Insight with Chris Van Vliet - John Cena Teases His 17th Championship, Meeting MJF, Plan To Turn Heel in 2012, Bray Wyatt Match

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

John Cena (@johncena) is an actor and professional wrestler known for being a 16-time World Champion in WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about his new comedy "Ricky Stanicky" that he stars in with Zac Efron and Andrew Santino on Amazon Prime, what he thought of Zac Efron's wrestling skills in "The Iron Claw", what he said to MJF when they met at the premiere for The Iron Claw, his approach to making movies now compared to when he made "The Marine" 20 years ago, his recent WWE return, fans singing his theme song instead of singing "John Cena sucks", his detailed plans to turn heel for his match against The Rock in 2012, his favorite Championship win, how much longer he thinks he can wrestle for, why the phrase "control the controllable" is so powerful for him, what his match with Bray Wyatt would have looked like at WrestleMania 36 if there had been a crowd, how he recovered from his torn pec so quickly in 2008, his favorite lyric from "Basic Thugonomics", three things he is grateful for and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: "Control the controllable." Sponsors: BABBEL: Learn a new language and get 50% off your lifetime Babbel subscription at http://babbel.com/cvv RHONE: Upgrade your closet with Rhone and use CVV to save 20% at https://www.rhone.com/CVV ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv BETTERHELP: Get 10% off your first month with the code INSIGHT at http://betterhelp.com/insight MUDWTR: Get 15% off with the code CVV15 at http://mudwtr.com/cvv MAGIC SPOON: Get $5 off with the code CVV at http://magicspoon.com/cvv MYBOOKIE: Bet on WWE! Get up to $200 cash bonus when you use the code CVV and sign up at http://mybookie.ag BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com BONCHARGE: Go to http://boncharge.com/CVV and use coupon code CVV to save 15% on your BONCHARGE Infrared Sauna Blanket! For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com 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.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris. Oh, baby. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. Hope you had a great weekend. Thank you for being with us on this one. And thank you for making Insight one of the top wrestling podcasts on the planet. And if you haven't already, please hit that follow button wherever you're listening. It helps the show so much. It's one of the reasons that we're able to get guests like the one we have today. This is huge. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we've got John Sina with us

for what is easily my favorite interview that I've ever done. And that runtime is correct. We sat with John Sina for over an hour. He has a new R-rated comedy out on Thursday

called Ricky Stinnicki on Amazon Prime. It's hilarious. It is a very R-rated movie. You'll see in the first few minutes of this conversation, we sing some silly songs from the movie. He stars in this with Zach Ephron. So of course, we talk about Zach Ephron training to be a wrestler for the Iron Claw

and what John Cina thought of his wrestling skills. We get into a lot here. Remember the Iron Claw world premiere where MJF and John Cina shared that moment? We found out exactly what they were talking about there. We also talk about the rock being back in WWE and turning heel, speaking. of turning heel, John Sina had all of these plans laid out for wanting to turn heel before WrestleMania 28. That whole build up with the rock, it was supposed to be John Sina as a heel and the rock is a baby face. He said he had new music picked out.

He had new gear picked out. At the last minute, they went, yeah, I don't think we can go with that. We also talk about the original plans for his match with Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 36 before the world shut down. They were supposed to have an actual match. And then they were like, you're going to have a firefly funhouse match. And he's like, great, what's a firefly funhouse match? So that's just a taste of some of the stuff.

A tip of the iceberg of just some of the topics that we dive into here. But overall, there's just this idea that John Sina is a great guy. You will see that here. He's just such a good dude and the way that he approaches the world. and the way that he talks about difficulties in his life and how he's been able to overcome them, I think is just so inspiring. And this is the fifth interview that we've done together. This is certainly the longest one we've ever done.

But every single time I've left an interview with him, I've gone, man, I want to be more present. I want to approach the world in the way that John Cena approaches the world because he makes time for every single person. I was in a room with like six other people there. You know, we've got audio people and camera people and all kinds of other people. And he was so kind to everybody. He took time out of his day to make their day special.

And this interview was only supposed to be an hour. I say only an hour. I mean, so grateful for it to be an hour. But it was supposed to be an hour. And with five minutes left, they came in to give me like the little cue there to wrap it up. And he's like, no, no, John's like, no, we're going to keep going. I'll let you know when this is done. So it's my favorite interview ever.

I hope you enjoy this. Please snap a screenshot. You already know he's at John Sina on both Twitter and Instagram. And yes, we talk about how different his Twitter and Instagram are. I know that on Impulsive, he really got deep and know like the meaning behind some of his Instagram posts. But I was like, what's the deal on Twitter? You follow nobody on Instagram.

You follow everybody on Twitter. What's the reason behind that? So tag us. He's at John Sina. I'm at Chris Van Fleet, and here we go. Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy this one with John Sina. And congratulations, man. I told you on Iron Claw, congratulations on all success. No, congratulations to you on everything. Everything. Personal life, professional life, everything. You're everywhere. And finally, we get to sit down and talk. Here we are. It has been a while. We have matching wedding rings. I like your style. Is the silicone one? Yes. Amazing. I need to have something I can work out and I don't want to take it off. Is this the most R-rated comedy role that you've taken on?

I don't know. So, like, what a great gift be able to say, I'm not sure. Train wreck was pretty raunchy. Suicide Squad was pretty raunchy. Peacemaker was pretty raunchy. Blockers, although, like, highbrow, also pretty raunchy. This is, this one is good. I made.

This one is good. This one is good. It is an R comedy, for sure. A lot of songs about masturbating here. A lot of jizz jams, too. Jizz Jams. Do you have a favorite one? I love the D. Snyder outfit because I used to have the Stay Hungry cassette tape.

So to be able to do like Twisted Sister, that was really cool to put on the persona. When the movie ended, and this is probably way too much information, I kept singing, boom, baby. I masturbate. Wall to wall jizz jam. One of these days, when it all goes to hell,

I'm going on the road is rock hard rod. Were you purposely wearing a shirt that says goat in the film? So Peter is, that was his wardrobe. The I don't trust suit

and the goat shirt was his. And obviously we filmed this about a year ago. And this was before the recent return where I was given the moniker of that,

of which that is also someone else's idea. So a weird, serendipitous moment, I guess. Are you saying you're not the goat? I am saying that what we do is objective. So I can't fault anyone's opinion. So if you're asking for mine, not a chance. How about if I ask for your opinion of who you think is the goat? So I would say people who elevate the business to new heights. from a performance standpoint. So you'd have to, I mean,

just is just my perspective. And again, we're talking objectivity. So it's only opinion. There's no truth to what I'm saying. Hulk Hogan would have to be in there. Steve Austin, Dwayne Johnson, and Roman Raines.

When the company went public, I think they started a trade at 32. And then my tenure had kind of helped everybody put the pieces back together. again and and roman has done a fantastic job of taking the business to heights it's it's never been to before when did you feel in your tenure that you were the guy in w w w a never never and i think that's a a perspective that has gotten muddled and i don't um again just my opinion uh used you just used

still want the championship. Now, as the areas become gray, people want to be the term like locker room leaders thrown around and the guy is thrown around. Like, that should be, the championship should be an identifiable instrument of that. And I think it helps the believability of the championship, either one or any championship. the importance of that is you channel whatever you want to say on inside industry terms through the props that we give you. And that's, again, just my perspective.

But when you hold that championship 16 times, I think it's a pretty easy argument to make that you were the guy, you are the guy. So again, that's your argument. But I was coming up while I was there. You have people like Randy Orton, who's had a tremendous career, Batista, Edge, CM Punk, Pack the Shield,

a young Cody Rhodes, who was now, you know, matured into a fantastic personality. Not to mention all the strong performances by the women that I haven't had a chance to obviously wrestle with, but the fact that they have earned every inch of their market share that they've now been rewarded. I think,

I guess my through line here is nobody does it alone. I don't exist without all the hard work of everybody else. When we look at 16 championship wins, do you have a favorite in there? My next one? Your next one's a record-breaking one then. That would be cool. Wait, there's going to be another one? I have often said that the time is coming for me to hang them up,

but I'm not lying when I say that, but it's not tomorrow. It's probably soon, but it's not tomorrow. So you never know. I took a lot from the entrances you've had over this last return. I personally took a lot from you going out there and you can see that you take the moment in, something that you didn't do earlier in your career, but now you come out and you take every moment of it in. What are you thinking in that moment?

So life in the WWE is fast. and I'm a performer who enjoys being present, and my head is always on a swivel because the objective is obviously to give the audience the best show that you can possibly do. I also have a lot of stress off of my shoulders because when you're one of the pieces of the machine that is responsible for the financial well-being,

if you fail, the bottom line is directly affected. you're, you're hypersensitive to that. If I go out there and fail now, the bottom line doesn't matter. It's the class carrying the torch now that needs the stress that I had. And I think before I had that weight on my shoulders, it was the stress of how do I get there? And then once you're there, it's the stress of, am I doing enough? Is this working? And then you finally get to a place where it's somebody else's turn.

I saw this firsthand with the DX run when they came back with the glow sticks and they were just having fun. And I remember a European tour where Sean Hunter came through the curtain after doing some sort of match where it was heavily entertaining. And I was going on last. And they were the match before. And I was like, man, you guys get to have all the fun. And they paraphrasing, they said, we hope someday you will too. but it's not today. We've been where you're at

and you're in a very important place. Go out and do that stuff. And then hopefully one day you'll get to goof off and have fun and say to the other person when they come through the curtain, all right, I made him laugh. Now you're going to make them bleed.

And that's where you're out now. I just think in a spot where I can be more present, which is great, because that's the thing I was trying to do before. I was trying to hear every voice, acknowledge every noise, live every moment,

try not to miss a bee. But like now, I just, I operate with that construct, but I don't have the stress of like, if I mess up, it's all going to crumble or they're going to fire.

Yeah. Both of those things, the crumble thing is going to happen and they can fire me. They can do that. But it's interesting that you come in and you're willing to be in whatever spot

that you need to be in the show. You're not saying, I need to be fighting for the championship. I need to be in the main. event, you're okay being the first match. You're okay putting someone over in a few minutes like you did with Solo Sacoa. I really appreciate you saying that. If you look at my body of work, I've never cared about any of that. I don't write the show. I like to write the words that I say because I think someone writing for me, handing me a piece of paper, it's not like the movies

where they really take a lot of time to write a lot of it. WW has a lot of content. So you get somebody who doesn't necessarily think like you, writing something for you really fast, and they hand it to you and be like, okay, this is what we're going to say. No, no, these are the points we need to make. Let's go make this good. But I don't write the show, and I never have.

And I've had a lot of success in WWE and in my life, just trying to make the most of what is asked of me, rather than make demands instead of what can you do for me. I like to operate under the construct of how can I help? and that's just my method and that's that's helped me a bunch but I've never cared that's amazing when I can go on television be like hey guys I haven't won a match in like 2,500 days or another example of doing back-to-back wrestling media and main events with the rock winning in New York and then the next year fighting a rookie and the next year you're fighting a rookie and then the next

year doing something different then the next year doing something different like that was that was kind of it if you look at like, well, the main event is where the thing should be. 2012? That was the last one. But you were in a position where you could have said, I'm the guy. I've won X amount of championships. I don't want to be in that spot of WrestleMania. So, you're not, I guess you're not wrong, but what does that even mean? Like, if I want to write the story, cool, great. I'm relying on the wisdom. of someone who is someone, you know, the people creating the show saying, hey, we need you here.

So rather than say, I need to be here, they say, we need you here. Okay, how can I make here the best spot? Not steal the show, not go into business for myself and ruin the whole broadcast. How can I just make this meaningful? What do you need from me? Well, we need to make each night exciting. we need to help LA Knight, and then we need to help solo.

Cool, what's the best way we can do that? That's just one example of the way to operate. So we've got a lot in common. Obviously, we both love wrestling, and evidently we love great conversations about wrestling, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that if you're like me, you also like to save a dollar or two,

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of canceling those subscriptions for you and saving you that money. So stop wasting money on things that you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash CVV. That's rocketmoney.com slash CVV rocketmoney.com slash CVV. Okay, so if you've ever watched any of these interviews on my YouTube channel, you know that I'm not always wearing a t-shirt. Sometimes I'm suited up. Like when I was at the Iron Claw World Premier or my last interview,

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They've also got insanely comfortable pants, quarter zips, polos, and blazers. and I'll let you in a little CVV secret here. I'm not a huge fan of dry cleaning just because it's such a hassle. They've got their gold fusion anti-odor technology, which means you get more wares between washes. You're fresh and clean all day long, and best of all, no lingering odors. Go check out the commuter collection at roan.com slash CVV,

and when you use the promo code, CVV, you'll get 20% off your entire order. That's a very generous 20% off your order when you use the code CVV at roan.com slash CVV. That's R-H-O-N-E dot com slash CVV. I think one of the reasons that you've been so successful is you genuinely care about people. And I think that that just speaks to who you are as a person. Of course, we saw it with Make a Wish, but you genuinely care about the people that you interact with. And I've seen this myself.

That's the reason we're sitting down here right now. And I appreciate you so much for that. Thank you. I love WWE. I love sports entertainment. And I see potential in everyone I stand across the ring from. I was really close to the chest with Austin Theory when we were able to go back and forth verbally. I see so much potential in him.

And I want to shake him and be like, you're going to learn all this stuff. I just wish you would learn it today. But I just, man, I also care about the audience. I've been on the other side. Like I know how much it costs for tickets and I know how much of a sacrifice it is to get in the building.

And I know how you feel after a good show and I know how you feel after a bad show from a fan perspective. So I just, I haven't been perfect and I stunk out the joint plenty, but I want to at least leave knowing that if we leave the cricket, I still gave you everything I had. Who was the John Cena that we saw debut in 2002? And who is the John Cena that's sitting across from me right now?

I think the things that they share in common are gratitude, grit, perseverance, and humility. I think the difference is the younger version lacks self-worth. And the younger version lacks wisdom. So the John Cena in 2002 gets to go out and fight Kurt Angle under the impression of two words, ruthless aggression. And it was a failure because I was neither ruthless nor aggressive. And I wasn't able to see the opportunity. My blinders were you're getting a chance to go out there, do everything you can and show them you can wrestle. No, I was given a golden ticket and a gimmick.

Ruthless aggression. And sure, I wasn't ready. The matches at the last second because The Undertaker was sick, so the gear doesn't match. But neither did the attitude at all. Like sportsmanship and grateful, especially after I slapped the guy, like I should have been doing more in the match

so that gouge out an eyeball or rip it his tights or be the exact opposite of ruthless aggression. Be a pacifist. You know, whatever it is, but I didn't dive into the opportunity I was given. I just went out there to do stunts. Even the handshake thing with The Undertaker, somebody who's ruthlessly aggressive would have slapped him

like he slapped Kurt Angle. And now you're like, who the is this guy? Yeah. But I didn't understand because I had blinders on about like what the business is about. And now I love to go to NXT because everybody has a different personality. And I always like, what would I do? Have you ever thought about this for an idea?

But people are thinking the same way I was about like, I just want to go out and do these moves. I'm like, man, it's, you need that. But you got to also get him to believe, you know? I want to ask about that handshake with The Undertaker. It felt so awkward just watching it. Like he's shaking your hand up like here. That good megapower's handshake.

I think that's the standard sports entertainment, WW. It's like, and then you're having to go up here to like meet the handshake. It was very strange. So that was more of a situation of like the moment happened in real life where I don't think many people expected anything from me. And I understand why. Having having been the new kid on the come up and then having been the veteran when it's like, this kid's great. And if they're not great, like, We've seen great. We've heard great. We've felt great. We've felt the electricity.

If you don't feel that, they shouldn't tell you anything because it's unfair to the talent. No one is going to get that reaction when they come out. No one is going to get the glass break. No one is going to get the gong. That takes a lot of time. But you hear this stuff and immediately you're like, who's this person? So I get it. And I didn't live up to the height, but I think I didn't do anything wrong. Hit all my spots. My timing was okay. Admittedly, Kurt's like, man, I tried to run him ragged.

I made it through just barely. I made it through. And I think he was impressed. So he gave me a handshake. And Bruce Pitcher was like, we need to put that on TV. And again, the ruthless, aggressive guy is an awestruck fan. I can hear the gimmick. dying. I can hear it. It just, it was destined not to work. You're so good at taking what's in front of

you and making it work. And you've told the story so many times of Stephanie McMahon, hearing you freestyle in the back of the bus and going, could you do that for us? Sure. What if that moment never happened? I would get fired. I would have been fired in two months. That tumor was in October, and I would have been part of the December cuts. Then what would have happened? So before I was a professional, before WW was paying me, I was doing a job. I was doing a it as a hobby. And I told myself I would do it as a hobby until I couldn't do it anymore. Like when I found wrestling, I wasn't like, man, I'm going to make boat loads of money doing this. It was like, okay, I'm going to find a shit job that'll be flexible with hours so I can work. And I think I just

would have worked. You know, I was living in Massachusetts. I moved back into the room I grew up in. I was sleeping in a twin bed at my dad's house. That was from moving back here. You were in Venice speech, right? No, I was in Venice. I moved to Kentucky. And then when I got on TV to get rise to the airport, I moved back in with my dad. He was so gracious to take me in. And I slept literally in the room I grew

up in on the same bed because my room hadn't been altered. What was on the walls? Pictures of cars, pictures of bodybuilders, and pictures of rest. Wow. Yeah. And I just think I found out that Killer Kowalski's school was there and never knew that was there.

And at the time, I was doing something with a promotion there. Gosh, I can't remember the name, but I'd gone up to like, on my days off, again, what do you do during your free time? I would land and then just go wrestle with the guys of this promotion.

So I was wrestling in my spare time. So I probably would have got fired and just done that. Again, making the most of like the opportunities in front of you. You're in WWE. The Marine comes along. This is 20 years ago, right?

You filmed the Marine in 2004. Yeah. Wow, 20 years you've been making. movies. It came out in 2006, but isn't the story that that role was going to be for Steve Austin? For Steve Austin. Yep. And about 10 days before shooting, he decided it wasn't for Steve Austin. And I can understand the intricacies of that. But, you know, what is one man's trash is another man's trophy? At what point did you go from being a wrestler who made movies to actually feeling like, oh, I'm an actor now that makes movies? I don't think I'll ever not.

be a member of the WW family first. So to answer that question in my perspective, that's never, the switch has never happened. You know me, I always speak fondly of WW in my time and experience there. I can't tell you how much

the audience has made me the man I am today. Having to deal with all the polarizing audiences, we've seen a lot of performers not be able to do that and to have to do that for so, so long. It teaches you about you and you really go through a journey of self-worth. So I don't think I'll ever not be WWE family first.

Was there a movie where you were like, oh, I kind of feel like I'm getting it now? So Trainwreck was the first environment that I was put in where the people around me didn't make me feel like an outcast. The Fred movies were the movies where I was. like, man, this is fun. This is like super fun. And I don't, the days are long, but I don't mind it. You got to understand I went from different city every night, do the thing and move on. Electricity, energy, audience.

I'm in my early 20s, riding a lightning bolt. Like, it was all amazing. And then I get shipped off to Australia and I got to wait for them to set up lights for four hours. It's weird. It's a weird shift. my heart wasn't in it. And the explanation I got was, listen, if this works,

more people will come to wrestling. No problem. I'm in. I'll do it. I didn't want to be an actor or like the WW is a vehicle to do something more. I'm grateful for the skills that I have

because it's allowed me to tell stories of my body's like, hey, man, you probably shouldn't be doing this 200 times a year. But my heart wasn't. And it shows in the performance, just like it's a mirror image of ruthless aggression, John.

You have the tools and the fundamentals, but you have blinders on about what the experience is about. The experience is about getting more people to buy wrestling tickets. Okay, maybe. But that's going to happen. You give of self

and give an authentic performance. But you found it. Like, you found your lane. But I also found it in WWE. And I found it by working with people better than me. And I found it by being fortunate enough to get trained by that last group of physical improv geniuses. Rikishi, Book T, Eddie Guerrero, The Undertaker, Triple H, Sean Michaels,

John Bradshaw-Layfield, all of these guys. I loved it because I think a lot of them like the pressure they put on somebody when they take a new talent, be like, I'll see you out there. They've had enough matches to do that. And by the way, that's also a great way to operate because they don't know what they're going to get from the audience. But I learned to operate like that. And I also learned, like, I finally started getting feedback on mistakes

because I was now part of their match. Yeah. You're doing this wrong, dude. And this is why it's wrong. And this is what you need to do to correct it. So when you're put in an environment where you're not an outcast, train wreck is an example. That was my, train wreck was my first match with Eddie Guerrero.

Shut up, listen, take direction. Say this, no problem. You got anything you want to head? Sure. And just go for it. That's Eddie saying, all right, you call it. Okay. All right, great.

For this movie, Ricky Stenecky, had Zach already filmed the Iron Claw? Yeah, he just came off Iron Claw, straight from Iron Claw to this one. Did you guys talk about the Iron Claw? I saw him, I saw photos of him before we even got this, and then knowing I'd see him right out.

after I was ants, man. You never know how to break the ice with somebody, and you never know what somebody's world is, and I always try to grade people on a curve. But I knew he'd done a movie about the Von Herrick's, and as much as I worked with The Free Bird, I wanted to be able to talk to him about that. And then he was like, man, it was crazy.

This guy Chavo grouching. And I'm like, yeah, I used to wrestle Chavo. So we immediately had a lot of stuff to talk about. And he had a great experience film in the movie. and it was a nice icebreaker for us. What did you think of his wrestling in the film? I thought it was awesome. And I thought the film was great.

And I thought it, I thought it did a really good job of encapsulating the mania, but in the way that it was. It was still the sportatorium. It was still world class championship. I thought, I thought they did a really good job. And that's a, that's tough.

It's tough. So I want to talk about those polarizing audiences, because for a decade, When your music hit, it was John Cena sucks. How do you develop the thick skin to not let that get to you? Well, that's the job. But you're supposed to be a good guy. Like, your job's to be a good guy.

They're telling you you suck. Yeah. So what is a virtuous guy do to that? I guess just go out and do your thing? Go out and do your thing. So that's the job. And that's what I mean about, like, the people who are responsible for creating the decisions had me win a lot. I'm not going to deny them. But they've also had me lose a lot.

And every reason or every time I've won, it was to be a stepping stone in another thread of the story. It was also heavily understood that like, hey, you're the good guy. And I know what you're hearing is one thing. Instinct is saying that we're getting more opportunities in brand, We're doing really good with event sales. Paperview buys are up. That was still a thing back then. Ratings are up. More people are paying attention.

You're a great ambassador for us. People like your stuff and they're buying it. It's not everybody, but it doesn't have to be everybody. If you put 10,000 people in a building and 5,000 people buy your stuff, we're doing great. So I think seeing the data also helped. I was one of the first people to really want to plug into the data. You know, guys used to ask what the house was because they'd be able to calculate what they made. I wanted to ask what it was to see our improvement.

I wanted to see what the walk-up was if I did media. And if we didn't walk up, well, what media outlets can we change next time? How can we work harder? Have we run this town too much? If so, why? There's never an excuse, like, it shouldn't be this. It should be this. What can I do better to make the event better?

And Eddie Guerrero taught me at an early age, it's like, you work your ass off every night, but you know, you give extra to those lighthouses because they're going to go tell a friend and the next time you're going to do better. And you'll be able to see the improvement. So I would ask for the data to make sure that the one piece of information I was given, it was just kind of fooling my senses. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And you can't argue with the numbers. If the numbers had shifted and I wasn't selling any T-shirts and ratings were down and attendance was down, yeah, sure, switch. But the numbers never lied.

So I couldn't, man, did I want to embrace that side? And now we see with all the chances in movie roles that I get, every time I sit down with somebody, somebody's like, man, I never saw you doing this. I love that because it's a testament to how well we did in WWE and like, oh, you're just the good guy. That's like, that's what you do. I'm a human being. I have emotions. I have sadness. I have despair.

I have guilt. I have shame. I have anger. Just like happiness, excitement, love, like all that stuff. You just need an avenue to show it. WWs wasn't that avenue.

How close were you to turning a hill? Real close. Around what time period? Cina Rock won. I got word that they were going to do it. I went out and recorded a new song. I went out and got all new gear. I wasn't prepared for ruthless aggression.

That was the last time I wasn't prepared. And I mean, I heard rumblings of, we're going to do it. And in 48 hours, I had a new track, a new studio mix theme song, Final Mix. I had seven new singlets, low-cut singlets with boxing-type robes.

I already had the boots in storage, so I dusted them off. Like I was ready to go. And already thinking about like what I could do with the story. Okay, how, what is a heel? A heel is not just new gear. The objectivity or the message behind the singlet and the boxing robes and the boots is its exact opposite of what you saw with the street gear.

The jean shorts, the t-shirt, the ball cap, the sneakers. go the opposite route and now lean into the opposite of everything you stand for. So I would begin to not work as hard. I would show up less. I would be untrustworthy, unloyal. I would lack respect in what I did. All you have to do is turn that on. I would give up a lot.

All those things you can take and make interesting stories. And this is the stuff that's running through my head, not what moves can I do. It's like how can I take the intellectual property that people are familiar with and twist it? So it's like, this guy's insane. It's everything I've come to love and now I genuinely hate it. And in being a real bad guy, and I think that was the conversation that was eventually had where it's like, okay, it's a bad idea. I'm like, hey, I know this is going to sting, but I'm not going to sell another T-shirt. I'm going to take all merchandise off the market.

I'm not going to put on anything new. I'm not going to do any more appearances. I'm not going to do any maker wishes. I'm not going to do anything like that. I'm going to be a bad guy to make you a good guy. So you're a good guy does all that. And that's when I was like, ah, we're kind of in too deep. So it worked out the way it worked out.

But, bro, I was ready. I could see the excitement as you're describing this. How good was the theme song? It was, I recorded it with saxophones instead of trumpets. It's called Fear My Name. I still have it locked away somewhere. If it ever sees the light of day, I want to remix it with trumpet instead of saxophones.

But it has the hit of time as now. Imagine a world where the rocks are healed now. Imagine a world where the rock and John Cena are healed at the same time. So the weird thing is that's supposed to happen. Like if you think of the course of human life, no one is perfect, right? And it's very tough each day to wake up and live a good life. it's tough to be mistake-free.

So that's like human trajectory. We all go through patches where we make decisions against our value system. We all turn heel at one point. It's just a matter of if you see the light. And I think that's what makes a lot of the characters redeemable is if you take a really good, good guy and then have them lose their way,

it's Darth Vader and Star Wars. I don't want to root for him because you don't give up on that guy. I know there's good in him. Like, that's beautiful. Those stories are beautiful. What did you think of the rock turning a hill? I don't know what to think of it yet.

I liked when he did it back when he was like Hollywood rock. Yeah. Like, I'm from Toronto. So him cutting that one promo? Yeah, I'm from Toronto. That gets me every time. I'd have to see the end result. Yeah.

And I love being surprised. And I also love saying I'm raw. because I've been wrong about a whole lot of stuff. Nobody loves saying they're wrong. That's what a great character trait. Well, man, when I say I'm wrong, that means I'm just about to learn something that I'm not going to forget.

So I think Dwayne Johnson is such an attraction. I think the rock is such an attraction. I don't think our audience is angry with him. I think there's an underlying sense of film it, that they're angry, that their expectations were changed. The metric I use from my own path of polarization, they did a segment that was heavily disliked. I think it was the most disliked segment in WWE's social history.

Yeah. How many WrestleMania ticket refunds you see? Yeah. Zero. The metric to look at for me is how many people don't want to see the show. They turned it around, though, with that press conference. So they did, and that's why I don't know yet.

I don't know you. Because my instinct would say, stay the course and the show is an infinite loop. The treadmill never stops. So if your expectations change in April, what's to say we can't fulfill them next April? You know what I mean? Wrestling fans are anything but patient.

But they are patience. Are they? They are. And they love a long-term payoff. Like Daniel Bryan is a great example. They will tell you how they feel. But holy hell, they love that long-term payoff. And it's brilliant and beautiful.

And they'll hang in there as long as, As long as you believe and as long as they believe in you, you got a chance. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clemenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really take their claimant,

and they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are. Soccer podcast. Presented by Hencoe, follow and listen on your favorite platform. With wrestling fans telling you how they feel,

2013, you go out there to cut a promo, telling the audience, pour my tricep. I'm going to be out. It's met with cheers. They're cheering that you got injured. They're cheering that you're going to be out. How'd that make you feel? Man, they weren't quiet.

They were not. I think that's the one thing you got to understand. And that's the one thing I value most about my relationship with my family, as I call them. They've been honest with me. And in turn, I've been honest with them. And we're often told as performers to ignore certain moments that happen with our audience. I don't see what we do through that lens. And I have never taken that advice.

My belief is if the audience is enjoying themselves, you at home are enjoying. join yourself. And there's not a better image than Dwayne Johnson, the Rock, Hulk Hogan, looking at each other. An absolute insanity going on behind them. And everyone at home going insane, two people are just looking at each other. I was there. Look, I was one of those people. And it was amazing. It was awesome. Yeah. But they're acknowledging what's going on. And our fans are, our stars, they help the show. You know, you just have to, I've always tried to acknowledge the noise.

Acknowledge it, but never waver from who you are. Never be, never, never operate without virtue. You coming back last year is the absolute definition of you don't know what it's got to, what you've got till it's gone. Because you come out, another cheering you. They're singing every word. I know, man.

That was stupid. What a cool thing. And that, I mean, our fans just want to escape. And I'm not stupid. I'm a family personality. I'm geared towards young kids and families. That's not our whole audience. if our show is,

and no offense, but down the wheelhouse of like Disney on ice and they start booing, then you're the real bad guy. But our show is such a melting pot that the W.W.E is such a mixed bag

where you have every age range. Gender fluid, race fluid, doesn't matter. Everybody shows up and everyone has an opinion. I don't like this guy. I do like this guy. The whole pit,

change of the, let's go Zena. Zina sucks. It couldn't be more of an indication of how diverse we are as a platform. Yeah. You cannot please everyone. You can't. So the fact that the reactions are the way they are now, that's special. Yeah.

It's singing every word. It just shows that even if they were yelling at the top of their lungs, Sina sucks. It's because they just wanted to be heard and they gave a shit. So now they're, nostalgia is a beautiful thing, dude. And to be able to look back on those moments of like, yo,

this happened when, and I get to see the guy. That's pretty cool. And what point did you develop like the, I can just have this patience, this understanding. Like there's this video that went viral of this guy following you around, filming you and you were so patient, so kind, so polite, even though he's invading your privacy.

How are you able to develop that? Through failure. Yeah. And by no means, am I perfect? And I understand a lot of people operate under the construct of record and document everything. I just, in that case, what was going through my mind was, I don't. know who this person is, and if I immediately fall into his act, and he's somebody who doesn't represent the values I believe in, I become an endorser of this person. So I can't stop a voyeuristic

video happening. But when you make me part of the act without asking my permission, that's a different set of circumstance. If you are over there and you catch a video, that's fine. But when you turn the camera around and barge into my life, I immediately am attached to you. And if then I speak as if there's fluency between us and a relationship between us, I now endorse your value system. And I don't know you. I've never met you to this person. Yeah. That can be difficult. So I, that was going through my mind. Man, if this guy would just take a pause, say hello, tell me what he's trying to do. Maybe we can do something. But I'm just, I'm going to just trying to buy coffee, bro. You were so respectful, so kind, polite.

I wouldn't handle it that way. I hope to be better next time, but no one's in the raw. I understand everybody's perspective. And that's a hard pill to swallow sometimes, but it's just a matter of opinion, so nobody's in the wrong. So when you know you're in a video with someone or a photo with someone, and it becomes an endorsement like you're talking about, I was with you at the Iron Claw.

MJF walks up, you guys share a great moment. You take a photo together. What's happening in that moment? So the whole totality of the thing is I knew he was going to be there. And I don't think the old me would have associated with him just because of how maybe WWE I was. but I still am WWE, but there's room for competition. And competition is great. And just because you don't wear the company brand I have doesn't mean you're a bad performer.

Sports entertainment is a finicky business. And again, there's a lot of chance to make moments. So this is one of their top performers for EW. And I don't know if I'm going to be the target of a moment. I'm just going to support my friend in a movie. Yeah. he couldn't have been nicer, he couldn't have been more cordial, and we meet each other, and I got pulled away to take some pictures, and then we were about to go do everything else,

before I even got to you. And I was like, hold on, give me two minutes. I shook his hand, I said, man, I'm so sorry, excuse my ignorance, I didn't know what to expect from you today. You are a class act. I can't believe you're a professional, as professional as you are. That's just my ignorance. I'm sorry, I had that judgment. I want to thank you for being so special. This is, thanks for making my night. And then we got back

and I was able to talk to him more. And I, you know, I kind of, maybe we can get you to play for the right team one day and all that. And there's no denying the fact that he's doing good work.

And I don't think that I should ignore that. You know, and honestly, I was floored by his professionalism, where it would have been an easy target at a wrestling movie premiere to have yourself a moment. And we did have a moment. And it was one that the internet paid attention to. And it was one

where I was hoping that this person that I met, I could once bet on. Like, man, I would just get you over here. That'd be awesome. But it was great. It was great to meet a professional, classy, driven young man. And then you put him over on Instagram the next day. Yeah. Yes. I posted an image. Although we, you know, it's up to us. For your interpretation. Yes. of course. Yes. Although in the flip side, your Twitter is the exact opposite of your Instagram.

So I want to dive into your Twitter because I like your tweets all the time. I retweet them all the time. There's just such great messages there. Where do those come from? How do you come up with so many? I try to seek wisdom from others. I try to read a lot. If anything catches my ear or my eye, I jot it down.

I have so many backlogged in my Twitter drafts. It's almost like a journal. Like a threat of conscious. I mean, it's not like every day I have one, but there'll be some days where I'm just thinking about stuff and I'll write down a bunch of notes. So essentially my Twitter drafts are my notes. And I'll have these incomplete thoughts that don't make any sense.

And I'll try to understand what I'm thinking that day and then I'll come back to it and it'll come to me. And then I'll, yeah, all right. yeah, that's kind of how I'm feeling. Or, man, a lot of it is the advice I could use for the day. So if I was too short or unempathetic, or if I'm having a hell of a day and I want to give up and throw the towel in, a lot of it is advice that I could use,

and a lot of it is me holding myself accountable for you're out. I say that I do. Because once you put it out to the world, well, X probably isn't the best example of accountability. But I'd like to put it out there so I can be accountable for. You follow no one on Instagram. You follow everybody on Twitter. Why?

For the simple fact that because Instagram is an interpretive exercise, I don't want to lead the witness by following anyone. Because if I follow Bill Gates, okay, well, this is curating the experience for me. And I may feel a certain way about Bill Gates, so I feel a certain way about these images. Twitter is a conversation starter. And how do you start a conversation? Follow everyone. People you know nothing about walks of life, you know nothing about people that don't share your views.

People who speak out harshly against your value system. People who live within your value system. People who've pissed you off. People who, like I said, you follow everyone because then people can engage with, hey, I was thinking this today. Go for it. you make people's day when they see that you follow them. Maybe it's their week.

Maybe it's their month. So that's another thing. Like there's a little shred of gravity in that too. Like I love the new verified thing because it like, again, it's just a blue check mark, but you had to come out of pocket to prove that you're the person. It's not foolproof. But man, if you got a blue check mark, that's a go-to for me. You're in.

and I want you in on the conversation, and I want to know that I see and hear you, and it may be because we don't agree, and I need to have your perspective. If you get yourself around yes, men, and like-minded folks, you don't learn anything. So the construct behind Instagram, once you explain it, it's like, oh, okay, I get that,

and Twitter is the same thing of like, I want everyone's opinion on what I'm putting out there, because maybe I'm full of my own shit and it's stupid. And I hear that message enough, I have to challenge myself. Are they, John Cena sucks. Should I turn heel? Not yet. You know, like it's just a, but it's a sounding board.

And I guess because of my experience in front of a live audience, I enjoy the sounding board. So the Royal Rumble was recently, someone asked me, what's your favorite Rumble moment of all time? I said, easy. 2008, John Cena comes back. Nobody thought you were going to be in that building. Number one, how did you come back so quickly from that injury? And number two, how did you keep it a secret? So I completely respect James Andrews who did the surgery and Kevin Welk and who did help me with physical therapy.

They have to put a realistic timeline on their work. and that timeline is based on the construct that you do physical therapy three times a week. I would do physical therapy three times a day. And I moved to Birmingham, and my goal as a professional was to get back on the field in a safe manner. So because I just did a lot six days a week,

you heal. You know, I was pretty much put in a heel tank. I didn't have to go back. The reason they say six months for a pecteer, because a lot of people that tear their pecks, maybe they did it during recreational sport, or maybe they're a student athlete, or they have other responsibilities.

People's got families or whatever. You have to split time. I was like a physical therapy terminate. Show up for the morning session. Go get some food. Show up for the noon session. Go get some food. Show up for the afternoon session as they're closing.

All right, guys, see you in a few hours. And I just did that for three months. And everyone, Dr. Andrews was fine. Kevin was fine. I passed all my tests. And I passed it like two and a half months in. And the rumble was coming up. And they're like,

okay, we'll keep it a secret. I don't want to advertise you because I don't even know if you're going to be there. But then when everybody gave the okay, they're like, we really, we really have the chance to keep something secret. And it was only let out to like a few people.

And if you see the, like once again, we only remember the moments. Tell me anything I did in that. You won. Bingo. But the action to win was very simple. I remember that everybody remembers that.

Because. And the look on Triple H's face. Yes. The action was very simple because it was as it happens. We couldn't really plan anything crazy because we didn't want people to tell people to tell people to spoil a surprise. So it was like, he's coming out, he's going to win. That's happening now. Oh, so it was great.

What does that mean the other 29 people? in the match, thought somebody else was going to win? I don't even... Yes, I think so. Wow. Yeah. I mean, I came up to the guerrilla position at number 30 when like 28 came out. And I had been not... Like, whoa.

Usually they'll, like, nowadays, they'll kind of hide guys offsite or in a bus or something. I was in like a broom closet at the garden and just came up the twirley ramp and walked right in in my full gear, like, ready to go. And we just knew that it was going to be remedial and basic, but we were hedging on the surprise. They're not going to really grade the art. And plus, if we keep it basic, we don't really test this out. So that gives me another month and a half to build and heal and refine.

So it was all for the good of the moment. Do you have a favorite moment over the course of your WWE career? I like being told I was going to let go. I do. What? No, man, it's a no one is replaceable. I mean, everyone is replaceable. Nothing is permanent.

And I like being told like you're not getting it. Because I tell that to people now. Not that I'm going to fire you. You don't have that power. But like, hey, you have all these talent, strengths, and gifts. But you don't get what we do here. You could be something that I could never be. But to do that, you got to make a,

believe. You can't just go out and score a perfect 10 on a floor routine. Because I can't tell you what I did in the Rumble. I know I won and I remember this. And that's, I remember Rock and Hogan. I remember you saying in an interview that John Sina, the character, is like Superman. Yes. So if he's like Superman, what's John Sina the character's kryptonite? Oh, man. That's a good question. I think my stubbornness probably. And I've really, really, really worked hard on that. Because now as I'm getting old, there's a lot more kryptonite,

like father time and my body and all that. But I think in the height of everything, probably my stubbornness, like being, I can climb any hill, I can do anything. And I still wake up every day with a lust for life, but I also know my limitations. and I think then I just I had to run into the wall

and Peter Griffin myself on the floor to realize that a wall was there. Is this the Peter Griffin? The one frame blood seep out. I think your greatest strength now is your self-awareness. And maybe that comes along with the father time that are getting older.

Your self-awareness is incredible. I have told the point. pocket watch story before this one keeps time, this one keeps perspective. What's engraved on that? The back says comparison is the thief of joy. And the front says memento moray. So if I'm getting too into my own shit, I remember that I'm still just a human being and I'm above no one.

And if I feel uncomfortable, which is in many rooms in Hollywood or in any new industry in any new room you walk in, I literally, anytime you see me go into my pocket, it's I'm nervous and I feel uncomfortable. And it's kind of like just a little symbol for me to say, hey, man, you're enough. Even if I'm not enough to you, I take accountability for all my choices. I live with who I am.

I'm still fulfilled. So if you're not, they're bagged, so what? The interview that we did during WrestleMania 35 weekend, you said three words during that interview that I've stayed with me forever. It's really changed my perspective on life. Control the control. Dude, and that's tough. It's tough to play within that construct.

It is. But that phrase helps me out a lot when expectations change. Where did you get that from? Because I got it from you, and thank you so much for that. And I guess it's that stoicism, I guess, in a way. You may be able to root it to that. I know there's an old adage of like, be like water. It's like control.

what you can. It's also like the sobriety prayer. There's that there's something in there with that. It's a, it's a constant theme. So if everyone's borrowing it, it must be for a purpose. It's pretty good. I think when you get frustrated, what can you control right now? You know, like, I don't know, it just helps me a lot. What is your favorite lyric from basic thognomics? Oh, man. I'm trying to think of the song. I'll give you mine. Two-faced rappers walk away with four shiners.

Man. Who was that kid? Brilliant. Can I shake his hand? Brilliant. Can I shake his hand? Wow. To God, man.

Wow. To what, taking over Earth and still kicking in your hands? Oh, that's so good. How about the moment where you're in the ring with L.A. Knight recently? He quotes that song. Nobody picks up on it but you. You're like, he is, he is, so there's a situation, right, where I want to say, what I want to say is he's gifted. That's not the right thing to say.

What I should say is, man, he has worked to get his talent because he is the embodiment of perseverance and hard work. And believing in self, he has earned every inch. And it was really, really fun to be in there with him. I texted him after. I said, did John know you were going to say that? He's like, no. I had it in my back pocket, and I just pulled it out. And I like performers who have ammo.

And I know he had more, and he didn't spend some of the rounds. But I like that preparation. I like that over preparation. I like that belief in self. He is authentically L.A. Knight. Like, I believe everything he does. his mannerisms, his story is awesome, and he's not afraid to tell it. He's going to give you a time cue, but let's just show the five.

And then I'll, I'll, I'll time it with my watch. He gets a mulligan, he gets a pass. So we're good, we're good. I know we got left. We're all right. How much do we have left? He's giving you the five sign, so we'll put a timer on it, but that's okay. We'll be all right.

It'll be good. But I got to, so I got to, see him mature just in the short time I was there. I got to be the ref for his match. Yeah. And to see the way he worked then to his philosophy to the tag match and then to watch his matches after that, I could see him gain confidence, even in that short period of time. And that's what gets me to the edge of my seat. That's what gets me going. You were just on Impulsive Logan Paul's show. Yeah. He is crushing in WWE. what's your take on him coming in and taking to it so quickly?

So I actually told him. I'm like, the old me would have hated it. And the old me would have been like, what are you trying to take from us? And that's just an archaic way of thinking that I was taught. And I understand why. Old carnival business, no trust this guy who's coming into our territory.

That idea was archaic in the 80s. we bring in outside influence to help us. And then you have someone you don't really need to convince that much to come on in. And then somebody who embraces our world and is completely respectful and risks a lot more than I would in the ring, like does stuff that I'll never be able to do. In every match, too. In every single time he's out there. And he knows how to set a story.

He knows how to drum up interest. He's using all of his talents that he's built over the years in our universe. He's been doing what we do. He's just been over on his own channel. The me now appreciates the fact that he is bringing his world into ours and respectfully so. But there's a lot, I think he's had eight matches. I think as we sit here right now, there's a lot of wrestlers that have had eight matches. They look terrible.

Oh, my goodness. Well, that's just so maybe. being one of them. It just goes to show how hard he works and effort equals passion. You don't work hard on something that you don't care about. It doesn't mean like that that's, to me, that's just a direct reflection of his passion for what we do and his drive to be great. I feel like what's going on right now in pro wrestling as a whole is like palpable. Like wrestling is hotter than it's been in a long, long time. What do you think we can attribute this to?

So I think it's the ability for, so like this, I've kind of been through this, right? The attitude era happens. And the attitude era was the bubbling up of like essentially kind of who's going to take over after the Hogan era calms down. And, you know, there were kind of people to do that. but when it really blew open is when people started swinging big and really going for it and understanding the lightning in a bottle that you catch and leaning into the personalities you have and maybe a little bit of battling of egos, the attitude errors. Huge stars, huge ratings,

another Hulkomania-like transcendence of the business. Then everybody goes. And then we're left with what's going to happen now? And then our class kind of matriculates with Brock and Dave and Randy and me. And it's like, oh, okay, now we have these guys. And this is going to happen for a while. And then we all kind of bounce. And then they're like, well, what's going to happen now?

I remember the conversation coming up like, I'm so bad with time, but like 2013, 14, 15. Well, who's going to be the next John Cena? I try to let people know. I'm like, I don't think it's going to be one guy. I think it's going to be like a super friends of guys of performers, just because I could see the amount of people who were really good. All they had to do was that light bulb. Like, Joe's not going to say suffering sulk attach anymore.

Because he's got the light bulb. Colby has got the light bulb. Becky, Charlotte, Cody. They all got it. And they all kind of got it at the same time. And I think they all got it at the same time because they could all see the field was wide open. Like it's, it's wide open.

And now it's, like, it is the super friends. And everyone means something and everyone has a definable character. And that's a really tough juggling act with SmackDown Raw and NXT. And I've got to perform in NXT. Dude, they're great. They have believable characters, a great venue, an audience that just won't quit. It's, it's fun to be down there. And there's a whole crew of hungry young kids that aren't even on NXT who are working every day to try to get there to try to get up.

Like the, our system is a lot better to find the town too. I am so curious what the original plan was for WrestleMania in 2020 before the world shut down. Were you going to have an actual match with Bray Wyatt? Yeah. Yeah. And then things happened. and I remember three days before we filmed the Firefly Fun House match. It was the last TV taping where they came in and they were like,

you're going to have a Firefly Fun House match. And I remember there was three people in one of the conference rooms in NXT with me. I said, what's a Firefly Fun House? He said, I don't know. I said, great. What can we do? And that was like, oh man, like, again, control the controllable. I wish we had an audience.

Like performers, like, I wish I could, I wish there could be blood. I wish we could do chair shots to the head. I wish we could swear. I wish I could flip people off. Control it controllable. Use the tools in your tool belt. How do we make something entertaining over a two-day period with no audience? And they gave us a stipulation.

Everybody else just has a regular match. And it's your step, like it's your step. It's not a doctor of thugonomics match or, a hustle loyalty respect match. That's completely different. You have these definitive characters. You have all this ammunition. You have all this personality.

And that's what people really radiate towards. When you put on that NWO shirt, holy shit, we could make this a meta look at my life. Like, and we could get away with it. What do we have up in the warehouse? We have the fist, the blue cage. I can get some NWO stuff. Dude, we can make this work.

And I remember this is the only match I've ever written from start to finish. Wow. And my poor wife, I made her print it out and I'm writing and giving her paper. And she's, what is this? This, what does it even mean? I just print it. I just need it. And somewhere I still have the original draft in my handwriting of the Firefly.

Wow. But, man, Bray couldn't have been better. He, like, knew what was up. He knew the whole thing. and I'd never that I wrote it like the night before so I'm trying to text these guys

like I got something weird and I think I might have said a picture of the draft and I still in my phone I don't have it with me but I have it saved a text that I sent him the night of the match

especially after we saw the Undertaker's match like four of my man and there was a whole lot more physical you got one punch and I texted how nervous I was but I wanted to thank him for being so brave and trusting me.

And I think we, you know, I couldn't have done anymore. And I think we gave it our best shot and hopefully it works. And it was, that was an effort that I am very proud of. I want to thank you. I have just a few more questions before we wrap this up. But thank you for being who you are. Thank you for all the memories along the way, both in the ring and on the silver screen with the movies you make. I just want to acknowledge you for being John Cena.

So thank you. Man, what a cool thing to be able to say. Like, if you'd asked me 25 years ago, like what that name means, you know, what a cool thing to be able to say. And what a, again, like, oh, we want to use people's real names. I caught that. A keyhole worth of time. They're like, oh, they're real names. No, real names, but not they're real names.

So we can have the real name, and they have to be the other person. I was right in that snippet of time where, but you get your name, and you're like, but there's no the rock to it, and there's no stone cold to it. There's just, what the, it's John Sina. And, you know, lucky I was lucky enough to kind of figure that out. And what a crazy thing to be able to listen to you. And you'd be like, thank you for being John Sina. And like, no one calls me John.

everybody always is like, John Cena. Of course. And what a weird thing that is. That's, it's all so foolish. So with all of that said, everything you've done in wrestling, everything you've done, in movies, everything you've done in your life, how do you define success? I think going to sleep every day a little wiser than when you woke up, I think I really lean into the purpose of earning every sunset because I realize I've been,

I've cashed in like a thousand lotto tickets, and I need to earn that every day. I can't just rest on that, so I need to be better every day. And that could be like furthering my growth in a search for written wisdom or try to learn piano or trying to be stronger or take care of my health or be a good husband or relax. I tell myself I'm going to relax.

It's almost meditative. I don't wax in between the years of like, but I can do this and I can do this. Nope. Today you're going to earn it by taking a day. and be a good husband or try something new, listen to an opinion you don't agree with, be more empathetic.

I dig trying to stay curious, which is really tough, especially if you get older, you get set in your ways, but curiosity for life of like, man, there's so much of it out there. I'm still fired up about life and being fulfilled.

Like, knowing that, You and it is enough. And all the rest of the stuff, it just is just great opportunities. You don't do anything as a vehicle for anything else. And I meet so many people that, I guess you use the term transition.

Like, man, what are you thinking about? You want to transition into a movie? Nothing. I was thinking about wrestling. I was thinking about doing really good in wrestling. And then after 20 years of doing really good in wrestling, somebody's like, man, I've been watching you for 20 years. You want to do this thing?

where you're in your tidy whitties? Yeah, cool. I'm at the time of my life where I'd do that right now, and that'd be fun. And it's not like, this was my grand plan all along. No, I just wanted to entertain people who came through the turnstiles. And now we're trying to do that in the silver screen.

And I'm still trying to find my way in that. You know, I was in Barbie, but I wasn't barb. So I'm still searching for that moment. You know what I'm saying? But if I never get it, and you got to do the math on the movies that get those accolades and the movies that don't, there's a whole lot more that don't.

my life still has a sense of fulfillment and a sense of purpose. I'm not going to end my journey unfulfilled if I'm in a movie that doesn't make a billion dollars, you know, or if I don't win 17 or whatever, whatever it is. Just know that you're enough, I guess. By the way, the number one comment on this video is going to be, why was he talking to an empty chair the whole time? I know, and I love it. And I got to be honest with you, I went through a period.

to be in frustrated with that. And it's the same thing with trying to be empathetic with fans. I went through a period where, like, I deserve my time. I put on a show for you guys. I deserve my time when I'm out. No, I don't.

I don't. The trade-off for getting to do this is understanding that your work has affected me. And even if someone's being a dick, they're trying to tell you like, dude, I know you. And your work has affected my life. and I operate under a construct of respect.

If someone is disrespectful, I can try to calm down the situation the best I can. The video guy is a good example. Everybody just wants to say what's up. And when you go outside a place that's not your home, you've got to understand that that's awesome. And it's also going to stop. And there's going to come a time when nobody gives a shit.

And I'm probably going to remember when people used to come over and say hello, you guys, hey, hey, guys. Hey, what's up? What's going on? So I haven't always felt like that It's taking a lot of work to get there Yeah But dude, when you can land in that pocket

It's sweet doing 60 interviews today I'm still good You gave me five minutes, fuck that guy I appreciate you, appreciate you Appreciate you But like Man somebody giving me five minutes of their day To help promote my move

That's pretty dope And I shouldn't treat it like here we go. But the instinct is like, sitting in this chair, I'm going to be asked about what's the biggest lie I've ever told about 62 times today. All right. But then I see a guy like Jackie Chan, who is the master. And he'll tell you, everyone is my first one. And I can't go to a theater. And every theater, I go and like, oh, wait, wait, wait, I was feeling off that day. So this scene's going to be a little off. It's going to pick up after that. Dude, he's, I love. I love him. I love. I love. I love. I learned a lot from him, and it was good to sit under his learning tree, and he approaches this with the same enthusiasm as he approaches the movie, because it's all the work. So I never used to think, like, it just got to a point where it's like, all right, enjoy life because you have been given more opportunities than the normal person gets. That is very safe to say. I will follow that with, I very rarely let one go to waste, and I give every opportunity I get everything I have. So it is not without its effort, but I'm well aware that I have been given more winning lottery than a small community of people.

This is why you're the best. This is why you're the best. And thank you. Thank you for all of the time here, all the wisdom you've given us. And I end every conversation with gratitude. It's such a big part of my life. like. I wake up every day, say out loud three things I'm grateful for. I'd do it before. What were the three things this morning? Grateful for my family. We got a little girl. She's eight months old. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. She's the best. Her name's Logan. So grateful for my wife, Rachel and our daughter, Logan. Grateful for our health. Dude. Without our health, you got nothing. Also, from what I'm hearing, the wrong side of the bed is a real thing.

You can be a man, I had it four hours. The Super Bowl was yesterday. And I didn't go crazy. I knew I was going to get up early. Were you here yesterday? No, I was in Florida because... This is what I'm talking about. So I had a chance to be hold for two days, and the wife and I haven't running like crazy.

So we chose to sleep in our own bed, which means I got up at midnight 30, your time, to land here on time. I got to do that because we got to spend in our time in our own bed. So what I'm saying is, you know, sometimes if you're sleep deprived or if you didn't sleep well, or if your body aches, or maybe you got injured or something like,

like that, having my elbow in pain and not being able to sleep on your side, you wake up, you're like, ah, but if you start the day with like, man, thank you, thank you, thank you. Like, it's almost like a few deep breaths from what I'm hearing and like a count to 10 of like, man, it's good. Always something. Dude, I couldn't agree more. That's really cool to hear. The third thing is just opportunity.

Like to be able to do this, to be able to do this for a. living to be able to share this time with you. Right? So grateful for that. It doesn't make every day easy. I challenge people who say, love what you do and he'll never work a day in your life. I don't like that saying.

I think it's, if you can find something you love and do it for work, it does make the hard days more rewarding. So what are yours to read? I am grateful for those I love in my life and to have love in my life. I'm certainly grateful for my health. and I'm grateful for the gift. I'm grateful to be able to open my eyes because I know that very closely coincides with health,

but time is undefeated and my health is deteriorating every day, and I'm a big believer in I'm going to go down swinging. I want to open my eyes as many times as I can because it's that beautiful. So even if there is a point where I don't have health, but I still have consciousness, I'll be grateful for that.

I've been in broadcasting since 2005, and I can confidently say this is my favorite interview I've ever done. So thank you. Man, thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Sorry, it took us so long to meet up again. And the next time, I'll get in the studio.

I'll get in the studio. Appreciate it. You got it. And congratulations. This movie is fantastic. Thank you so much. And on another, I hope you can get people laugh and see where you see it. And do an enormous impression.

Fantastic. Thank you, sir. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. And you're the way I end my day, so that's great. Oh, wow. Can we take a photo before you go? Thank you guys. Thank you for all for your patience.

I appreciate the Aggie, but he gets special treat. Thank you. There we go, and I truly mean it. That was my favorite interview that I've ever done in my 19-year career. And there's a reason why John Cena is in the position that he's in. Not just in WWE, but also in Hollywood. It's because he treats everybody so well. And I'm so grateful for the time that he gave us for this interview.

and just what a great conversation. And what a great movie, too. Go see Ricky Stinnicki on Amazon Prime on March 7th. It comes out. It's hilarious. He stars in it with Andrew Santino and Zach Efron. And there's just some moments where you're like, John Sina said that?

Like, it's a very R-rated movie. Go check it out. And you'll see what I mean. And did you catch that part? where I asked what his favorite championship win was, and he said his next one. And I know you couldn't see it here because this wasn't the YouTube version,

but he winked when he said that. My next one, and he winked when he said that. I mean, he told Howard Stern recently that he thinks he can wrestle until he's 50. That's three more years. So I feel like it's not out of the realm of possibility for us to see a 17th championship win from John Sina. Of course, a record-breaking 17th win.

Hmm. And how good did that heel turn plan sound? Oh, so good. Snap a screenshot. Let us know what stood out for you the most from this conversation. And tag us. He's at John Sina. I'm at Chris Van Fleet.

You heard it during this interview, but it's a quote that has stuck with me since I heard it for the first time. Three words. Control the controllable. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. 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 it. Get up in here.

The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.