Good Hang with Amy Poehler - John Cena
Episode Date: July 21, 2026John Cena is the babyface of this podcast. Amy hangs with the former WWE star and talks about building his mom a house, watching '80s wrestling at Worcester Centrum, and his morning stretching routine....Host: Amy PoehlerGuests: Cody Rhodes and John CenaExecutive Producers: Bill Simmons, Amy Poehler, and Jenna Weiss-BermanFor Paper Kite Productions: Executive producer Jenna Weiss-Berman, coordinator Sam Green, and supervising producer Joel LovellFor The Ringer: Supervising producers Juliet Litman, Sean Fennessey, and Mallory Rubin; video producers Jack Wilson, Belle Roman, and Aleya Zenieris; lighting director Caroline Jannace; audio producer Kaya McMullen; social producer Bridget Geerlings; video editor Drew van Steenbergen; and bookers Kat Spillane and Paige GarbariniOriginal Music: Amy Miles Check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds: https://Allstate.com Shop your beauty favorites from Ulta Beauty on Uber Eats! https://www.ubereats.com/brand/ulta-beauty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
The Hulu original series Furious is coming to Disney Plus, starring Emmy Rossum.
Furious follows FBI agent Alice Black on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating serial killer.
Both walk their own paths toward justice, and as their lives start to intertwine,
the line between right and wrong begins to blur.
Don't miss the three-episode premiere of the Hulu original series Furious on July 27th,
only on Hulu on Disney Plus.
welcome to another episode of Good Hang. We have John Cena with us today, actor, wrestler,
humanitarian, good citizen of the world. And John and I are going to talk about a lot of really
fun stuff today. We're going to discuss what it's like growing up in the Boston area with four
brothers. We are going to decide my new wrestling character and realize that it's going to be
incredibly successful. We're going to talk about Little Brother, the movie that he's in and how much
fun he had working on it. And we're going to discuss how dress and suits are important to him.
And because of that, I'm going to, after this intro, go spiff myself up and make sure that I am
looking good for the interview. But we always like to start these interviews by checking
with someone who knows our guest, who wants to ask us a question to ask our guests and speak
well behind their back. And we are talking to our first undisputed champion on this show,
WWE champion Cody Rhodes.
Cody is calling in on Zoom from a beautiful lake
and I just like that he's a champ.
I love talking to champs.
And let's see what Cody has to say about his buddy
and at times enemy and always mentor, John Cena.
So Cody, are you there?
This episode is presented by Allstate.
Checking Allstate First could save you hundreds on car and charge.
insurance. Not checking how long that recipe takes before you start cooking? Well, that's how you learn
that simmer for four hours is buried halfway down the page. Yeah, checking first is a good idea.
So check Allstate first for an auto quote. It could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with
Allstate. Potential savings vary, subjects to terms, conditions, and availability,
Allstate North American Insurance Company and affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois.
Oh, it's Amy.
Hey, can you hear me?
We can hear you. How are you?
I'm good. I'm sorry if I was doing like the old people yelling. Can you hear me? I don't know how loud I am in the moment. I'm outside. Congratulations, champ. Nice to meet you. Yeah, very nice to meet you. I have to share this with you. You might have heard this already. But where I teach wrestling, we use bowling for votes as a part of the curriculum. No way. How do you use it?
So it's a way what I suggest, I always ask, is anyone anyone ever seen the show? Because it was a big fan of the show.
But I always ask if they have and then they have to go home and watch it that night.
It's a way for young prospect of wrestlers to understand that social media,
if you scroll through 300 positive things,
but then you find that one guy who thought you were fat.
There's no point.
Go with everybody else.
Go with the people who already had your back, you know.
But we use that episode as brought up every camp.
And most people know it, too.
So it's actually a lot of fun.
Oh, my God.
that's so nice to hear.
I would never think to ask if anything from Parks is used in any kind of curriculum.
Oh, yeah.
But you're right.
I bet you have young people who are trying to figure out how to participate in feedback,
which is really hard, especially for a young person to, like, not let that feel too personal.
Well, particularly wrestling is brutal.
I feel like every funnel is one thing,
but I feel like wrestling in Star Wars
is the most divisive social I've ever seen.
You can't just say you like a thing.
Like a thing means you dislike something else.
Yes.
It means war.
Speaking about Star Wars is really interesting.
I'm sure you've made this parallel before.
All this like Heroes Journey stuff
is in the stuff that you all do,
the stories that you make in the ring.
It is very similar,
which is the rise,
and fall and betrayal and like trying to get, you know, like figure out who you are in real time.
It, there is a lot of Joseph Campbell parallels.
Yeah.
I always tell people with the hero's journey for me as a baby face and John as a lifelong baby face, a lot of betrayal.
A lot of betrayal.
It's every week it's new betrayal.
When you know a storyline is happening, when you know, for example,
you're going to get betrayed, let's say, by someone like John.
Do you guys look at each other and go, yeah?
Or do you look at each other and go, oh?
I mean, you guys probably never make that sound, but...
I make that sound a lot internally throughout the course of the day.
Because a lot of like, oh, you know.
But with John, particularly when John, if you've ever seen it,
the moment where he hugs me and his...
face changes, then he was so excited.
And I was more trepidacious in terms of he had never done that.
And it didn't even make sense to do it at this point.
He had never gone, gone rogue, gone bad.
So I just didn't want to screw that massive moment up.
Right.
He taught me everything I know because I drove him around for two years before he got his big tour bus.
John was such a fun riding partner.
A lot of strict rules.
We do this little ritual stop where he had to load up a styrofoam cooler
with an extra 24 beers in the back of the car.
Just in case.
I'd never seen anyone in terms of he was our top star
and the lead baby face at the time, the lead good guy.
This term baby face I'm obsessed with.
Okay, yeah, he is the...
Ultimate baby face.
Even after what he did to me,
Hey, we're still cheering him and booing me.
So it was like, all right.
Okay.
Thanks, guys.
John is pretty great at the magic.
Except for one area that is widely known to wrestling fans and wrestlers.
John will not talk low or in carny, as we would say.
Like, if I need to tell you, Amy Duck the Closeline, I'd say like Dizuk, you know, something.
These little carny, it sounds like.
like fake language, like a pig Latin.
It's like a pig Latin meets snoop talk.
But John yells everything that's going to happen in the ring as loud as he can possibly
yell it.
He calls it for the first four rows, an interactive experience.
God, this is so helpful because one of my questions is like, you know, is figuring out
exactly how you all improvise because you're improvising a lot.
obviously a lot is written and, and, you know, beat it out.
But you're talking about really big physical things that you have to figure out
how to signal to each other in safe ways, obviously.
And that's really funny that.
Screams it.
Screams it.
And then there's a, the last match I had with him at SummerSlam, he's about to slam me
with his big finishing move, which is the attitude adjustment from a table to another table.
So it's highly dangerous.
This is going to hurt.
We're going to do it the safest way we can.
But you can hear him yelling at me why I'm on his shoulders that he can't see because my
arm is over his eyes.
And I never spoke back to John.
I never wanted to speak back.
He's a mentor to me.
But it was one of those moments where I thought, buddy, I'm the one doing this.
I don't give me.
Just throw me.
Like, I'm not worried about your, you're screaming at the top of his lungs.
I can't see.
I really love your relationship.
You guys have a very brotherly relationship.
Oh, good.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, I can't think of another guy who didn't need to take the time.
He definitely didn't need to.
He had, he was the busiest guy on the roster.
He took the time.
He, I was a, another term.
I was, he's not going to agree with this, but I was a job guy.
What's that mean?
I was laying on my back looking up at the lights every night.
I was the three-second tan, as John calls it, you know?
And he still wanted to, he had a belief in me.
Oh, wow.
You know he can speak a little French, too?
Yeah, and Mandarin, right?
Ah, the Mandarin.
I can't.
It's so annoying.
I was just saying, like, it's so embarrassed.
I can't speak another language.
And I don't need somebody to be coming in here and showing off the two that they can't.
speak. Yeah. You know? It's like keep it to yourself. Not on your turf, you know. Exactly.
Not on your turf. We ask the people we speak to before our guest to give our guests a question.
Is there anything big or small, dumb or serious that you think I should ask John about or you'd want to know about him?
Oh, man. What's he going to do with all this knowledge? Right? What's he going to do with it?
We don't have a book yet, right?
There's no book.
Does he plan to write a book and what is he going to do with all this knowledge?
And if he plans to do nothing, what was the point?
I don't know.
Perfect question.
Yeah, I don't know if that's any good, but what's the point, right?
But it's too short.
You're not going to be speaking Mandarin, you know, ever.
It totally speaks to the bigger thing, which is like, I want.
want to know, like, when do we all get to rest?
Yeah.
When do you finally go down, John?
When do you rest?
Yeah.
What's the thing that's going to take you down?
What new thing?
So, yes, that's the thing.
Something he's going to tackle, he won't be able to do.
Actually, that's a really good question is, what can you not do well?
He'll give you some, excuse my language.
He'll give you some BS, humble, humble answer.
God, he's so well, he's so well put together.
You got your hands full
No kidding
But you know
I do really well with these big guys
Oh yeah
I don't know what to tell you
But I really know how to handle them
I'm a huge fan of the show
So I know you do
Oh my gosh
Thank you so much
It means so much
That you talk to us today
And I know John will be so thrilled
That we talked
And it's really nice to meet you
Very nice to meet you too
Have the best day
And thank you again
If you need anything
And anyone wants to reach out
I got
I could talk about John for days
Oh, awesome. Thank you so much for your time. Such a pleasure.
All right, champ. Talk to you later. Have a good one. You too.
Uber Eats has all your summer favorites from Alta Beauty, which means your sunscreen can just come to you.
Your daily SPF, that new cleanser you've been wanting to try, your favorite bronzer, whatever you need to glow this summer,
delivered in as little as 25 minutes at the same prices you'd pay in store.
And you can connect your Alta Beauty rewards so you never.
miss out. Get Ulta Beauty on Uber Eats and get your summer glow on.
Ultra Beauty on Uber Eats. Terms apply. See app for details.
We enjoy a tasty beverage every once in a while. I want to get you something that was like
highly rated, but I didn't want to get you a hundred point wine because with a hundred point
wine when you drink you're like, I don't get it. It was something like 98. Like, oh man,
they got jipped. So hopefully it's a good glass. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much.
So nice. A lot of fun conversations happen over wine. I want to talk to you about wine. I know you love wine.
Or you know a lot and you know a lot about it. I have had a lot about it. I've had a lot of it.
But it is like that thing that you can just keep learning and learning and learning. As with most things, you can get deeper in the rabbit hole.
John Cena is here. I'm so excited that I changed into, I put a suit jacket on for you and a tie.
I put a suit jacket on for you and a pocket watch for you. Is that a personal pocket watch? It is. I even have the. Does it mean something?
Of course it does. I haven't my readers.
Wait, let's put our readers on. Let me see yours.
I will do the full presentation again.
Starts out as a monocle.
Here we are.
Now that falls under some haberdashery.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I like that you, do you like to wear a suit?
I do.
I do.
How come?
I think, you know, I've tried to reflect on this.
I think it has to do with uniformity.
I do.
So like there's the uniformity.
have known what you have, but then the freedom to do cool stuff within that.
Yeah.
You know, like, not exactly base suit colors, so there's an aggressive stance with the pinstrike.
But it's still going to be like, okay, non-low-cut waistcoat, two-button coat, everything fits.
Do you get them made for you?
And that's another thing, right?
So, like, I used to hate suits because they used to be so uncomfortable.
Right.
Until people are like, no, no, we make it around you.
And I'm like, say what?
And then someone made me a suit.
And I put it on and it felt like a warm-up suit.
Yeah.
Are you the same gen as me?
Are you Gen X?
Yes, I believe so.
Okay.
So I feel like in our lifetime, we've watched clothing get just more and more and more casual.
In our lifetime, I feel we have watched clothing get more efficient.
Yeah.
You know, this one suit has made a stretch fabric so you can run a mile in it and he never have to wash it.
Right.
It's more of that.
Yes.
And this connects to kind of what I wanted to start talking.
Again, just my lens.
Yeah, but I think it connects to a bigger thing, which is there's something about the way in which you participate in what would almost be considered at times old fashioned things, which are professionalism, politeness, like wearing a suit, being like being able to be dependable.
All those things sometimes feel like, sadly that they feel sometimes.
old fashioned. My experience, I've got a chance to work with you and had the pleasure to get to know
you a little bit over the last couple of years. And, and like, you're just such a professional,
John. Like, you're such a hard worker. You do what you say you're going to do. And even the suit,
like, feels like a symbol of, like, I'm taking this seriously, I guess. Where does that come from?
Have you always had that? Have you always been that person? So there's a lot there.
Okay.
There's a whole lot there.
You've got wine.
We're fine.
I don't know how simple that.
Simple, yes.
You want to be in shape, go to the gym.
Simple.
Easy?
I don't know.
Right.
Those things aren't easy.
Yeah.
And you equate those things with success.
Success is ambiguous.
There is no one recipe for success.
Yeah.
What I do,
is what I believe will get me the next opportunity,
but I'm also wrong a lot of times.
Where do I get those things?
Through wisdom and experience,
if we were doing this interview in 2005,
I would have an oversized sports jersey on.
I would have a backwards Mitchell and Ness hat on.
I would have come in with more diamonds
than I've ever seen in my life or I need.
I would have been wearing a set of Reebok pumps
and a set of jorts.
and I never would have broken the character of the doctor of thuganomics.
Yeah, you would have stayed there.
Because that at the time I felt was my path to success.
How did I get these things?
Good question.
So I don't know how to succeed.
I don't.
I always try to put odds in my favor and I appreciate people's opportunity.
I'm also not supposed to be here.
I'm a kid from West Newberry who didn't train for this.
I didn't put in the hours of improv classes like you.
It's like a happy accident.
All said, life hands people opportunity and hands people some bad cards.
If you get an opportunity card, man, try to work to make the most of it.
Yeah.
I am where I'm at because I know how to fail.
And I talk to people about this a lot and I want to try to, I'm trying to expand on this idea to get it out to people.
Yeah.
The things you do in life.
I can guarantee you will fail if you are unreliable, unprofessional, uninvested, and uncoachable.
Those four things.
And I don't mean like work.
I mean like life.
It's so interesting you say that because sometimes when people ask about like succeeding in the kind of stuff that I do,
I always say something that it feels like almost simple, but it's like just be fun to work with.
And it falls under that category, which is when people want you around, you get more opportunity.
Like the, it's the final product of what's going to happen in your life, to your point about what you're going to be successful at.
You never know.
You don't even know if it's going to be what you want.
It always changes.
Sure.
But the experience, the way people feel around you, they remember.
They remember I liked working with that person.
I had a good time.
Or I liked seeing that person.
I liked being entertained by that person.
I had a good interaction.
Yeah.
That doesn't necessarily guarantee success.
What I'm not saying is if you're coachable, professional,
reliable, and passionate, you will succeed.
Because there's still a level of magic dust and ambiguity and luck and things beyond
our control.
I can't tell you how to succeed.
What I can do is if you are unprofessional, uncoachable,
uninvested, and unreliable, you will fail.
100%.
guaranteed. I want to talk to you about your
thoughts about winning and losing and about collaboration
and like, and I feel like it goes back to
probably the fact that you grew up in a family with
four brothers, five boys.
Amazing.
Yeah, that is a feat.
Your mom.
Well, I mean, she had a, albeit she had probably,
she had probably a tough 30-year run, I would say.
We got a chance to, so John and
I got to work together a few different times in different ways.
And you told me a story about your brothers and you and crayons.
Yeah.
Can you tell that story?
Yeah, sure.
So the house was wonderful and not too many safety guards.
So if helicopter parenting is like constantly looking over your kid, my parents were submarine parents?
Like I don't know.
I'm trying to find the exact opposite.
hiding in the basement?
I think the only safety concern was at night we do like a 10 in 10 inspection.
You got 10 fingers, you got 10 toes, go to sleep.
That was such a cool thing to have as a young person.
Yeah.
Because we essentially could have an idea and do the idea.
Amazing.
So because there were so many of us and my dad would work and my mom would stay home,
we would just do stuff.
Like in a box of 64 crayons, if one kid was behaving and coloring in the lines,
Three other kids grabbed as many as they could and just ran on the walls and did whatever just to be like, this is great.
Because at the time, doing that as a kid, that is great.
Yeah.
But my poor mom would be like, oh, man, Matt, what a great.
What the f?
I can't even imagine.
Meanwhile, like laundry for an army is piling up.
And she's like, oh, my God, now I've got to feed everybody again.
I just fed you guys three hours ago.
Taking years off her life.
But honestly, she had an uphill climb for three decades.
And now all of us collectively as a group are like, man, we need to make, we need to make sure she's doing all right always.
So these last, you know, four plus decades have been a different chapter in my mom's life.
And especially like the last 20 between all of us and her have been real special.
I want to ask you about that because I know you've done some very special things for her.
But growing up in Boston in the 80s, not like, you know, were you guys, was your family, you know, like, were you known as like the Sina brothers?
Oh my God.
Yes.
And they all came walk together.
So this, I grew up in West Newberry.
We got to take Boston out of the equation.
Well, we all say Boston no matter where we grew up.
Yeah.
Because anything around, no one cares.
Right.
So West Newberry is, if you keep going northeast of the state of Massachusetts to do New Hampshire,
line. There are some old maritime towns
that are quite beautiful. And inland
there are some even smaller farming towns.
And that's West Newbury.
1,200 people.
And in 1985, your neighbor
is acres away. And
you got to ride bikes everywhere. It was like
out of a movie. It was like
Goonies. Yeah. I mean, you were
your own. It was awesome. So yes,
we were the scenes. And we could show up
and a basketball game would ensue because we've
brought the team. It was
an incredible place to
grow up.
Yeah.
And I'm so glad I didn't stay there because it is not a diverse look at the world.
Right.
But man, what a cool place to grow up, especially in the ages.
Especially because when you're a young boy, like boys, young boys are sometimes like dogs.
You have to kind of like run them out.
You have to run them.
Yeah.
They need like a yard and you should throw the ball.
Man, we had acres and like we could go out in the forest and try to burn the forest down.
Thank you, West Newbury Fire Department.
Or we could have like pick up football games that would end in brawl for all.
So where parents are just pulling up in their cars and ripping.
That's my kid.
But it was great.
And it was great.
And did you learn how to like without.
I learned how to lose a fight, which I think is really like, man.
That's why I'm a diplomat.
Like you get your ass kicked a few times.
You're like, yo, that this sucks.
Yeah.
And what are some rules to lose a fight?
Like what did you learn by losing a fight?
Humility.
Yeah.
embarrassment, physical harm.
And another thing is like, winning a fight also sucks.
It doesn't feel good.
Yeah.
Especially when you're like, man, we just fought over like,
who gets to play bass is loaded next?
Like, what?
And that kid's hurt.
Right.
So you get on both sides of that equation.
Yeah.
And I don't think people realize that, you know, and when we grew up,
in my high school, there was a fight every day after school.
And it was like, oh, who's going to fight today after school?
and women too.
It was common.
It was very common.
And in fact, when I went to college for a while, I would go to parties and I would just kind of stand there.
It's like an episodic 3 o'clock high.
Yes.
And people, and the people would be like, what are you worried about?
I'm like, there's too many people here from different towns.
Like, this is going to go down.
The different town thing.
Different towns.
If someone showed up at your party from a different town, forget it.
But as, you know, and not to gender.
But if the Havreel kids show up, yes.
Yikes.
Like kids from Woburn show up.
Like,
it's going to be a bloody mess.
But do you have to, like, as a big guy, growing up as a tough guy with brothers, like, but also you felt like you were bullied a little bit too, right?
I got the shit kicked out of me every day.
Every day because I was a scrawny kid and dressing like MC Hammer.
And Belbiv DeVoe, it was like if Belbiv DeVoe de Beau and MC Hammer ran into each other.
Yeah.
Rayon and airbrushed denim.
And you got picked, high top fade.
Beat up by your brothers or by people in school?
By my peers.
So it was a multi-town high school with a junior high is at one place in the high school, is at one place.
And Merrimack's buses were here, and Groveland's buses were here, and West Newberry's buses are over in high school.
And I'm in junior high.
And you have to like, I see the walk down the sidewalk as if it was yesterday.
I'm walking down the sidewalk and I'm passing the kids who are like 15, 16, who can't drive yet and still have to go to the bus.
and I'm the one SOB wearing like rayon polka dots in an 80s rock, country music,
combat boot, denim, you know, mullets, like you can paint the picture.
I stand out like a sore thumb and I was an easy target and like a scrawny, skinny kids.
Even something as simple is like, boom, down the hill I go.
Right.
Shitty comment.
Like that was on the daily.
I was like the daily.
But that's trauma.
So, so.
That's traumatic, John.
I appreciate you saying that.
That is traumatic.
Life deals us all hills to climb.
Yeah.
I doubled down.
It was, it was a great experience for me.
Here I sit, dressed loudly.
Yeah, yeah.
As myself.
Right, right.
I don't have a stylist.
I prefer to do these things without makeup because I want people to see me as me.
Now I understand the suit.
If I'm creating a character,
yeah.
put as much shit on me as you want.
Right.
But this is me.
Right.
And this is how I feel comfortable.
When those kids picked on me for how I dressed,
I would go straight to Liberty Tree Mall and be like, what is worse than this?
Yeah.
I'm turning it up.
I got the Liberty Tree Mall.
And then like, and then I found weights.
So I didn't learn to fight.
I wasn't like, yo, I got to learn a fight.
I'm just going to project the art of like the math isn't so much in your favor anymore.
And by the time I got over to the new building, I was 15, I'd been working out for two and a half years, and I was stronger than everybody.
So it was like, ah, I may get them, but if I catch a stray, I'm going to get my teeth knocked out.
So it hedged, like it worked.
So what's it like to go home to Boston?
It's wonderful, actually.
Yeah, yeah.
They must feel like they really, because the one thing I'll say, one of the things about Boston, that's really lovely, is your hometown really embraces you.
Like if they feel like, if they have some pride in you, you really feel it when you go back.
Like people really feel like, hey, they share, like, look, you always know from Bostonians how they feel.
They tell you to your face.
You're good, you're bad.
I like you.
I don't like you.
It's weird.
They do, but they don't.
I want to elaborate on that, but continue.
Yeah.
Do you think I'm wrong that they're more passive aggressive?
No, no.
They'll tell you how they feel about you.
Right.
They'll never tell you how they feel.
Oh, no.
Feelings?
And that, like, so that's why, that's why recently going home has been way better.
Yeah.
Because my brothers are all hitting that, like, late 40s approaching the half century now.
And they're all, we all have wisdom of like, man, it's kind of a, kind of a shitty mindset if somebody's like, hey, I was life.
And you're like, ah, it's taken forever.
Like that.
Yeah.
But that's also West Newberry.
Totally.
And, man, as beautiful as the landscape is, sometimes.
there's a lot more anchors than sales over there.
Yeah.
You know, and I love the pride.
You're right.
Like when someone from a community makes it, the community has made it.
That's right.
I like that.
That's right.
Because that's a win for everybody.
Hopefully it gets everybody's spirits.
Yeah.
And I don't mind that.
It's just sometimes hard to get anything real out of anybody.
Oh, babe.
The idea of figuring out your feelings and saying them in real time, that was not what we grew up with.
Yeah.
I mean, I still kind of can't believe sometimes when people are able to locate their feeling and then say it.
It's like, how did you do that?
Because we just, it's a skill.
It's a skill to figure out what you're actually feeling.
Yeah.
Feel it and then express it.
That's like a lifetime of work.
And when you're around culturally, this thing and this feeling of just like, to your point, there's a lot of like a lot of comedy.
A lot of self-deprecation.
And a lot of self-deprecation.
and a lot of action.
A lot of pessimism.
A lot of pessimism and a lot of action over words, right?
So someone's not going to necessarily say, like, I love you, but they're going to like fix your tire.
Oh, that's the moushole.
Yeah.
The fuck you're broken down for.
What do you fucking idiot.
Let me fix your tire.
All right.
Get the fuck out of here.
Fuck off.
Yeah.
Like that's literally their way of saying like, oh, man.
Yeah.
Tough day, right?
Yeah.
Let me help you out here.
Right.
I hope everything goes better for you.
But it's not that.
It's not that.
Yeah.
No.
Yeah.
It's asshole.
You can't even fucking roof a house.
I'll get up and fucking roof it in two hours.
You told me a story, though, about, and I want to get to wrestling because I have so many questions about it.
And as a person who, the Bostonian and me had an early experience with it.
But it's changed so much.
We've kind of lived in the same world, though.
I know.
Okay.
Your mom, you bought her a house.
My mom earned a castle.
But that story is such a good story.
We settled on a house.
Okay, just tell a little bit of that story how it went, if you don't mind.
There's never any land for sale in West Newbury.
Right.
And there came a large plot for sale in the height of development, and it was heavily
overpriced.
I don't know if anyone was following the financial ticker, but something happened in 2008.
And that same person...
Everybody made good decisions.
Well, the culmination of all those good decisions happened, and they stopped pouring
the champagne. The person who was selling the property came back and said, hey, we just want to recoup our
engineering costs. Would you still be interested? So a value opportunity came up of like, I don't need
this, but I have an idea of what I can do with it. And my brother Dan just so happened to be in really good
graces and working for a contractor at the time. And he's one of the most respected individuals in
in like our small building community, met with him.
And I kind of specced out like, what would this idea take in real time?
He's like, less than the cost of what they offered you to buy the place for.
And like, and you can do all this?
He's like, I can't.
It's like, I'd like you to put your name on this place and make it something you're proud of.
He's like, I still can do that.
Okay, do it.
And like a secret meeting like this.
Oh, yeah.
And it was like.
Everyone wearing suits.
Every lot of smoke, everybody's scotch.
It was 8 a.m.
It was like, Dan.
we're doing this.
Don't fucking say it works.
The story is I'm moving back home.
So building a house takes a long time.
And it's a beautiful plot on the hill where like from three towns over you can see what's going on.
So now we got a clear land and we're digging trenches and we're building this nice, beautiful New England home that exposes itself to the river.
It's got viewpoints.
It's got this crazy copper dome and all this stuff.
Everything is settled for like creatively.
Everything's on.
the first floor. And there are multiple floors, but everything you need to get in and out of the
access is on the first floor. And everybody's watching the project and everybody's like,
when are you coming home? And everyone, you know, in the family is kind of excited. And meanwhile,
I'm still in my residence happy in Florida. So it finally gets done two years later. And it's around
Thanksgiving, which is a great time in New England because everyone like comes home for Thanksgiving.
And they go to the bars for Thanksgiving and the Thanksgiving football game. My mom's birthday is close
to Thanksgiving. So we throw a Thanksgiving.
thing and it's not for my mom's birthday.
Everybody comes over
because we're keying the door to the house for the first time
place still smells new.
And taking everybody for a tour
and I'm bragging about like, ah,
and this is this and this thing. And I built a bar
over the garage
because I had one space for me.
My mom doesn't like that, but she wanted to come
see the whole house. And when everybody gets in the bar
room, I give my mom a birthday present.
And it's the key to the house.
And she like lost.
that like she absolutely she's like I can't I can't I'm like no it's already taken care of what
movers are coming tomorrow my mom uh was living in the third floor of like a triple family
in an attic in 300 square feet with her stuff packed in and she was just by herself packed in
and she was content and happy that's who my mom is she's she's a lunch pale blue like she'd go to work
she wouldn't accept it so then I had to negotiate I'd be a different amount of
of like you don't understand, there'll be trucks there tomorrow.
Everyone's on board.
We're going to move your stuff over.
I'll tell you what, it's already here.
This isn't for me.
Could you please at least give it a try so all this doesn't go to waste?
Well, if it's going to go to waste.
And that was like 15 years ago.
And she's been there ever since.
And now it's her place.
And we get together there on holidays and it's her place.
And that's what a son should do for his mother.
Well, again.
Yes.
Buy your mother a house.
She earned it.
She absolutely earned it.
It's such a beautiful story too, John,
because you also included everybody in that surprise.
You know, like, and you, I just think, I don't know,
I just,
I just think it's so indicative of how you're always kind of thinking about how can I,
how can I extend my gratitude?
You're such a generous, generous person,
and we'll talk about that.
but after this my parents are going to call me and say why haven't you bought me a house
100%.
Bill and I,
are going to be like,
we're against the wall.
We heard John on the podcast.
And we're wondering why you haven't built us a house.
You know, my dad used to take me to wrestling in the 80s.
We used to go see.
You're kidding.
No.
So we used to see Hulk Hogan.
Where?
Sergeant.
I know you're going to ask me this.
I forget.
Maybe like the Worcestercentrum.
Or as we would say,
Lista.
The Worcester.
So it was Hulk Hogan, Sergeant Slaughter, the Iron Cheek.
Yeah.
High 80s, you know, very...
So here's the cool thing.
There were a lot more performers on that card, but you remember, like,
Americana, patriotism.
Totally.
It was, yeah, it was USA all the way.
Xenophobic, all that.
But that was...
Yeah, totally.
That was a time.
And I remember watching it and being, like, almost, like, you know, in retrospect, now,
was kind of like the closest we could get to Las Vegas or something.
Like it was like it felt like a high level, high energy performance.
That's on the bullseye.
Yeah, with audiences that were really, really invested.
Yeah.
And can you explain, wrestling to me feels like a combination of dance, choreography, writing and story.
and like magic that you will never know the secrets to?
I'll take that.
Okay. Is that fair?
I think that's very fair.
So when you are performing and you are in that arena
and the audience gets to interact with you
and you are, how much have you prepared for that day?
Because the difference is like any other performance,
there is such skill needed for the physical.
I mean, you, like, Cirque de Soleil doesn't wing it.
No.
But you, there is a, there's a amount of improv in wrestling that I noticed when I would see it and also in watching it now.
That is, like, I can't always tell how much is prepared.
How much is actually prepared and rehearsed, I guess.
It depends.
It depends.
It completely depends on the performance.
Okay.
Yeah, it completely does.
Some don't.
Some.
What do you like to do?
I like to be an improvisational performer.
Right.
But that is not, I don't go out and wing it.
Right.
I prepare my ass off.
Right.
So I start with the creative part.
What is the story?
Yeah.
So if we're fighting over the fact that you stole 10 grand from me.
Right.
Everything I do is going to relate back to your theft.
And everything you do is going to defend that you never took it.
And the thing that WWE is different than S&L,
that is different than sketch, the audience is the act.
Not observing the act.
The audience is the act.
So as a performer, the way I approach it is, okay, I have 25 minutes.
We have a match together.
And we've been telling the story of you've stolen something from me.
$10,000.
For three weeks.
This is a lot of money.
You needed it for your...
I was going to pay off my mom's house.
And you took that away from me.
And now she can't.
get in. And now she's going to be evicted.
Yep.
So just by...
What are you going to do about it?
You've kicked my mom out of her house.
Yeah. Oh, that's so good.
You did that. Yeah.
And I almost... This was the last payment.
Yeah.
You know, I've...
And they're going to take it. The bank's going to foreclose.
And I got the keys and I'm just swinging them right in front of you.
Yeah. Yeah. So now, you, you, being a creative mind, we could have that wrestling match right now.
Right.
Give us 25 minutes. I'll take 35.
Okay. I love that. And then you're right. So all the moves are kind of connected to that, right?
Like, everything goes back.
to that theme. And here's where it gets very interesting. If the story dictates, in this match,
it dictates. You've stolen something from me. We're going to ring the bell. I'm going to show
that I'm more skilled and I've earned the right to make this payment. You're going to cheat just
like you stole and be like, no, I'm better. And then there's going to come a point in the story where the
crowd is like, would you do something? It's the typical Hulk up. It's called the comeback.
So what I do is we have our why.
What we need to really rehearse is from the comeback to the finish.
Okay.
And that's usually, that's usually the last.
We need to rehearse the physical part of that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
The third act needs to be ad nauseum.
You need to have it.
Right.
Because you're doing dangerous things.
You are doing dangerous things, but there's a fundamental trust between performers that you know X skill.
I know X skill.
And the conversation we can have before is, do you do anything specific that's outside of the fundamentals that I should know about?
Right.
And the person who leads gets all that information and stores all these things in their card catalog.
The third act needs to be prepared because it can also change.
Right.
Basically, you use the first two acts to go out and improvise.
Right.
And if we get out there in the Worcester Center, which I believe to be a rowdy crowd, but slightly different than Boston and Hartford, but they change.
and they're like, we're for you.
Right.
We don't want that mom to have our house.
But keep in mind, we need to gear for that moment
where they're like, John, do something.
Right.
So immediately, a piece of line that I would throw on in the water
is punch me in the face.
And they might cheer.
You would say that to me, punch me in face?
I would say immediately, punch whatever we had planned
if we talked about something.
And they came out and we're like,
yeah, hey, hey, I'm like, punch me in the face now.
Or like, I'll go out.
want to make sure.
I will go out and turn my shoulder to the crowd as if I'm confused.
And when I come back, hit me in the face.
Bam.
So we did two things there.
You threw the first punch, which is not fair.
It's not virtuous.
And you did it when I wasn't looking.
Right.
So these subconscious things of like, they're for Amy, but this is my mama.
Bam.
Oh, geez, get on me.
Come here.
And then I would have you just beat the tire to me.
And they might like that.
And then I would just have you lean into that.
Yeah.
Where it becomes like, oh, man, it's like watching a bad fight.
And then I would just listen to be like, well, come on, do something.
Do something.
Nah, screw you.
Do something.
Okay.
Duck, here we go.
And then we go into, now the audience is working with us rather than against us.
But there have been instances where the people behind the curtain will tell the ref to tell you like, switch the finish.
So we've decided that the other person is going to win.
So if you're super prepared, you can change things.
Switch the finish.
And change in real time.
Now, keep in mind, as I'm saying, when I turn around, punch me in the face, I'm listening
to the crowd.
I'm hoping you're going to be there.
I'm also listening to my ref.
So sorry, that is.
I thought that was real.
No, it's fake.
So real ruse.
Anyway, I have the ref being like, you have 17 minutes left.
You have 16 minutes left.
So, like, it's all happening in real time.
Wow.
And there are coaches watching you from behind a curtain that will tell the ref what they think you should do.
Right.
Oh, you're getting notes.
You're getting notes in real time.
In real time.
But that's why live TV is so thrilling.
It's great.
That's why I wanted to do it forever.
And I just physically, I can't do it anymore.
But that's why anyone says, like, what do you like more, wrestling?
Yeah.
That's why I got run out of Hollywood the first time around.
You talked about that.
I love what you said, which is like...
Look at what we just talked about.
That's fucking great.
Right. You can feel the excitement.
The moment, the crowd, the noise.
And then when you get, like, when you get fluent at it, when you're like, oh, I kind of
understand this.
I'll do this.
And then the challenge becomes like, oh, man, the UK crowd is throwing a beach ball around.
How do I work that into the act?
Go, I can get that thing and pop it.
When you come back, when you come back, I'm going to give you my finish.
Real time.
This stuff, I've had people get married.
I've had people start fights and stands.
and we work it all into the act.
That's amazing.
Just because you're prepared.
It's the opposite of like doing stand-up and not wanting a heckler, basically.
You want that feeling that people are listening and participating.
Here's the thing.
It's not that we want it.
It's just it is.
It is.
Stand-up.
The kind of protocol is like, enjoy the comedy.
Don't heckle.
Yeah.
Here it's like you have paid your money to heckle.
Yeah.
And there's 12,000 of you.
All right.
Good luck.
And you can heckle en masse.
Yeah.
Chants start out that are too hot for TV, that Netflix is turning us off and turning us off.
I was going to say, like, the audio goes out.
Like, it's crazy.
And you can't, the more you try to be like, calm down everybody.
Yeah, of course.
You don't want to be the calm down character.
You have to understand that you're working with them.
That would be my character.
That would be part of the act.
I would be like, you guys, it's so loud.
That would be my thing.
Guys, it's so late.
From Uber and Massachusetts.
I'd be like, it's so late,
and it's so loud.
I'm like, why are we fighting?
Why are we fighting?
This is crazy.
That would be my character.
I, do you hear that?
Let's take a nap.
Do you hear that off in the distance?
It's the money printing machine.
Take a nap.
Oh, man.
Homb down shirts.
We sell camamil tea.
Oh, this is amazing.
That's actually a great idea.
I can hear the money.
I can hear it.
I can hear it.
I go, shh.
And all of my whole,
All of my moves are like to just be like quiet.
Just like, and I just snap and they go down.
Just be quiet.
Just come on.
And then everybody brings their blankets in there like,
shh, nobody calm down.
Wait.
We sell big foam hands.
Wait.
Calm down, Amy.
One when the entire place is quiet.
CDA.
Calm down, Amy.
CDA, it's instead of CBD oil, it's CDA.
CDA.
We'll get you that.
We get that brand partnership working.
This is fucking genius.
We did this.
We just did this here.
And here's what's also so crazy about the WW.
You might see that character.
They'll be watching me like, hmm.
Yeah, they're on to something.
Get the CBD gal.
I love what you said in your transition to acting is that it was confusing to not have the show.
You know, like the super long hours, lots of waiting around for your time.
Different mindset.
Totally.
And you spoke about how in the beginning it was really confusing.
As a young 20-something.
I want it to be there
and I want to go to the bar afterwards.
Yeah, right.
And then do it in the next town
and then the next town.
And get instant feedback.
It's the best.
Yeah.
And I'm not saying like crushing it is awesome.
It's the best when you bomb.
Yeah.
It's the best.
Right.
Because then you're like whizzing to be like,
I got another performance in 24 hours.
What do I do?
Like it's the best.
Yeah.
And you don't get feedback when you're shooting of,
I mean, you do from the director.
It's different.
It's a different mindset.
Yeah.
And it took me
appreciation of the mindset to really apply.
Yeah.
And people like you to bet on me and know that like, oh, man, I'm getting an opportunity here.
What can I do?
Show up early and fucking be prepared.
Yeah.
Be ready to go.
I mean, okay, so we work together in a movie called Sisters.
Me and Tina, the great Paula Pell, and it was so fun.
Tons of comedians.
Great cast.
Great cast.
Yeah, we're stacked out there.
It was so fun to work with you.
And you and Paula Pell fell in.
love you love each other.
And I, I mean, to me, I,
you had a few conversations over wine.
You and Paula had a few wine.
What, what did you guys, do you guys hung out and drank wine?
A lot.
What's, I mean, what's so great about Paula?
What do you love about her?
I like her perspective.
I love her courage.
Man, like, I, I just like that energy.
Like, again, I say anchors in sales.
She's a sale.
Yeah.
You know, like always curious, always creative,
off the wall.
Yeah.
I just know, I know any idea is going to have like that whimsy, that magic in it.
Yeah.
And I want to be with those people.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Did you really, were you a big comedy fan growing up?
Because you've done a lot.
What were you watching?
What were you watching?
What were you watching?
At a young age, I was watching stuff I shouldn't be watching.
So my dad was the only person in my only male in New England that didn't care for sports.
Not kidding.
Like we never grew up with the Red Sox, the Sucks.
Because that stuff all happened when I got to junior high.
Right.
And I had to fall in a peer group.
So, like, I got to start caring about sports.
Right.
My dad liked old 80s titty comedies and pro wrestling.
Like, Benny Hill, he loved the best.
So I'm watching like.
Benny Hill, people don't understand how important Benny Hill was.
I mean, it's, it's, and now you watch it now and you're like, Jesus Christ, this is a terrible show.
Like, Benny Hill is talking about predator.
It just didn't age well.
But at the time.
But at the time, I remember being a little kid being like, what is a lady standing behind a bunch of melons?
Yep.
And Benny Hill's like, he, he, like a cartoon character trying to grab it.
There's always a chasing, and there's always a chase.
And it was like, what is this?
Yeah.
And so in our psyche, Benny Hill.
Yeah.
The chase with the music has become a meme.
Totally.
You don't have to do the Benny Hill style, but you do chase the music and it's a meme.
Yeah.
And did they watch the music?
Like, did they...
We watched, like, Kentucky Fried movie.
Yes.
Animal House, Caddyshack.
Yes.
Anything Rodney did.
Yeah.
Like, I mean, you name it.
I mean, all those comedies.
We talked about Mr. Mom.
Like, it's just 80s comedies.
Yes.
My dad would literally fast forward through the romance of like the rom-coms.
Gag into the jokes.
But they were great.
Yeah, but dude, some of them, like, you go back and you're like,
oh my God, Porky's.
Porky's was a that was on
heavy rotation
and when you were a young woman watching
Porkies it was not good
so John
it really fucked it really fucked with our heads
I get it did because it was like
what is going on
it's like there was so much like you know
I remember watching weird science and being like
incredible movie and then a couple years later I'm like
two teenage boys create a sex robot
it's Kelly LeBrock
and they're like come sex robot
come meet our friends and I'm like, that did, that does fuck you on.
It does.
We saw, I'm sure this has happened where you look at an 80s movie.
You're like, this is hilarious comedy.
And then you play it and you're like, oops.
There's a lot of that.
But you have, you have a real knack and love, I think, for comedy especially, but you do all different kinds of acting.
What are you, what do you, like, what's your relationship to acting right now?
Like, you know, you're retired.
I'm a retired physical.
We'll see.
No, no, no, no.
Okay.
So I have stated that speaking in absolutes is impossible.
Yeah, exactly.
I've also used the term it would be financial suicide for someone to be like,
here's what it's going to take.
And I'll be like, you did it.
I'm a liar.
Financial suicide.
You know that's how Judge Judy negotiates her contracts.
She slides over a number.
That is, she's such a G.
She's such a G.
And then she goes, and if you don't want me to do it,
guess what?
Guess what?
Who cares?
I got, I'm good.
I got a, I got a 315.
It's 307.
She's like, she slides.
She slides and they look and then they go, welcome back or whatever.
So I'm never performing physically again.
Okay, got it, got it.
And there's multi-tears to that.
I need to stop because physically I want to be, I want to enjoy a long good life.
I don't want to have a bunch of crusty years and punishing my body.
The math isn't in my favor for the good years.
What is the part of your body that barks the most when it's...
Low back, but so I'm a male or I'm a human at 50.
That's everyone.
Yeah.
Aside from that, I did really good.
That's great.
Do you do like Pilates and yoga and like stretchy stuff?
Heavy stretchy stuff.
Yeah.
And I hate it.
And I do it a lot all the time.
Can you touch your toes?
I can.
I can't touch my toes.
Stay in France.
The suit is tough.
My God, John is doing it. He's touching his toes.
I actually can't bend farther than the suit.
Whoa!
That's really good, John.
I can go hands flat on the floor.
That's my stretch.
Hands flat on the floor?
That's my stretch every day in the shower.
And if you walk in on me taking a shower,
you'll see me in a different POV.
Man, I was really...
It's just all the funky bits.
Spread open.
That is the...
Every morning, full spread.
Start with that full spread.
Man, I was really hoping that you would be not flexible.
No, because I have to work on that.
Oh, you have to work at it.
That's incredible.
I want to move around.
Yeah.
So I can talk about it or do it.
Okay.
And it sucks and I hate it.
And I do it.
Oh, God.
And it's great.
You're good at doing things you don't like to do.
But I like to do them because I like what it yields.
Yeah.
And forced austerities are a luxury because life gives you stuff that you really don't want to do
that you didn't get to choose.
And a lot of times to choose, like, I want to do this or want to be good at this.
All right.
It's going to be a lot of things that are going to be tough.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I'll fucking stretch more.
Jesus.
You got to.
I know.
You got to.
I mean, it's just like a crusty rubber band.
You got to make sure.
Don't let it get too weird.
Oh, God.
Okay.
So physically I'm good.
So you're physically good and you're feeling good.
And your relationship to acting now feels like what?
What have you learned about yourself as you've become, as you've acted more and more?
What have I learned?
acting and wrestling are the same.
The same.
Interesting.
I don't run the company
so I don't control who wins and loses.
I get a chance to make choices
within my story, but I can't change the finish.
I should be prepared.
I should hit my time.
I shouldn't ask for more than I'm given
and I should be grateful.
I have, if you do good work
and you are professional,
it increases the math of people calling you back.
Right. And also I got to say, John,
you're such a softie.
You're like, you're really, really,
I talked about it earlier,
person. You're the person that's given the most, you know, you've fulfilled more make a wish
wishes than any celebrity over 650 at this point. You do incredible amounts of charity work. I know that
about you. Giving that amount of time to people is expensive. It's a lot of energy. And even that sometimes,
I'm sure you walk away feeling like I wish I could have given more. How do you kind of, when you approach
people who are sick and ill because a lot of people are very scared of reaching out when people
are in a tough place. You know what I'm talking about? It's not easy to be around, especially
young people who are having perhaps close to the end of their lives. Remember your why.
Why am I there? Am I there to be scared? Right. Am I there to be sad? No. I am there to be
be the hope. And that is my why. And now I'm retired. People like Cody, people like Ria, people like
Roman. It's their time to be the hope. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Those experiences renew my faith
in humanity. Yeah. They give me gratitude for life. Yeah. I'm so grateful for the people I've met.
Yeah. Like, and man, when people are just raw, emotionally excited, you see it. It's real.
I like what I'm learning about you, John, is like, you're chasing, you're chasing emotion.
Like, you're looking for it.
You, like, want to have real connection.
Don't we all?
No.
I disagree.
Well, I mean, I guess.
I mean, I guess we do.
But yes, we do at the end.
There is no 100% certainty of anything.
There might be a mathematical anomaly.
I guess it's just that people don't make it a priority, right?
Like, they might want it, but it feels like you prioritize connection.
That's what matters.
I'm just, I'm just saying like...
I get what...
I'm just trying to...
I'm trying to do me the best I can.
You won't take a compliment.
You won't take a fucking compliment.
I will say at this moment in life,
loving connection is pretty important.
I'm swinging them around in the ring,
and I'm going to give you a compliment before the finish.
Now, everybody calm down and get quiet,
so I can compliment you.
And now take a nap.
CDA.
CDA.
It's too late.
Okay.
And so, um, uh, uh,
the other thing is you brought up Cody.
Yeah.
So,
we do a thing on the podcast where we talk to someone who knows our guest.
I did this for Idris.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
It's where I gave you the, it's where the mythology behind that bottle of wine,
you've pounded during this show.
Oh, my God.
You did it for Idris Elba.
Yes.
Yes.
I remember you did it.
What was the mythology?
What is the...
I told you the next time I see her bring you bottle of wine.
Oh, I did forget that.
I wish you would let me know you forgot that that way.
I wouldn't have had to carry that in my barrier.
This is so fancy.
this line.
I can't wait to do it.
Okay, thank you for doing that for Idris.
And, um...
It's Idris.
I know.
He's my guy.
And, um, Cody talked to us today.
I'm so glad you talked to him.
Cody wrote, first of all...
Because I will say, not a lot of wrestlers on Goodhank.
You're trying to have a diverse portfolio of people in the entertainment space.
Not a lot of W.W.
Superstars on Good Hank.
I think I might be number one.
Yeah.
Well, we've got two today.
It's right.
See, there we go.
Chill out.
We've reached our quota.
I think this is a great day.
It's a good start.
You've increased your population by 100%.
You're right.
And I do want to talk to more wrestlers.
That's why I started the podcast.
You don't, but you will.
Out of guilt, you'd be like, we gotta.
Could somebody get the number of that guy?
Because we'll have, that'll be crazy.
But, you know, I love talking to Cody.
And that's good.
Well, first of all, I found out that the term baby face, which.
Yeah.
Absolutely love.
And, heal too.
Heal.
Would I be considered a baby face?
So this is another thing.
It's kind of ambiguous.
If you went out and tried to be liked, you would be a heel.
Fuck.
I think if you went out and you herself.
Babyface?
Born baby face.
And then do women get different terms in wrestling?
Do they?
No, the terms are universal.
Okay, love that.
Okay.
And it was really fun to talk about him noticing how much you not only care about your,
own work and pay attention to the good work of others, but that you're kind of constantly
learning new things. I mean, you taught your, you learn, you know Mandarin. A little bit. You know
French I hear. Okay. Congrats. So like that's like you know math. I know a little bit of math. I
don't know all of math. Like I know I know could you speak, could you order in a restaurant in
both those languages? Yes. Congrats. That's great. We'll
Cody was like, what are you, Cody's question is such a brotherly question, which is like,
what are you going to do with all this knowledge? He was like, write a book. And if you don't
write a book, what's the point of it all? And then he was like, what can you not do well?
But Cody was really funny. His question was really this search for knowledge and get, like,
you really want to know things. What do you, what, what's, what's behind that search? What's behind,
like the drive for those things?
Am I honoring life correctly?
Yeah, but why do you worry that you're not?
Because look how lucky I am.
Yeah.
Like am I doing enough?
Am I doing enough?
If I'm not moving forward, I'm not honoring the luck.
I talk about like earning the sunset.
I'm big on like honoring the luck.
This is not in my control.
This is like the weird mystical piece of the universe from who I am when I was born,
where I was born, the opportunities I've been had that are beyond my control.
just go like hell and try to honor the luck.
It's what I do alone to focus, stay committed,
do something hard, feel good about myself.
Like, it is mine.
But when you go to my wrestling matches,
you're going to be encouraged to just take a break
and calm down and take a nap.
Just, you got it.
You are.
You want to talk about it.
I do think productivity is a curse.
You know, it can be a curse.
We're even money on the table.
Okay, we get a little.
a quick lightning round.
Here we go.
What are you reading?
Right now, manias, crisis, and crashes, eighth edition.
What's that?
It is a history of market mania's crashes and bubbles.
Uh-huh.
Okay, great.
Because I just want to know about it.
You want to know about it.
Okay.
It's a tough book to read.
Yeah.
The South Sea Crisis and the Tula Mania bubble and, yes.
Railroad fever in the 1800s.
An album that you're into right now that you've been listening to.
Old or new?
I'm rocking to some cocktail jazz because I want to try to learn how to play it.
But when I'm alone, blues, like a John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf, Blues.
Okay.
Fun movie you've seen recently or like a comfort movie, like one that's on.
If you see it, you're just like, I want to watch it.
Just watch the Lord Michael's documentary.
Oh, yeah.
Loved it.
Loved it.
Like, reminds me a lot of what we do.
And, man, when I walked to hallowed halls of Saturday Night Live,
like as a single serving guest,
the amount of respect I have for everyone
and then him, seeing that, it was awesome.
You know John the thing about wrestling.
You know you've made it when.
Everyone has an impression of you.
Totally.
He is, what a amazing person.
When I was wrestling in Canada.
Okay, are you watching anything fun?
We just got through four.
Four Seasons. This is going to be taped, but we're taping it on Will Forte's birthday.
Happy birthday's birthday, Will. Happy birthday in hell, Will.
That's Tina Faye's.
Tina's the Four Seasons, great second season.
So we just got through the second season of that.
Fantastic.
Yeah, so that's that.
And then you're in the new movie Little Brother with Eric Andre.
Congratulations on that.
And what was it like working on that in the experience of working on that?
Eric is an eccentric physical comedian.
He is awesome.
I've always been impressed by what he can do.
Yeah.
Give someone the chance to show what they can do,
and you set yourself up to be surprised.
He crushed.
Yeah.
Not only, I read the script, and it came from him,
and I'm like, dude, this is your vehicle.
I will gladly do this because you're going to shine.
There's also parts in there that are really heartfelt,
and he crushed those as well.
Yeah.
And like, what a moment.
I think it's going to be a great movie.
It's going to be a great movie for people who see it on Netflix.
I'm very happy to be a part of it.
I got through a comedy where you know with comedies,
you're laughing all the time.
Well, this is my last question,
which is like,
what I know you love to laugh and you love comedy?
What are you,
what's making you laugh right now?
Like, what do you?
It could be anything.
Yeah, like,
is there a video,
a scene from a,
what's something that you like go?
You never know.
I think, okay, X makes me laugh.
Yeah.
I rule out everything else.
A lot of it is me,
like the joke's on me.
Uh-huh.
Right.
Being self, like, yeah.
Allowing your,
to be a soundboard for humor, not only like eases the tension.
You never know what it can lead to.
A lot of it is like the big bullseye and the fuchsia pinstripe.
Right.
So if you open that door, it's kind of cool.
And then it gets like, you don't want to be too crazy because sometimes ball busting can be bullying.
And you always want to, you know, cool, cool that teacetat.
A little bit of teasing is like, hey, like, hey, look at me.
I'm such an idiot.
Yeah.
And then like, hey, let's talk.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
See, you're trying to get connection there.
You're back to connection.
Laughter helps connection, doesn't it?
If we're laughing about something, we're talking about something.
It's so true.
It's why folks are going to love a little brother.
You're going to laugh and they're going to wake up the next morning.
And you're like, what's your favorite part?
Yeah, yeah, awesome.
Well, Sina, I love-
It's such a good hang.
It's such a good hang.
I love seeing you.
You're so fun to talk to and fun to work with.
And such a considerate, nice person.
Thanks for doing this pod.
Thanks for being here.
I probably will never wear a tie again for anybody, but you never know.
Oh, my God, thanks.
Yeah, you look great.
We literally just ran out and got it across the street.
You look great.
Thanks.
And you just put this together.
Like, a lot of those just put together looks are really trying hard.
Well, I realized halfway through, I was like, he's going to show up in a suit.
I'm like, we got, we got to get our shit together.
Let's go.
We have six minutes.
Paper splice.
Red my hatches.
See, it looks great.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
Thank you so much for doing it.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you so much, John Cena.
It was so fun having you here.
And I can't wait to take this tie off.
Get back to my regular sticking it to the man.
But, no, it was so fun talking to you.
And such a pleasure always to hear your perspective and POV.
And for this polar plunge as we wrap up, you know, we talked to,
John and I talked a lot about comedies, 80s comedies,
those like big, dumb, funny things that we grew up on.
And speaking of big, dumb, and funny, I just want to remind everybody that wet hot American
Summer, a film I did 25 years ago, is celebrating its 25th year.
And there's going to be a million different ways to go back and watch what is really genuinely
a funny, dumb movie with a lot of cast members who are at the beginning of their careers.
So check that out if you can.
And check out John Cena's new movie.
a little brother and continue to support the arts and wrestling
because if we learned one thing, they are the same thing.
Goodbye.
You've been listening to Good Hang.
The executive producers for this show are Bill Simmons, Jenna Weiss-Berman, and me, Amy Poehler.
The show is produced by The Ringer and Paper Kite.
For The Ringer, production by Jack Wilson, Katz-Fillane, Kaya McMullen, and Alea Zanaris.
For Paper Kite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell, and Jenna Weiss-Berner.
Original music by Amy Miles
If you want a $3,000 a month payday for life,
what would you feel free to do?
Maybe take a long weekend, every weekend,
or try a bunch of new hobbies.
Would you feel free to upgrade and listen ad-free?
Don't worry, we get it.
Every $20 ticket could win you $3,000 a month for life
and supports life-saving cancer research at the Princess Margaret.
Feel free to buy your payday for life ticket today.
Raffle number 155-21.4.
Please play responsibly.
Now playing on Netflix, The Hawk.
From the mind of Will Ferrell.
Oh, mama, I'm back.
Comes a new original series.
Get ready, get ready.
That's it. Did I stutter?
When an iconic pro golfer.
Lonnie?
Hock!
Tats!
Takes one last swing at greatness.
You were a big shot golfer.
I still am a big shot golfer.
No one.
Dad, I'm the Hawk now.
We'll stand in his way.
That's how it's done.
The Hawk.
Now playing.
Only on Netflix.
