Veteran WWE Superstar John Cena said he really believes what he said to WWE United States Champion Austin Theory on the March 6 RAW in the build-up to their WrestleMania 39 opener, which Theory won.
Cena spoke with Notsam Wrestling’s Sam Roberts this week and compared Theory to Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, and discussed how Reigns also had trouble getting over as a babyface early on.
“I was really trying to hammer this home with Theory,” Cena said. It took Roman 10 years, eight years at the top, pushed for eight years for the light bulb to go off and be 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.'”
He continued, “When I talk to somebody like Theory, who has stars in his eyes and at 25 thinks he’s got a long road in front of him. 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.”
Cena told Theory during the March 6 RAW how Theory he has everything a WWE executive looks for in a wrestler and that “in theory” he should be a big star, but he’s not because nobody cares about him.
Cena recalled to Roberts how he told Theory everything he was going to say in his promo that night before they went out.
“Austin is great and easy to work with and we wrote that together. He was in every step of the process,” Cena said. He added, “Fans can see through the BS if you don’t believe in your character. It’s what I said to Austin Theory, ‘Dude, you are young, you are athletic, you will work for this company, you’ll do interviews, you’ll go X, Y, and Z, I don’t believe what you do when you’re out there, I don’t. I said it to him personally before I said it publicly.
“In a room with Austin Theory, I said the reason I came back to Boston is because you can’t do this yourself yet. You cannot carry a WrestleMania promo yourself yet and if you fail, we waste the equity that I’m willing to give. And if in that match I get hurt, I hold up a production, which puts 300 people out of work. Let’s do this right, let’s get some equity here and then you have to start thinking about the angles and what’s the most important thing and what are we really trying to tell, what’s our story. Okay, I don’t believe what you do, that’s what I’m going with.”
Theory is currently feuding with Sheamus, and will defend against The Celtic Warrior on next week’s taped SmackDown (spoilers here). There is no word yet on when Cena will be back.
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