Austin Theory recalls meeting John Cena for the first time.
John Cena and Austin Theory are on a collision course for a match at WWE WrestleMania 39 over the United States Championship. In recent weeks, Theory and Cena have exchanged many words in various interviews, through social media, and inside the ring.
Theory has long talked about how Cena was his favorite WWE star growing up and how he inspired him to pursue a career in wrestling. In a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, Theory recalled meeting Cena for the first time early on in his NXT days and how he waited three hours to have a private conversation with him.
“Man, the first conversation came about at the Performance Center one day when we were all leaving. We got told ‘Hey, just everybody stay, we’re gonna have a little meeting before everybody leaves.’ Out comes John Cena. He took the time out of his day to come down there and talk to everyone who’s aspiring to be on the main roster. A lot of us weren’t even on NXT TV then, so this was the very beginning for me. He told us ‘I’ll answer any questions you guys have but if there’s anybody that wants to talk to me personally, I’ll stay here all day. I’ll go into this office room and you guys one by one can come in there.’ I remember waiting like three hours to talk to him and I just went in there, I remember the first thing I showed him was the picture of me as a kid where I couldn’t afford the actual shirt and wristbands, so I made my off brand stuff. I was eight years old and I showed him the picture and was like ‘Man, this is probably crazy but check it out.’ He was like ‘That’s not crazy, that was awesome.’ We got to sit there, I really just asked everything I could because this is the source, this is the man that held it down for well over a decade. It was a lot for me to take in at the time, you know, because he was spitting knowledge but I’m still, woah, this is John Cena. I’m just trying to take everything in. That moment specifically I’ll never forget.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Theory said that Cena only wants to face him at WrestleMania because he's the biggest thing in WWE. Click here to learn more.
Fans can see the updated card for WWE WrestleMania 39 by clicking here.
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