John Cena spoke with Dax Shepard on his Armchair Expert podcast about Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel's feud.
The feud between the two stars officially ended when The Rock showed up as Luke Hobbs in the mid-credits scene of last year's Fast X, Variety reported.
In November 2021, Diesel invited Johnson to join the cast of Fast X, but the latter told CNN the next month that he wouldn't be returning to the franchise. We now know that it was a bluff.
John Cena and lessons learned from the WWE
Shepard described the duo as a “rough pairing.” When asked about his thoughts on the squabble, Cena acknowledged the existence of the rumors.
“You have to very alpha, driven people. You get two, there can only be one,” he explained.
The wrestler/actor joined the franchise in the 2021 installment, F9: The Fast Saga as Dominic Toretto's (Diesel) long-lost brother Jakob.
So how did Cena cope with joining an alpha-laden franchise? He said he was prepared due to his experience in the WWE. The actor joined the team not the fray, kept his head down and just kept on trucking.
“Man, you gotta remember I got dropped into a locker room where [we have] generational vets,” he said.
He remembers his days at the WWE where the questions ranged from “What'd your dad do?” “What'd your granddad do?”
Both answers to those questions was “Wrestle.”
“I've been in that environment; know the room and just kind of adapt what's going on,” Cena added.
“I'm being invited into someone's home, into someone's family. And regardless of how they look physically in comparison to another human being, this is one IP that has had nine installments and it's an action movie — that's rarefied air. At the very least there has to be respect for that,” he continued.
Cena noted that he understands that he's a “guest” in this family.
“I'm not trying to get the sandbox. That's not my thing. I'm grateful for what you've given me, I just want to be the best firetruck I can,” he added.
The Diesel-Johnson feud started in August 2016 when Johnson called Diesel a “chicken s**t” and “candy ass” on Instagram. Diesel addressed this in a 2021 Men's Health interview that he believes it's his on-set tough love on The Rock that caused the quarrel.
“My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting that performance where it needed to be,” he explained.
The actor stressed that he had to step in to get The Rock to embody Hobbs.
“Hobbs hits you like a ton of bricks. That's something that I'm proud of, that aesthetic. That took a lot of work. We had to get there and sometimes, at that time, I could give a lot of tough love,” he elaborated.
The Rock joined the franchise in 2011's Fast Five. He was in three sequels before getting his own spinoff in 2019's Hobbs and Shaw with Jason Statham. He wasn't in the F9 movie due to the feud until Diesel publicly asked Johnson to join the cast for 2021's Fast X.
Last summer, Johnson posted on X (formerly Twitter) that he and Johnson had put their past behind them.
“We'll lead with brotherhood and resolve — and always take care of the franchise, characters & FANS that we love,” the post read.
The Rock will rejoin Diesel in the 11th Fast & Furious film set to be released on April 4, 2025.
Cena has had his own feud with Johnson, going back to their days in the WWE. Last year, Cena explained that his beef with Johnson was due to his anger with what he thought as The Rock leaving the WWE for Hollywood stardom.
Hindsight's 20/20, though, since Cena would do the same thing. He later admitted that his feud with Johnson was due to his own short-sightedness and selfishness.
Here's to hoping that all their beef moving forward will be confined to performances.
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