Joe Hendry Feels That He Executed On John Cena’s Advice At WrestleMania 41

Joe Hendry recalls the moments leading up to WrestleMania 41.

The show featured the biggest moment of Hendry’s career so far, as he answered Randy Orton’s open challenge to a major reaction. The match didn’t last long, but the moment undoubtedly set up Hendry’s future path in WWE.

Speaking with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp for a new interview, the former NXT Champion spoke about the “unprecedented situation” and how he appreciated the company’s trust.

“The feeling was mutual. It was an incredible and unprecedented situation to compete at WrestleMania in a featured singles match against Randy Orton in his 20th WrestleMania when I wasn’t even signed to the company. I very much appreciated the trust. So it kind of all kicked off because I did the initial appearance on NXT, which became the most watched video on X in all of wrestling that year and for 2024. So that really set me up for what came next. Then I think the Rumble, seeing the reaction at the Rumble—again, this is why Fan of the Year is so important to me, because it’s the fans that have put me in this position.”

Hendry was transparent about his mindset heading into WrestleMania, telling us that he was constantly worried about the match and if it was actually going to happen.

“It’s one of these things, everything happens for a reason the way it’s supposed to. I just remember getting the call about WrestleMania, it took a moment to just kind of, ‘Well, this is…’ and even then you get the call, but you’re wondering, ‘Is it actually going to happen?’ Then the night before I was like, ‘This is probably going to happen.’ In wrestling, you just never know what’s going to happen. You’ll hear things, but it’s not a fact until it actually happens. But when it got to late the night before, I was thinking, ‘This is probably going to happen.’”

To finish off the topic, Joe Hendry noted that he executed on John Cena’s advice at WrestleMania 41.

“So yeah, walking out, it was an unbelievable experience. I’m grateful for it. It was very cool to achieve the dream which was to get to WWE and such a unique, odd way to do it as well to have already done Rumble in WrestleMania before signing. I appreciated the trust from the company. ‘Cause like I said, I wasn’t signed to the company when those things happen. My intention was to do the absolute best job that I could and I go back to the kind of words that John Cena had after WrestleMania for what we did. John gave me some advice at the Royal Rumble. I feel I executed on that advice at WrestleMania and I think we created a great moment.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Hendry recalled returning to TNA at the Genesis event in January. Check out his full comments by clicking here.

Furthermore, fans can check out Hendry’s entire interview with Fightful in the video linked at the top of this article.