John Cena spoke with the South China Morning Post while in Shenzen for a WWE Live Event this past Sunday, and he talked about how important he feels outreach to the Chinese market is. He believes "the possibilities are endless" for expansion into China, even including putting on a WrestleMania there.
"I think the possibilities are endless. Absolutely endless. Not only do I see potential success for Chinese superstars to move through the ranks, I envision a world where we do television broadcasts from over here. I envision a world where we do WrestleMania from here.
"So I would love to create a culture in China surrounding WWE, that's with a strong developmental system for our superstars and hopefully a greater and greater live event presence. We encourage our audience to be in it and involved as they want. That culture is what really is going to drive our increased presence here. I hope I can encourage the crowd here to be ... respectfully excited."
There was some discussion about whether Cena would be able to make the 17-hour flight from Shenzen back to San Jose to show up at RAW. He didn't wind up making an appearance on RAW last night, but it seems like he was planning to at the time he was interviewed.
"I will literally spend more time in a fuselage than I will on the ground here, that's how important this trip was to me. I was initially supposed to miss this event, and I bent time to be here. This is taking priority above a lot of things, including me being in the air the entire day on Monday, so you can do the math to see how important this is."
John Cena was asked about his "Never Give Up" catchphrase, and he said he lives by those words; they're not some sort of cynical marketing ploy.
"It's not something that I try to force people to understand. Those three words are led by example and led by action.
"It's a great feeling to be able to check in and go to work and aside from calling it your job, to be able to affect people's lives. If I can do both, I'm a super happy dude. I think the more fans in China that resonate with the WWE product, the more will like me and the more won't like me. It's the same everywhere."
You can read the entire interview at SCMP.com.
