Bryan Danielson Says John Cena’s True Legacy Is His Character Outside The Ring

Bryan Danielson says he respects John Cena for the man that he is. When it comes to discussions of John’s legacy, Danielson will always think of the personal impact that Cena had on his life.

Bryan Danielson, known as Daniel Bryan in WWE, worked opposite John Cena many times. He defeated John Cena for his first WWE Championship at WWE SummerSlam 2013. He also teamed with John Cena in his first WWE pay-per-view main event as part of Team WWE against the Nexus at WWE SummerSlam 2010. While Danielson called Cena a “parody of a wrestler” on WWE television, he has nothing but respect for the man that he is outside of the ring.

Speaking with Josh Martinez of Z100 on Superstar Crossover, Danielson was asked about the legacy of John Cena, the wrestler, saying that he doesn’t think about those elements when considering his own legacy because the man that John Cena is has had such a profound impact on his life.

“I don’t think in those terms. I just think in terms of things that I’ve learned from John Cena and just his enormous impact on me as a person and how he carries himself. I respect John a lot. One of the things that I love about John is the charity stuff that he’s done and not ever wanting acknowledgement for it… The first person to really put that in my mental space, and he didn’t say it to me, just you watched him and do it, was John Cena. You look at all the stuff that he’s done for kids and everything, and he did all that – he did more Make-A-Wishes than anybody ever and didn’t want anybody to know. Didn’t want anybody to know. He wanted to improve the lives of those children. When I think of John Cena, I’m thinking of that.

“His individual legacy, to me, is him giving me a better perspective and more compassion for myself. When I didn’t do the best when I main-evented my first pay-per-view in WWE, his perspective on that was like, ‘Listen, it takes six months for people to even know who you are being on TV.’ The hardcore wrestling fans will know who you are pretty quickly, right? But the people, the casual viewers who watch every other week, whatever it is, it takes them six months to even know that you exist, even longer for people to see you as a main event player. So those are the kinds of things that I think about, and the idea of when he comes to work, he comes to work.

“John Cena was always the first person at the building… I’m perpetually early, and John Cena was always there before me, and you’d see him; he was there because he would do a lot of signing of the merchandise and all that kind of stuff, and so he would be there working. I just can’t say enough about John Cena. I think he’s just wonderful. That’s the sort of thing that will be a legacy for me.”

Bryan Danielson’s full-time career as a wrestler came to an end in AEW at AEW WrestleDream 2024. John Cena’s career will end at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event in December 2025.

Fans can check out how many dates John Cena has left as a WWE Superstar here.

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