WWE star, former U.S. champion, and current MITB briefcase holder Theory recently spoke with CBS Sports about a wide range of topics, including his thoughts on the great John Cena, and how much the Cenation leader influenced his career. Theory also touches on what a matchup with Cena at WrestleMania would mean to him. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
How much a WrestleMania showdown with him would mean:
“To have that moment with him, the person that — I had to put in my own work — but somebody that got me to the dance mentally, it takes the words out of my mouth to think of that actually happening.”
Discusses the numerous things he has learned from John Cena:
“It’s so weird to meet somebody and pretty much have to explain to them, ‘I modeled my whole life after you.’ It’s one of those things as a kid getting bullied, my dad not being in my life a lot. Cena, I could watch him and just escape. It was the connection to his personality. That’s something I learned from him. He told me, ‘Don’t ever think people go out there and want people to connect to their performance. Nobody will connect to your performance unless they connect to your personality. I started thinking, even with that process through NXT to finally being drafted to Raw officially, it was a time to figure stuff out. How can I connect to them with my personality? This is a world in WWE where everybody can kill it in the ring. Everyone can go hard in the ring. So what’s going to set you aside from killing it in the ring? I learned that from him.”