John Cena On Missing The Mark In His Career, Passing The Torch In WWE
During a recent interview with NotSam Wrestling, John Cena discussed his goal of passing the torch and leaving WWE in good hands, and how the Hollywood industry is different from live entertainment.
Cena was last seen in action at WrestleMania 39 where he lost to WWE United States Champion Austin Theory.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On how he’s missed the mark in his career: “You can track back, and I’ve missed a bunch of times. I’ve tried to care and been too quirky, tried to be funny, and failed, but I’m trying. I’m always trying to make you care. That’s been the way since I was doing raps. People would want to hear the lines. Then people wouldn’t want to hear the lines. ‘You can do your rap thing. I’m just going to kick the crap out of you in the ring.’ Fine, that doesn’t matter. What matters is me making them connect and believe. If they believe and maybe they laugh, then they feel sad when people kick the crap out of me. Then I can get away with something like, my ethos is persistence, because years from now, people will be like, ‘Yeah, that actually kind of is what he does. He just keeps showing up. He’s here a lot.’ That’s the thing when authenticity. You can’t shake hands with someone for the first time, and they know you’re sold. I’m blessed enough to be able to, for now, people to reflect and see, ‘He is authentically that. He authentically has passion for the company.’ My goal is to authentically leave it better than I found it. That’s my goal, to pass the torch up.”
On how he he wants to be remembered: “I don’t ever want to be talked about generations from now. They should be talking about Roman, and whoever follows him, and whoever follows him, because that’s how it should be. They should be in stadiums instead of arenas every night. That’s how it should be. That’s the burden Roman has on his shoulders. That’s the way it’s supposed to go. Too many people caught up in, ‘I’m this, I’m that.’ I’m a pawn on the chess board, and someone tells me, ‘We’re going to move you with this guy,’ it’s the same with movies. I don’t call the shots.”
John Cena on how movies are different than the live entertainment of WWE: “It’s even more restricted in movies because, on set, I can call the shots, but I’m not following the director into the edit. At least in live entertainment, if I want to drop a pipe bomb, I can do it, and deal with the consequences after. I have to be accountable, but I got my five minutes to throw two middle fingers up to the world. You don’t have that in a movie. If you do every take, they’ll cut around you to get what they want. Why not embrace the process, work with everyone instead of against everyone, don’t think the world is against you, The wrestling business is a business, and their business is to make money. If you’re of value to them and you’re of value to the movie system, if you don’t cost them a tremendous amount of money, if you show up on time, if you’re passionate about the work, if you know the context of the story, if you know why we’re fighting; they might ask you back. You don’t need to be the last match.”
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