John Cena says his goal is to keep the wrestling business moving forward.
John Cena was the top guy in WWE for well over a decade. These days John has moved on to the movie industry and other facets of entertainment. Still, whenever he is in a WWE ring, he always aims to make the audience care.
Speaking with Sam Roberts on Notsam Wrestling, Cena reflected on always trying to make the WWE Universe care about what he's doing, even if he's missed the mark on several occasions.
"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," said John. "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."
In regards to passing the torch, Cena says the business should continue to grow and believes that and should be talking about Roman Reigns. The burden should now lay on Roman's shoulders because the company is all about progression, and he understands that he is just a pawn in a chess game.
"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," he continued. "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."
Speaking about the move to the movie industry, John says it's even more restricted than it would be in WWE or any other form of live entertainment.
"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," John said. "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."
Elsewhere in this interview, John spoke about his program with Austin Theory and the creative process behind their face-to-face segment on Monday Night Raw. Read more here.
Furthermore, John Cena recently stated that he believes how he performed at WrestleMania 39 against Austin Theory is what he can offer the business today. Read more here.
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