In the month since Vince McMahon announced his resignation from TKO following his naming in the Janel Grant lawsuit, there's been a surprising number of members of the WWE Universe who have spoken out against the former Chairman of the Board.
From Seth Rollins to Cody Rhodes, to Seth Rollins, again, and most recently, Randy Orton in an interview with Justin Barrasso for Sports Illustrated, whether by decree of the promotion or a simple willingness to be honest with fans, WWE's top Superstars have taken it upon themselves to soft condemn their former boss' actions, even if they almost never go into any actual detail or give more than a “this stinks and I hate it” sort of response.
… and then there's John Cena, who was asked a very similar question in an interview with Howard Stern and decided to use a, shall we say, bizarre turn of phrase that connects if you really think about it but sounds really bad upon initial viewing and especially in print form.
“I don't think it's complicated to talk about. It's complicated to listen to. That's why I don't necessarily put a lot of time and equity into it. There’s still a long way to go. I can say this, I’m a big advocate of love and friendship and honesty, and communication. In the same breath, I’m also a big advocate of accountability. If someone's behavior lies so far outside of your value system that the balance shifts of, ‘I can't operate in a world where this works.' That's the end result of being accountable,” John Cena told Howard Stern regarding Vince McMahon via Fightful.
“Right now, I’m gonna love the person I love, be their friend. ‘I love you, you have a hill to climb.' There is the saying of, ‘You don’t know who your friends are until shit hits the fan or your back is against the wall.' That doesn't make any of what's going on any easier to swallow. Just telling someone you love them, it’s a hill to climb, and we’ll see what happens.' That's that. It sounds so cliche, but it has to be one day at a time. I've openly said, I love the guy, I have a great relationship with the guy, and that’s that. It's largely my construct of operating with honesty and communication. Those are strong leads to handling any problem or achievement. The whole thing is super unfortunate, and it sucks. It deals with an individual I love and an entity I love. I want everyone to have the experience that I have. Not only do I tell a friend that I love them, but I switch to the entity and say, ‘How can I help?'”
Alright, so while Cena is clearly trying to go for a “love the sinner, hate the sin” sort of statement here, the tenor of his comments, when compared to the reactions of other Superstars who have spoken out, is markedly different in a bad way. While this, like most things Cena does, won't impact his popularity, as he's more or less untouchable at this stage of his career, if the reactions he's received online are of any indication, he might have wished he rephrased things a little bit.
Maven details how Vince McMahon treated stars like John Cena.
Speaking of John Cena's unflappability under Vince McMahon, there's no better way to highlight that fact than with a first-party anecdote, like this one from Maven, who noted on his YouTube channel that “The Face That Runs the Place” was given far more creative control than your average midcarder.
“You had to be in the right place to speak your mind and I never was. If they wanted me to do something that I didn't think I could pull off, I would speak my mind. If they maybe wanted me to do a move that I didn't think I could do safely for myself or my competitor, then I would definitely speak my mind, but if I thought my character, if I thought just what I was doing for the night wasn't best for me, I wasn't saying a word,” Maven explained on his Youtube channel via Fightful.
“Now. That was me. Take a John Cena. take a Randy Orton. were they speaking their mind? Absolutely, they most definitely were. When you're one of the top guys in the company, you earned your position and you earned the right because they're making money off you, but most of all, you're making money for yourself, I wish I would have got to that place just never did.”
On paper, it makes sense that Cena would have plenty more creative control than most other wrestlers, as he was one of WWE's top performers for the better part of 20 years. Still, some of those decisions haven't exactly aged perfectly, as there's a reason fans booed Cena for years due to his consistent burial of promising stars and factions like the Nexus when they were on the way up.
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