John Cena Talks His Reputation For Holding Talent Back & Opens Up About His Current WWE Status

WWE Superstar, actor, rapper, and now children’s author John Cena was the most recent guest on Sports Illustrated’s Media Podcast, where the 16-time world champion opened up to host Richard Deitsch on a myriad of wrestling related topics including his current WWE status, his reputation for holding talent back, his feud with Roman Reigns, and his WrestleMania 34 match against The Undertaker. Highlights appear below.

On His Current WWE Status:

I am very conscious of how long I have been in WWE and fifteen years as a fully functional performer, I believe, is a time span that is in rare company and if you look at my story arc over the last few years, I hate looking back, I like looking at the future, but this is only to put it in context. My last major event was vs The Rock in New York and since then I’ve been utilized as a vehicle to try to enhance new talent which is great; but, that’s been going on for three or four years now. Even with the three or four years, I still have the reputation of being the one who holds back new talent, so then if I’m consistently there and it’s very difficult to adapt new talent to the program because maybe subliminally they rely on me for certain reasons. Taking myself out of that equation puts them in the position where they have to develop new talent and I’ve tried my best to enhance new talent and develop them myself; but, even when I’m in the running for the United States Championship, I love what I do and try to make it the best I possibly can, so with the U.S. open, man, that became a wonderful piece of television or, ‘Hey we want you to go to WrestleMania as a fan.’ That’s one of the storylines I’m most proud of because it sent a message – not my final message because I’m not done; but, final in the way of full time performing where you shouldn’t consider yourself too big for any role and I really wanted to get that message out to the young performers and challenge myself to try to make that entertaining.

On His Reputation For Holding Talent Back:

I don’t care about the reputation I have. What I care about is the performance I give; but, the easiest way to silence that problem is to take me out of the equation. Here’s the crazy thing. All the people that have chastised me for staying around too long are now chastising me for not being around, so also a great exercise, and you’ll never be able to please these people because they always need something to be cynical about. I guess that’s why they’re called critics; but, I’m very happy now because it’s like it was in 2002 when Randy [Orton], & Dave [Bautista], & Brock [Lesnar], & Shelton [Benjamin] and myself came up and everybody left. We changed the name of the company. The XFL had failed. A bunch of Superstars left and now you’re left with these new guys and it’s like sink or swim and we just happened to have a very talented group of individuals and it was a long long swim. I mean the stock was at seven bucks for a long time and now the fruits of our labor have kind of shown and now the company is bigger than it’s ever been, so I’m very excited for all the Superstars now.

On His Full Time WWE Career Coming To A Close:

My days as a full timer are certainly numbered and that has nothing to do with extracurricular activities. I just, I can’t. As a 41 year old I can’t do it. If you look at anybody in my shoes – Chris Jericho had taken a break, [Hulk] Hogan certainly had taken a break. I think the only guy who may fall in that category of not taking a break is [Ric] Flair; but, [Steve] Austin had already been done, The Rock was already done. So people are like, ‘Where are you going man?’ I’m 41. I’m in the best shape of my life. You’re young and you think you’re indestructible and you get this job and you think that – like, it is a dream come true and you never want the dream to end and I’m super grateful for everything that I’ve done; but, as a 41 year old man, especially someone who has had his attitude changed about a lot of things in life, one of those things is how am I gonna get around when I’m 70. How am I gonna get around when I’m 80? I can’t look at 41 and be like, ‘Well I’m lucky if I make it past this year.’ I’m trying to do the best I can to live as healthy as I can and I know for a fact that a full time WWE schedule is a young man’s game…. I’m great, literally. I feel great and it’s not Father Time. I want to wage war against Father Time as long as I can and it’s not the wrestling. It’s not the in-ring performance. It’s everything and everything that has to do with a five day work week and one day off, repeat 52 weeks a year.

On Vince McMahon’s Reaction To His Recent Career Change & His Feud With Roman Reigns:

I think there’s certainly thoughts of that [Vince McMahon wanting him back full time]; but, riddle me this. So I stay full time and continue these middle of the road storylines that I’ve been in – and proud to be in – that don’t necessarily move me forward or they have the general conception of not moving the talent I’m trying to develop forward and that’s the most painful thing. You invest all this time and labor into this guy and whether it’s something simply like the promos with Roman [Reigns], letting Roman know there is a next level to this game and if you don’t step up to that level you don’t have the right to call yourself someone at that level. That’s what my job with Roman was supposed to be and the great thing with Roman is he understood that and was open to it. You want to talk about being vulnerable. He let it all hang out out there. He got his teeth knocked out verbally and shot back with one of what I thought was one of his best performances, so over the course of five weeks, he did learn.

On Wrestling In The PG Era:

Attitude Era was males 18-35 and our program still draws heavy attraction from males 18-35; but, we’re a PG program which means your audience is a six year old and I don’t say, ‘Don’t cater to the 18-35 year olds,’ but you have to understand your audience starts at six or younger, so you have to give them essentially Shrek or Cars or The Lego Movie. Sometimes 18-35 year old dudes don’t want to watch The Lego Movie. You have to try to push; but, don’t think that there’s not a second that goes by in our mind that our audience isn’t six and if you watch how I perform in the ring, how I talk….our audiences are so mixed. There’s never going to be a good guy that appeals to everyone.

On Being Misunderstood:

Amazingly enough, with everything I do, I think I’m tremendously misunderstood because people are so used to what they see on television. [The biggest misconception is] they think I am what they see on television….the perception that I hold talent back, I’ve never once done that. I just go out and do my thing. Someone can look at the character of John Cena and have disdain for that or have disdain for not performing as a bad guy and that’s the root of their criticism or that I don’t do great maneuvers and that makes the guy you see and makes him into I don’t like this guy. They’re all entitle to their opinion; but, man, I wish I could sit down and break down what we do.

On Being Insecure About His Looks:

As a 41 year old dude who’s literally just trying so many new things in life, I’m embracing the fact that for the longest I’ve been insecure about the way I look and my hair or whatever. Body dysmorphia is a real thing and everybody struggles with it. I just lost 20 pounds in China and man did I get heat for that. That was the thing before the hair.

On Having Zero Fuc*s To Give:

The only things I’ve been criticized as of late are the changes I’ve made about myself, so I just encourage everyone out there not to listen to any of that BS. Starting from me. As celebrities in the public eye we want to keep that comfortability because we don’t want to ruin the dream. Zero fs to give. [In your 20s] you’ve got a lot of fs to give. 30s it gets cut in half. 40s zero fs. Here I am at 40 with a bunch of wisdom I wish I could pass to the younger me. That’s a very important message and I try to send this through my social channels. Be comfortable with you. Love yourself and then just go out and live life.

On His WrestleMania 34 Match vs Undertaker:

Just like the haircut, there’s talk about every time I perform and we’re in a critical environment and if people aren’t happy with my performance, they sure as hell can voice their opinion. I loved WrestleMania. Like I said, it’s one of the performances and lead ups that I’m extremely proud of because of the challenge of the story. It went from literally no one believing that the WWE would put a healthy John Cena on the bench to me being in the crowd at 2PM drinking beers with fans…. I loved it and for what it needed to be, my job in the performance was to make The Undertaker look like The Undertaker and I believe we achieved that objective and if someone critically thinks we should have had more time, that’s a better criticism than someone thinking we should have had less time.

(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)

Cena also talked about today’s WWE culture being much different than the one he encountered when making his main roster debut. He reveals his daily diet, as well as his cheat meal & what his Instagram account is actually all about.

Readers interested in listening to the interview in its entirety may do so below:

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