John Cena: The Interview...erm..thoughts?

[DCW]

He is a very strange lad alright, you would have to be to put up with the endless grind his career has been I suppose. I wonder if Vince will make an appearance on stage after the match is over? say goodbye to his prototype. 

I've found the whole retirement run so drab. The fact he's retiring on some shitey Saturday special and not Mania is wrong too. The heel turn was obviously terribly executed and ultimately wasted. Even his final opponent choice is uninspired seeing as Gunther doesn't really need the rub, considering he was a dominant world champion for 8 million years already.  

[Chili]

He's bizarre to me because he's such a robot inspirational bullshit quotes machine yet watching him doing the Make-A-Wish stuff (not even considered all the ones he does that don't get publicity) and he's such a nice, giving person to them. I refuse to believe that's some performance from him. It's like Hogan, a man who couldn't tell the truth if humanity depended on it, but get him granting wishes and he'd be the best. 

Mad, that even as someone who doesn't watch the product, I'm a sucker for a 'last match' but it feels like nothing. It's John Cena. A star amongst the stars, and yet it just feels like not much.

Anyway, you won't be surprised that Wrestle Me absolutely nailed it a few years ago.

 

Edited December 9, 2025 by Chili

[thatvinylgeek]

Seems there is now an interview with Chris Van Vliet up as well, I quite like his interviews, he seems to be able to get a lot of honest and pretty interesting answers from people.

Could be interesting...

[thatvinylgeek]

8 minutes ago, Chili said:

Anyway, you won't be surprised that Wrestle Me absolutely nailed it a few years ago.

This is great!

[tiger_rick]

Just to slightly counter the "he's always been like this" - the Vault uploaded this recently and in the stuff from about 24:30 which looks to be fromaround 2002/03 with Cena showing them around his house - he's pretty normal. Most normal I've ever heard him anyway.

 

[thatvinylgeek]

10 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Most normal I've ever heard him anyway.

I refuse to believe this is the same person!

[davertfnewman]

Isn't part of the problem with Cena that he's essentially upper class or at least aspiring to it, so he comes across as inauthentic when he's playing the "from the streets" persona?

[Chili]

3 minutes ago, davertfnewman said:

Isn't part of the problem with Cena that he's essentially upper class or at least aspiring to it, so he comes across as inauthentic when he's playing the "from the streets" persona?

Yeah, but he's also just fucking weird. He's pro wrestling's Michael Owen.

[davertfnewman]

A word I should've included: aloof.

He's at least not a malicious guy, but for all the positives about him he has a good number of things missing.

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

 

Even the fact that it's a Saturday Night's Main Event seems mental to me. I know the business changes, but WWE used to make documentaries mocking WCW for giving away Goldberg vs. Hogan on free TV when it could have sold countless PPVs, and now John Cena's last match goes out on a TV special. Maybe they'll cut off the end of his last promo like they did to Goldberg.

To make it even worse, NBC kicked Saturday Night’s Main Event off TV earlier this year. It was getting worse ratings then the show normally on in that slot, Dateline. Now it only gets shown on Peacock in the US (and on the WWE YouTube in most other countries).

[FLips]

Being a weird emotionless robot in public and shutting down even the most innocent of questions with deflections and non-answers is the easiest way for a man who definitely knows where dozens of bodies are buried to get away with it without dobbing himself or his colleagues in it.

Just my personal opinion but I find him really sinister.

[TheBurningRed]

Well he’s come out again the past week about his love for Vince and his disappointment he can’t be there. I think he was groomed in a sense like Shawn Michaels was by Vince. 

[Lorne Malvo]

14 minutes ago, FLips said:

 

Just my personal opinion but I find him really sinister.

Agreed. I didn't really say in my previous post as I didn't want to come across all 'Daniel Bryan is the next Chris Benoit' as that one poster always used to claim on here. But there's something about him I just find really unsettling.

Edited December 9, 2025 by Lorne Malvo

[Supremo]

Never was it clearer how twenty years under Vince’s learning tree had melted Cena’s brain than that run of promos after the heel turn. One of the biggest angles of all time, with all the history and motivation in the world, and he chose to go with the same generic, “YOU PEOPLE!” stuff we’d seen for decades.

I’m half expecting him to short circuit in one of these interviews and let slip he and Vince workshopped them, based on the old scripts from when they originally planned to turn him in 2012.

[JakeRobertsParoleOfficer]

Hes just done Joe Rogan, is that any better?