Insight with Chris Van Vliet - John Cena on F9, Roman Reigns, confirms WWE return, biggest lesson learned from Vince McMahon

Episode Date: June 15, 2021

John Cena is a professional wrestler, actor and philanthropist. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his new movie F9 (Fast and Furious 9), when he is returning to WWE, how the "you can't see me joke" never gets old, what he has done to hone his craft as an actor, the biggest lesson he learned from Vince McMahon, his opinion of Roman Reigns' new character and more! Submit your Blue Wire Hustle application here: http://bwhustle.com/join If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, here we go, my friends, and welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm Chris Van Fleet, and thank you so much for being with us as John Sina is back on the show. Yeah, it's our fourth interview together. You can, of course, check out all the other interviews on my YouTube channel, and I'm sure you noticed. Yeah, this episode is a little bit shorter than our normal episodes. But with that said, we pack a ton into the time that we. had together. Of course, you can't see him because, you know, this is a podcast episode. Actually, I asked him if that joke ever gets old. And it's so interesting to hear his response.

Huge thank you to Universal Pictures for setting up this interview with John to talk about F9, fast and furious nine, also for giving us the extra time that they did. Most of these interviews he's done. If you look on YouTube, most of John seen his interviews for F9 have been exactly four minutes long. And check it out. We got more than 10. with the man himself. F9 hits theaters on June 25th. If you aren't already, you can follow John Sina on social media. It's simple. He's at John Sina. And I'm sure that if you follow him on Twitter, pretty good chance that he'll follow you back. I mean, he follows a lot of people on Twitter. Follow me. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. Also, if you follow me on Twitter, pretty good chance that I'll

follow you back. Snap a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening to this. Tag us on Twitter or Instagram and let us know that you're on this ride with us. On this ride? Get it? Fast and Furious? Oh, man. This is such a great conversation. So let's do it. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome John. Sina. So good to see you, John. Good to see you again, my friend. How's life treating you? Things are great. How about you? I cannot complain, sir, at all. It is always good to see you, although, you know, no matter what we talk about during this interview, John, the number one comment will guarantee be, why is he talking to a blank background right now? That's a same. That joke ever get old? No, not at all. I somehow through almost two decades of involvement with the

WWE, have genuinely developed a superpower. I'm invisible, bro. Like, that's pretty, that's pretty decent. Not bad. So you're a bad guy in Fast and Furious Nine. Is this as close to a heel turn that we didn't get in WWA? I think so, man, you know, what a question. I knew you're going to have good, good stuff. So I think this is a beginning to showcase the fact that it's possible. And, you know, now as WW invests and builds its roster and has a wealth of talent and truly has many different anchors to the ship now,

certainly Roman being a very, very marketable and definitive stuff, are. I think the reason for me not exploring that side is because the WW didn't feel confident that they had an alternative. And I respect that business choice. I really do. But now with them really laying the foundation for their future, I mean, even for life in the next decade or so, maybe, maybe, I don't know. But what I do like about fast is it shows that I am a human being like everyone else. I experience anger, sadness, bitterness, resentment, all those emotions like we all do, and I'm given a forum to display it, just like with, like, Train Rec.

I'm always known for my childish comedy in WW, because it's a PG show. And then if I'm put on an R-rated comedy, everybody's like, whoa, he actually cusses. Yeah, of course, it's an R-rated comedy. So it's kind of being able to get a new set of tools and work with those tools. You know, the Fast franchise is all about family,

and you and Vin's character, obviously very close. brothers. So before you started filming, what did you guys do to build that rapport together? So that's a great question. Before I even was offered the part, I had to, you know, go through kind of a series of interviews where Vin wanted to meet me in person. And I met him in his training center for about, you know, a little bit under two hours. And we just spoke. And after that amount of time, we have, we have eight minutes to do an interview. And in this interview, we'll learn more about each other. Now compound that over us a serious amount of time with no constraints in an environment that's comfortable for VIN.

He felt really good asking me bold questions, opening the forum for me to do the same. And after that conversation, he took a small social media video. And if you go back to see the video, I really didn't even say much because I didn't know what the hell was going on. Had I knew I was joining the Fast family, I would have said some sort of bit about Fast. But it was kind of him assessing me as a human being and then putting it out to the universe of like, hey, what do you guys think about this? And I really thank everyone, WWE supporters, FAST supporters, because they were overwhelmingly positive.

I also thank Vin for that conversation. I really enjoy that type of like earning your merits. It's very, very similar to the WWE. They assess performance, but they also do a bit of due diligence on who the human being is. And you fit right into this world. You fit right into this family. And I'm curious with your background in WWE, you obviously know how to fall. So when you're in these fight sequences,

when does John Cena get removed and the stunt double come in? How is that decision made? That's made by people above me, and I never question it because as fast is a production that uses a whole lot of resource. And if we ever have to stop that production, we waste a whole lot of resource. The thing I was most amazed about fast is the little that they waste on resources. It's very vast, and the scope is huge,

but everything has meaning. And they invest, but they invest properly and correctly. And it's very much like WWE. It's a huge investment, but you can see the return. When you set up massive pyrotechnics or turn a stadium into a beautiful LED display or digital display, that money's justified because as a consumer, I'm entertained by it. So when they tell me, like, hey, this might stop production.

We're going to switch you out. I don't be like, no, I'm like, I don't know. Like, I don't, 44, man. I certainly have never been tough in my life. I don't have to prove them tough. Like, I'm not searching for validation on my masculinity or who I am as a human being. So I really take the advice of those who know more than me. And when they're like, yo, you shouldn't do this.

Okay, all right, great. You are always dressed so well every time I see you. And I appreciate that because I think it's a sign of respect for the people that you're speaking with. When was the last time you wore jean shorts? I can't. The last time was a wrestle, not this WrestleMania, but last WrestleMania. I can tell you this. I very much look forward to wearing jorts again.

It's been too long. I mean, it's not a matter of if you're coming back to WWE. It's a matter of when you're coming up. You're absolutely correct. Yep. And, you know, now that live crowds are going to be back in WWE, full arenas, how excited are you for your music to hit and for you to be out there in front of the WW universe. So I'm going to modify the question because I think the question is selfish.

I'm excited for the WW performers. I know how hard it's been and I don't think I could have, amazingly enough, I don't think I would have done very well in this atmosphere without an audience. But I also think that this time without an audience has allowed performers like, let's say, Roman Raines, for example, to unobstructively mold his character. If you, You send Roman Raines from city to city to city with paying audience after paying audience. There may be some audiences that don't even care what he wants to, what he has to say. They just want to boo him or cheer him or whatever. Without that, especially when developing a character, when trying to get your message across,

when trying to hand somebody your business card, I think Roman Raines has absolutely needed this time. And in it, he has developed himself his personality, found out who he is. So now when he goes back to live audiences, they're not. confused. He spent this 15-month block defining who he is, and he's the one that could benefit from this. Whereas established performers, I think I really would have had a tough time with no audiences. So I, as a performer, and what I enjoy out of the performance, I'm happy for the WWE to have crowds again. I really look forward to getting back in front of those crowds, but I'm just happy for everybody that their music can hit, and they can feel that genuine excitement.

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And I think that someone who has done what you've done and has really carved out a niche for themselves. As someone you know well, Vince McMahon, what's the biggest lesson you've learned from working with Vince? That's another hour and a half special, maybe more. I can continue to learn from him every single day. Like, there's not an instance that goes by where I don't reflect on my experience from the WWB and what he has taught me. And oftentimes learning from osmosis, he doesn't like hit you over the head with the lessons he bestows upon you.

But like you can learn from his decision making. It says a lot about the person and what you can take. That well is endless and isn't dried up yet. I continue to learn from him. So, man, I think. the most valuable of all the lessons is just show up and deliver. And that's something he doesn't say. It's something he does. All the eff in time. He's always there. He's always invested. People can question his creative motives or whatever they want. It's creativity. There's always going to be

opinion. He's always boots on the ground. He's always invested and he always believes and is passionate about the product and I think just showing up and delivering, that's a huge takeaway. You are constantly looking to improve yourself and get better, and I love that. I know that everybody loves that. Since your first film, The Marine, which was 15 years ago, that's crazy to think about, what have you done to work on your craft to become the actor that you are now? I mean, if you look at it in that perspective, you know, I started out doing movies as a business decision.

You know, Steve Austin was originally supposed to do the Marine. he passed. Vince was like, hey, I need you to go to Australia. This is like two weeks before shooting and explain that if we can bolster WW studios, we will bolster live event attendance. So we can do larger buildings and we can be more widespread. I'm like, this guy's on to something. All right, let's go do this thing so I can get back to the ring. That's the wrong approach to take. But I continue to take that approach to the movies that I did. And in turn, I did a lot of bad movies. So now transfer that into WWE speak. this match would be good for the energy drink that I'm trying to sell.

And if more people like the matches, more people drink the energy drink. No, you have a match because you fucking love to have those matches. And you want to be there and you want to be in the middle of it and look around at the majesty. So it wasn't until, honestly, the Fred movies where I could parody myself. And that was kind of the start of all that. And right after that train wreck, where I could have fun with the process and expect nothing out of it. Fred was a cameo, train wreck was a cameo, and I did a bunch of other sisters,

a bunch of other small cameos where it's like, stop looking at this as a vehicle and start looking at this as just creative fun. And the thing is, I was looking at WWU like that all the time. Like, WW isn't a vehicle for me to go anywhere else. WW is where I want to be. And then I fell in love with falling into another character, taking off the jorts every once in a while, and showing my ass on television. Like, it's fun and it's imaginative, and it also keeps the passion for WWE. If they change my character,

heal or baby face or not, it doesn't matter because I have these other outlets that I can express those emotions that I want to do. So I just really had to change my perception, and that came with tremendous failure. I thought after all those bad movies, I thought I was done. Like, 15 years later,

I got a second chance at the movie business and we're here talking about Fast 9. That's amazing. man, but it comes through absolute fall on your face, failure. Yeah. John, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. It's always so insightful. And thank you for sharing some time with us today. Man, it's good to see you. I look forward to talking you again in person. Keep up the great work. Well, there you go. And there is a reason why John Sina is in the position he's in with his career. And I think you can see it from this interview right here. Well, I guess you can't see it because, you know, it's John Sina.

And also, it's a podcast. So you can't see it. But, you know, isn't it? right, knowing that he loves that joke as much as everybody else does? It's John Sina's superpower. Take a screenshot. Let us know what stood out for you the most from this conversation. Post it on Twitter or Instagram so we can repost it. Tag us. John is at John Sina. I am at Chris Van Vleet. I've seen Fast and Furious 9. I've seen F9. It is all kinds of fun. And with every movie in this franchise, they just keep taking things up a notch. And that is no different with this movie. You can see it in theaters beginning on June 25th. And if you haven't read John Cena's book called Be a Work in Progress yet,

I can't recommend it enough. It's a collection of all of his advice-filled tweets. So instead of leaving you with a quote at the end of this episode, I'm going to leave you with one of John Cena's quotes from this book, from Be a Work in Progress. Any finish line is merely the start to the next race. And I didn't even do that on purpose, but we're keeping with this whole car theme here on this ride with us,

start of the next race, fast and furious. Wow, that was a complete accident. Be great. Be grateful, my friends. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do.

With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to. breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of but get up in here. The Jim Rome show podcast. What should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.