Thanks to Thomas Bradley for sending this in:
If anyone who missed the John Cena interview on CNN Headline News “live” and only entertainment show “Showbiz Tonight” at 7:00p.m(et) this past Friday May 22, 2005. Here’s the transcript:
BRYANT: Well, that is not the A-team. What you’re watching is a new video called “Bad Bad Man” from John Cena’s debut album, “You Can’t See Me.” He’s playing Hannibal here in an “A-team” spoof, although he is better known as one of professional wrestling’s biggest stars. In fact, he is currently the champion of the WWE. So maybe you should think of him as The Rock meets Eminem.
John Cena joins us live tonight for a “SHOWBIZ Sitdown,” maybe a “SHOWBIZ Smackdown” tonight, we’re calling it?
JOHN CENA, “YOU CAN’T SEE ME”: A little bit of something.
BRYANT: Nice belt!
CENA: Thank you very much.
BRYANT: You won that. That’s — that’s…
CENA: Well, I won another one. This is kind of my modification. I had this little watch thing going on and I had to get something to watch match the watch. So now I got (INAUDIBLE) matching pieces.
BRYANT: See, for me, I would get a purse to match the belt, but…
CENA: You have to do it.
BRYANT: … that’s just me.
CENA: I can’t carry around a purse. Maybe a backpack or something. But the purse I got to stay away from.
BRYANT: Yes, I hear you on that one. So here’s the thing. Wrestling is the number one and number two shows on cable television.
CENA: Of course.
BRYANT: So for those people who do not watch it, what are they missing?
CENA: The best show on the planet, bar none. We have a little bit of something for everybody. And like I say to anyone, I’m on “Smackdown.” We have two shows. We’re all on “Smackdown.” I tell anybody, anything can happen on any given “Smackdown.” You never quite know what’s going on with WWE. It’s a very spur-of-the-moment, real exciting program, and a lot of what makes that excitement is the fans. The fans are as much a part of our show as we are. So it’s just — it’s something you have to experience live to get the true spectrum of what we do, but it’s good TV either way.
BRYANT: All right. Now, that’s where you first rapped, is it not, on…
CENA: It is. It is. Well, I mean, I’ve been messing around with hip-hop music for a long time, and that’s why I actually got to rap on WWE television. They would see me rapping backstage, doing little things, and they said, Hey, you want to do this on TV? I said, Of course, no problem. And here we are, two years later, we got the CD coming out.
BRYANT: Well, this is the thing. You know, people are going to ask, John, are you for real?
CENA: Oh, my goodness! I’ve been trying to jump that hurdle for the past two-and-a-half years. But the proof is in the pudding. You know, the CD is already out. It’s pressed. There’s no faking it, 17 tracks, and it’s just me and my cousin Trademark (ph), pretty much. (INAUDIBLE) we have one feature emcee. His name is Freddy Fox Bumpy Knuckles (ph). So is John Cena real? You be the judge. The CD’s on the shelves. It’s in stores everywhere. Go buy it. Check it out. Everybody’s going to be surprised about this one. This is the sleeper album of the year.
BRYANT: All right. Well, I’m not going to fight with you about it because I…
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
BRYANT: I’m just saying, you’re a big guy. You can — you know, you can crush anybody that says…
VARGAS: (INAUDIBLE) It’s all right.
(LAUGHTER)
BRYANT: So here’s the thing. We mentioned before, comparing you to, let’s say, The Rock meets Eminem, but you know, certainly, The Rock, certainly Hulk Hogan, have kind of paved the way for wrestlers to go more mainstream, would you say?
CENA: What they did to our business is, both Hulk Hogan and The Rock and names like Steve Austin…
BRYANT: Right.
VARGAS: … they’ve elevated our business. Hogan, before those guys, Hogan took it to another level. Steve Austin, The Rock, took it even further. And they’ve made it completely mainstream. So I mean, they really kind of set the bar high. But like I said, the CD’s already in stores. We got the first feature film coming out in the fall. So I’m trying to follow in their footsteps. They’ve done so good, I’m just trying to steal a little bit of their shine.
BRYANT: Now, there you are. We’ve got some footage of you there. I know you’re going to be making this movie. It’s going to be, you know, interesting to see you try to make that transition. You got to tell me, what is this “You Can’t See Me” thing?
CENA: Well, it actually started out as a joke with my little brother. I can’t dance (INAUDIBLE) got no rhythm. And we was watching, you know, a video on TV, and at the end of the video, this dude going like this.
BRYANT: Right.
CENA: And that’s the only dance I could do. And I was, like, Dude, watch this. I’m going to put this on TV for you. And I just messed up and did it like this. And it looked — when you put your hands in front of your face, you can’t see somebody. So I said, You can’t see me. It means you’re not on my level. It means, like, You can’t even see what I’m doing. But I mean, it caught on. I got two 3-year-old kids. You can’t see me!
BRYANT: Oh, that’s great! All right. Well, even if you can’t dance, we’ll see if you can rap. You’ve got your record out. It’s John Cena. Thank you for joining us here.
CENA: Thank you very much.
BRYANT: John’s debut album is called “You Can’t See Me,” and it is out in stores now.
In other wrestling news, I just purchased the Wrestlemania 21 DVD and the DVD has some noticeable edits. Christy Hemme theme music “Idiot Walks” by the White Stripes has been replaced by a generic track. This years Wrestlemaina theme music “Big Time” by the Soundtrack Of Our Lives has been replaced in the wrestler’s vs. wrestler’s video montage as well in the main pay-per-view.
