John Cena gets excited about potential.
Ahead of his main event match at WrestleMania 39, Cody Rhodes shared a special moment with one of WWE’s greatest superstars of all time. That star, of course, was 16-time World Champion John Cena. After agreeing to face Austin Theory at WrestleMania, Cena said that Theory wasn’t ready for the WrestleMania stage, so he wanted to show the crowd someone who was. As such, Cena introduced “The Nightmare” Cody Rhodes to the live crowd in Boston, Massachusetts. The two then embraced and exchanged some encouraging words.
This gesture sparked a lot of buzz around the wrestling world, with many describing it as a “passing of the torch” moment between Cena to Rhodes. During a recent appearance on Busted Open, Cena was asked if he thought the same.
“Well, I get excited with potential. I really do get excited with potential. It’s because I think in my origin story, I wasn’t exactly someone that people were betting on,” Cena said. “I kind of got hired defensively so I wouldn’t go to WCW for peanuts. Had some people who saw me perform who were advocating to people who didn’t care about my performance, which granted me some opportunities and then I was lucky to have some people who supported me.”
“I remember the first time I kind of experienced the ‘WWE life’ was in Japan with you (Bully Ray) by my side. That was, in my perspective, that was your way of saying, ‘Hey, welcome in. This is kind of what we’re about and this is where the secrets are shared. This is where the wisdom is passed. And although it may not be your thing, this is our thing. If you wanna be in our family, we’d love to have you, but this is kind of the way our family does it.’ I never got to thank you for that. So, thank you very much for dragging me out in the streets of Tokyo to have the beginning of what would be a wonderful ride on a lightning bolt.”
Regarding the act of “passing of the torch,” Cena believes that those types of moments aren’t always definitive. “You just hope to put energy out there and anyone with potential can get it,” he said. Amidst Cena’s slow transition out of full-time competition, many thought his torch was passed to the current Undisputed WWE Univeral Champion, Roman Reigns. But according to Cena, Reigns rose to the top all on his own.
“It was said that I passed the torch to Roman [Reigns] years ago and he absolutely is the face of the franchise. In my mind, he’s the greatest of all time. But, I try to do what I could and when I did it, it wasn’t the miracle, it didn’t happen. He got it on his own terms,” Cena said. “I just like seeing people who are passionate about the business, who wanna be there, who wanna show up, who aren’t using it as a vehicle to do something else because the thing itself is awesome. It’s okay if you get other opportunities outside, that’s a testament to your work.
Now at the age of 46, John Cena has taken a step back from wrestling to focus on his acting career. While he may be away, Cena admits that he misses being in the ring. At the same time, though, Cena knows his body can’t keep up with the physical demands of a full-time schedule.
“I wish I was still there every day. My body can’t do it anymore, and I don’t wanna give the consumer a bad product. That’s another thing I learned from those veterans at the time. Guys like Eddie [Guerrero] would just risk so much. He’s like, ‘I’m never gonna give the consumer a bad product. I don’t care how I feel, I don’t care how I feel physically. I don’t care what baggage I have mentally. When I’m on, they paid good money. I’m gonna go out there and give everything I have and sometimes find it when it’s not there.”
“I’m at a point where everything I have in comparison to the bar that’s been set, boy, what I have is what you saw at WrestleMania 39. That’s what I feel confident that I can deliver and that’s really nice for here and there. That’s not every day in the WWE, that’s not every day in sports entertainment. Sports entertainment has raised the bar. I’m humble enough to say that’s awesome because you’re supposed to leave it better than you found it. The people are supposed to advance it and that’s why you’re supposed to go from smokey bingo halls to the Pontiac Silverdome to now, towns offering us financial incentives to be in for WrestleMania.”
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