John Cena opens up about his participation in this year’s WrestleMania 39.
The Cenation leader took on Austin Theory on night one of Mania for the United States Championship. While appearing on Busted Open Radio, the former 16-time world champion reflected on the matchup, adding that he might still have a few performances like that left up his sleeve for the future.
Well, I get excited with potential. I really do get excited with potential and it’s because I think in my origin story, I wasn’t exactly someone that people were betting on. I kind of got hired defensively so I wouldn’t go to WCW for peanuts. I had some people who saw me perform who were advocating to people who didn’t care about my performance, which granted me some opportunities and then I was lucky to have some people who supported me. I remember the first time I kind of experienced, I would say, the ‘WWE life’ was in Japan with you (Bully Ray) by my side and that was my — in my perspective, that was your way of saying, hey, welcome in. This is kind of what we’re about and this is where the secrets are shared and this is where the wisdom is passed and although it may not be your thing, this is our thing and if you wanna be in our family, we’d love to have you but this is kind of the way our family does it and I never got to thank you for that so thank you very much for dragging me out in the streets of Tokyo to have the beginning of what would be a wonderful ride on a lighting bolt and you know, you don’t do it by yourself which is why I don’t think anyone — you don’t pass it to anybody. You just hope to put energy out there and anyone with potential can get it. It was said that I passed the torch to Roman (Reigns) years ago and he absolutely is the face of the franchise. In my mind, he’s the greatest of all time. But, I try to do what I could and when I did it, it wasn’t the miracle, it didn’t happen. He got it on his own terms. I just like seeing people who are passionate about the business, who wanna be there, who wanna show up, who aren’t using it as a vehicle to do something else because the thing itself is awesome and it’s okay if you get other opportunities outside. That’s a testament to your work but man, I wish I was still there every day. My body can’t do it anymore. I don’t wanna give the consumer a bad product. That’s another thing I learned from those veterans at the time. Guys like Eddie (Guerrero) would just risk so much and he’s like, ‘I’m never gonna give the consumer a bad product. I don’t care how I feel, I don’t care how I feel physically, I don’t care what baggage I have mentally, when I’m on, they paid good money and I’m gonna go out there and give everything I have and sometimes find it when it’s not there’ and I’m at a point where everything I have in comparison to the bar that’s been set, boy, what I have is what you saw at WrestleMania 39. That’s what I feel confident that I can deliver and that’s really nice for here and there. That’s not every day in the WWE, that’s not every day in sports entertainment. Sports entertainment has raised the bar and I’m humble enough to say that’s awesome because you’re supposed to leave it better than you found it. The people are supposed to advance it and that’s why you’re supposed to go from smokey bingo halls to the Pontiac Silverdome to now, towns offering us financial incentives to be in for WrestleMania.
While he may have lost, Cena did have a special moment at Mania. His entrance included 20 children whose Make-A-Wish it was to be apart of his entrance. He spoke about that later in the interview.
As long as I’m participating in WWE, the idea to do the Wish Kid WrestleMania entrance, WrestleMania entrances are coveted. They’re special, they’re unique. I have a few unique ones to myself but when production came to me with the idea of, ‘Do you mind sharing the stage? We have this idea.’ ‘Of course.’ You give 20 kids the perspective of the ramp, looking out at a stadium filled with 80-plus-thousand going berserk. That’s not being in the seats. I was a fan for The Undertaker match. I saw both sides. That’s awesome sitting there, but it’s mythical having that WrestleMania entrance being able to do that for a group of people, like take as many as you can, I don’t care how thin my slice of the stage is. Let’s give that perspective to people who enjoy it and yeah, probably could use a little joy in their life.
Elsewhere in the interview, Cena explained why he thinks Roman Reigns is the greatest wrestler of all time. You can read his comments about the Tribal Chief by clicking here.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)