As, well, pretty much every fan of pop culture is probably aware of, before Logan Paul was bumping shoulders with the likes of Kevin Owens, John Cena, and Seth Rollins in a WWE ring, he was a social media content creator, making videos with other celebrities and forgoing a path online that made him as many friends and detractors.

One situation that drew far more of the latter to his mentions than the former happened in Japan back in 2018, when Paul filmed and then posted a video featuring Aokigahara, aka the Suicide Forest. Suddenly, sponsorship dollars dried up, public perception turned firmly against him, and celebrities who once worked with him, including future TKO Board of Directors member Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, asked to have their joint content removed from the web in order to avoid being associated with someone with Paul's reputation.

Discussing his relationship with Johnson, who is now his co-worker, in an interview with Cena on ImPaulsive, Paul revealed just how hard it was to see one of his idols distance themselves from him, and how he's struggled with the question of how to make things right now that they work together.

“You and Dwayne are two people I definitely looked up to, a lot, when I was trying to figure out the blueprint for my career that didn't exist. Dwayne, especially. My idol. My hero. He's doing it, to the highest degree. I wanted to be like Dwayne. Eventually, in the same way I met you, I met Dwayne. He was just as cool in person as I thought he was on TV. He's awesome. Made content together. Went viral. 70 million views, 50 million views. Linked up a couple of times. Visited him on the set of Ballers. I would have considered us acquaintances, at least. He was great. Then, Japan happened. I could go into so much depth about my remorse and the place I was in, and the faults I made at that time of my life. I had to really re-wire my brain and backtrack and ask myself how I let that happen and what went wrong in my life where I thought that was okay. In that process, I did a lot of damage. It wasn't something that was on the forefront of my mind, and I've had to do a tremendous amount of therapy and figure out what in my life happened or didn't happen to where I did that,” Logan Paul told John Cena via Fightful.

“DJ was one of the people I hurt because of his mother's experience. That's his experience to tell, I'm not going to share. I hurt him. So much so that he basically wanted nothing to do with me, and rightfully so. I let down my hero. He requested that I remove all the content we've ever done together and basically kicked me to the curb. I would have done in the same thing, a guy in his position doesn't want to be affiliated with a person who has done something as reprehensible as that. I remember it being such a low moment because I knew I let myself down, my fans down, my family down, but my idol too. It just sucked so bad. It wasn't like I got the call from him. I got it from the publicist. It's not like he did anything wrong. I think my ego told myself that ‘I'm going to remember that, and if I ever become great one day, I'm going to remember this and remember the way I was discarded,' and again, rightfully so. I don't think I've ever been truly able to let go of that. I have a lot of stuff to work through in terms of that. I'm not even sure where to go from here, in terms of reconciliation. We're kind of swimming in the same world a little bit in WWE and I see him coming back and i know we're going to cross paths and I just wonder how I'm going to handle it.”

Wow, that's some surprisingly heavy stuff from the “Maverick,” isn't it? Sure, losing endorsements, being ridiculed online, and having your viability as a content creator being called into question is a tough pill to swallow, but having someone you look up to lose respect for you and severe ties with you must be a heavy feeling, even for someone on top of his chosen field. While Cena believes that the two sides could reconcile at some point in the future, and, to be fair, he knows a thing or two about making up with The Rock, it looks like the ball is firmly in Paul's court to make sure that actually happens, as he's the one who messed up and thus needs to make things right.

John Cena reveals where he'd like to close out his WWE career.

Speaking of John Cena and the future, “The Champ” recently did a media spot on BBC's The One Show to help promote his new movie Argyle and let it be known that the UK holds a special place in his heart, so much so that he'd even like to have his final retirement match, whenever that might happen, at the country's famous O2 at some point down the line.

“So I’ve gone by the construct in my life of never trying to pick my opponents because that’s way above my pay grade, but I’ve been an active advocate for London to be a host of WrestleMania,” John Cena told the BBC via Fightful. “A lot of people think when I go out in the middle of the ring and I say that, it’s just for the local moment, like, ‘We’re the show, we want to make the show happy.’ Fans in the UK, WWE fans are the best, and fans in London specifically, they will let you know how they feel. I don’t think I’ll be able to choose my opponent, but if I could choose a venue, it’d be the O2 in London. So I hope we can make that happen.”

Now, for fans in the know, Cena's appreciation for the UK is no secret, as he cut a 12-minute promo with Grayson Waller at Money in the Bank, where he publically lobbied for a WrestleMania in England at some point in the future, probably not at Wembley Stadium considering the AEW connection but at another similarly famous venue. If Paul “Triple H” Levesque can pull that off in the next three years, then who knows, maybe Cena's final match as an active wrestler will headline the show?