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Working the promotional circuit in the lead-up to the release of Fast X, his second contribution to the Fast and Furious series, John Cena sat down for an interview with Josh Horowitz of MTV News to discuss professional wrestling, his acting career, and his relationship with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who may or may not have a surprise cameo in the mid-credit scene or the movie.
Asked if he would like to wrestle Rocky once more, marking the fourth occasion where the duo would square off following their matches at Survivor Series 2011 – where the duo worked together to defeat The Miz and R-Truth – at WrestleMania XXVIII in a “Once in a Lifetime” match, and at WrestleMania XXIX, where Cena took the WWE Heavyweight Championship off of Johnson in a near-24 minute slugfest, “The Champ” said he'd be open to it, but he'd need to get his singles record back on track first.
“I’m so old. I haven’t won a match in like five years. No one notices, thank you, but if you check the stats, I’m on a bit of a slump. He’s not exactly an easy opponent. I need to get somebody really easy to get another win on the board before I go knocking on The Rock’s door again,” John Cena said via Fightful.
Cena was then asked about his relationship with The Rock following their contentious feud leading into WrestleMania. Unsurprisingly, he put Johnson over in a huge way, as “The Great One” helped to open the door for cross-over stars alongside Dave Bautista, but then took things in a more serious direction, acknowledging that he didn't handle things the best way when he was younger.
“I would like to think, in my perspective, that we always have been good, except for one little patch where I really messed up. I got selfish and me, living WWE at that point, did not have any concept of growth or someone else’s perspective,” Cena said. “I took Dwayne’s comments as not genuine, and my view was, if you love something, then be there every day. What a hypocrite I am. Because I still love WWE, and I can’t go all the time. I just didn’t see that. I was so selfish. I had his number and we could have talked about it. Instead of going, ‘Hey, man, I’d like to try to do this thing to hook you back in and maybe we can collaborate, and really make it big,’ I was like, ‘F this,’ and was calling this dude out. This is a moment, he gave me an opening, and I’m gonna kick the door open. I was diligent, and I understand why he got upset because he’s changing the perception of the industry. Him, Dave Bautista, they made it okay to be in WWE. WWE isn’t that carnival performer stereotype. Pro wrestlers have had that carny stereotype for so long, and these guys are breaking down barriers and shattering ceilings, and on top of that, just transcending the art form, and I just got selfish and wanted a main-event marquee match because it would better what I thought was the business. That’s so short-sighted and selfish.”
Now, for fans who don't recall, Cena got pretty personal with Johnson during his return for WrestleMania 29, even though The Rock was effectively returning to the WWE to do Mr. McMahon and the rest of The Fed a favor for a very big show at MetLife Stadium in front of some 80,000 fans. Fortunately, Cena was able to work things out with his fellow wrestler-turned-actor to become friends once more.
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John Cena explains what he got so wrong about his feud with The Rock.
Discussing what went so wrong in his match with “The Burma Bull,” John Cena noted that in wrestling, much like life, performers need to have trust, and he broke Johnson's trust by making things overly personal.
“I think step one of any conflict is to somehow find your fault. It’s my fault, and I knew exactly what I was doing, and I also knew that I had to punch up to his level. He came in in a league of his own, and to make sure that it’s like Mike Tyson [versus] Muhammad Ali, I gotta be Mike Tyson, and Rock was like Ali, and I was like some scrub like Glass Joe from Punchout. I had to punch my way up, and I had to do it by really blurring the lines of collaborative work. If we’re in the WWE and we have a match, I assume they were gonna perform, just like stunts in a movie, and our concern is to safely do the show. That’s the magic, and the magic is to be able to do it again and again, and trust your performer. Nothing’s different when you verbally have issues with each other. It’s all in good fun, and it’s all for the business, but you’re supposed to have trust with each other,” John Cena said.
“I violated his trust, and as soon as [WrestleMania 28] was over, I think then, I’m thinking for Dwayne, but I could only think then in his perspective began to be like, woah, first of all, I lost. I finished second, and second of all, I tried to lose with as much humility as possible. There’s an iconic shot of me on one knee, just with the WrestleMania garb around me, with the worst look in my face like I just lost the biggest moment of my life, which I did. Then right after that, the first thing I did was, I went to Dwayne’s mom, and I gave her a big hug. I said, ‘I knew you were brought up in this business. I hope you can understand my perspective.’ I Because I said some bad things to make you feel bad about me, and I said some bad things about your son. I hope what you just saw in our performance, you understand that my goal was simply to sell tickets and do business. She forgave me right there. Then, it was right at Rock’s dressing room, I went to Rock. I said the exact same thing. It’s only we started to build up for [WrestleMania 29] that I got to look at myself in the mirror deeper, and I was like, I was wrong. Not only did I hope he understood my perspective, but a year later, I knew that my perspective was wrong. Yes, it worked, and yes we sold tickets, and yes, people loved it, and they chose sides. It was a real polarizing event, but we could have done that with everybody working together and playing nice. That was my fault.”
In the end, Cena is 100 percent correct; his feud with The Rock drew crazy money, but that doesn't justify making the man across the ring from you feel uncomfortable or unsafe. Though Cena has, by his own admission, gotten much better at putting over new stars, this case is a clear example of where being the top star in the top wrestling company in the world got to his head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTHm5GoGW7c
