like to think, in my perspective, that we always have been good, except for one little patch where I really messed up. I got selfish and me, living WWE at that point, did not have any concept of growth or someone else’s perspective. I took Dwayne’s comments as not genuine, and my view was, if you love something, then be there every day. What a hypocrite I am. Because I still love WWE, and I can’t go all the time. I just didn’t see that. I was so selfish. I had his number and we could have talked about it. Instead of going, ‘Hey, man, I’d like to try to do this thing to hook you back in and maybe we can collaborate, and really make it big,’ I was like, ‘F this,’ and was calling this dude out. This is a moment, he gave me an opening, and I’m gonna kick the door open. I was diligent, and I understand why he got upset because he’s changing the perception of the industry. Him, Dave Bautista, they made it okay to be in WWE. WWE isn’t that carnival performer stereotype. Pro wrestlers have had that carny stereotype for so long, and these guys are breaking down barriers and shattering ceilings, and on top of that, just transcending the art form, and I just got selfish and wanted a main-event marquee match because it would better what I thought was the business. That’s so short-sighted and selfish.
He adds that there were some bad vibes between himself and The Rock but now their relationship is in a really good place.
It worked, but it worked at the cost of two people who communicated and almost put it in jeopardy. There was a moment where there was a lot of bad vibes between us, and rightfully so because Dwayne came back, and he wanted to give to the business openly, as much as he could. He has a great perception of WWE and understands that you build equity and go do something else and you pass the torch, you give away all of your electricity, as he would say. He was trying to do that on his own terms, and I wasn’t having any of it. We made some great TV, so much so that one dude [points to Horowitz] wants to see it again. But it was almost at the cost of our friendship, which I would like to say now is in a really good place.
Elsewhere in the interview, Cena spoke about this love of the current WWE women’s division, specifically Charlotte Flair. Check out what he had to say about the Queen potentially becoming a 17-time world champion by clicking here.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)