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

[Merzbow]

That's even worse.

Unless by done you mean killed...?

[tiger_rick]

Hard to believe this stuff is genuine:

"Phil Brooks going to Saudi Arabia. That shit made me cry. Accountability, vulnerability, apology, forgiveness, cultures melding into each other. And then he comes out and does my gimmick. Like, how do you follow what I did? He came up with this crazy idea. I'm like, ‘Dude, you have to do that.’ And he crushed it. He absolutely just crushed it. What a trip for him. Redemption, acceptance. He can go there whenever he wants and he can entertain fans who are incredible over there... they welcome him and he welcomes them. And that’s super cool."

[The King Of Swing]

Said it before and I'll say it again. He's really fucking weird.

[Browser Brady]

Listened to about 40 mins of him on Joe Rogan and yeah i just thought he has a weird way of verbalising things. It’s hard to describe, ironically, but he speaks almost like a politician in HR mode where he says a lot of words but is vague enough that his answers have no real substance to them.

 

He spoke about he made a mistake in reading mandarin from a teleprompter which wasn’t actually his mistake (the verbiage in the text he was reading from was wrong) and he kept going on about how this was his fault when it clearly wasn’t.

 

It was just an odd thing to dwell on.

Edited December 10, 2025 by Browser Brady

[SaitoRyo]

Honestly, after seeing clips and reading quotes from this recent media tour, I'm more than ready for him to retire. I hope he retires from speaking in public, too. Proper oddball. 

[DavidB6937]

I'd forgotten how weird he was as a person, so I was quite looking forward to the full interview on YouTube. Not sure why I dragged myself through the whole thing as I started becoming irritated a few minutes into it and by 10 minutes or so you knew you weren't getting anything decent but clearly I had nothing better to do.

There was a part about separating the performer from the person and the difficulties with that but he obviously has no issues with it at all. It's just a shame he can't answer the damn questions in character because that would be a far more interesting and open conversation. As soon as anyone tries to tap into actual John Cena the guard is generally up, apart from the points where it's not and he talks absolute shit - some of which people have quoted above from other recent interviews.

I was actually feeling more emotional about his retirement than I expected to considering he's never been my guy and he's not someone I'd ever look to re-watch his matches or anything like Bret/Shawn/etc. But I still have a massive amount of respect for what he's done over the years, the perseverance, the dedication to the kids and all that. I do wonder how he'll really feel though. Like really feel. I'm not completely convinced it'll bother him walking away too much.

[Supremo]

I’m not even watching these interviews, you might as well waste your time reading binary code, but the headlines are hilarious.

In the same way he’s spent the last few matches spamming finishers, he seems to be spending the last few interviews spamming the maddest shit he could possibly say.

He felt for bad for, “going into business for himself,” when he surprised AJ Styles with that tribute introduction at Crown Jewel.

CM Punk eating a blood-money covered dick in Saudi, “made him cry.” I can only assume he means, “cry laughing.”

Funniest is his response to what the plan was after the heel turn at Elimination Chamber. Exclaiming, “who cares?” before admitting they only did it for a viral moment and they’re making this shit up as they go.

Must be heart breaking for those folks still clinging onto hope that something huge is happening on Saturday. I’m still seeing people fantasy booking mad bollocks like The Rock turning up and saying, “not so fast.”

No-one exciting is turning up. He won’t be wearing a salmon T-shirt. There’ll be no twist. He’ll have a basic back and forth match filled with shortcuts before he slowly walks up the ramp and gives Stu a fist bump.

Best we can hope for since he’s been playing all the old hits is that he downs a few extra paracetamol and we get one more bonkers blade job, in tribute to his work with Umaga and JBL.

Edited December 10, 2025 by Supremo

[BomberPat]

51 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Must be heart breaking for those folks still clinging onto hope that something huge is happening on Saturday. I’m still seeing people fantasy booking mad bollocks like The Rock turning up and saying, “not so fast.”

The funniest thing I saw was a ridiculously long post from some wrestling Facebook account fantasy booking how The Nexus would return and take him out, with Wade Barrett announcing that it was a "new era". Aside from every other Monday being a "new era" in WWE, nothing says "new era" like a failed stable from 15 years ago, led by a commentator who hasn't wrestled in almost 10 years, where at least five of the other members are retired and one of them has been dead for two years.

[The Gaffer]

There's no way I'm clicking on a Rogan interview in 2025, so I'm just going to assume he had Cena hit DMT and after ten minutes of being a melted puddle in one of his Pinstripe Potoroo suits he says "Gosh you know it was amazing. I got to learn Arabic, as it's a big emerging market for us now, y'know." 

 

[Supremo]

31 minutes ago, The Gaffer said:

There's no way I'm clicking on a Rogan interview in 2025, so I'm just going to assume he had Cena hit DMT and after ten minutes of being a melted puddle in one of his Pinstripe Potoroo suits he says "Gosh you know it was amazing. I got to learn Arabic, as it's a big emerging market for us now, y'know." 

 

“I spent the first half of the retirement run absolutely shitting the bed, putting new meaning to the word, “washed,” but then turned it around in the second half and delivered some fun, daft spot fests. Do you know what created that change, Joe?”

”Ivermectin?”

[Chris B]

I wonder how much being hated for as long as he was - for a babyface - actually had an impact on him. Because he clearly wasn't always this weird, but has become so over time.

Now, some of it is obviously Vince McMahon's influence as he's without a doubt one of the weirdest fuckers alive. But going out and getting the amount of rejection that Cena got on a regular basis, and never really changing up what he did... it must be weird, right?

That whole 'it doesn't matter what noise they're making, as long as they're making noise' mindset isn't exactly an intuitive one. But then, it wasn't like they'd really had that negative response happening to someone who was trying to get cheers for so long. Hogan started to get it and almost immediately left, changed companies, then turned heel. The approach of just ignoring them for years, continuing to believe it's the right approach in complete contradiction of all the evidence - what must that be like?

I wouldn't be surprised if it's ended up creating this odd detachment and reluctance to share anything that could be used negatively. No wonder he's acting in an uncanny valley way - he's spent years having to believe that people booing at your face don't mean it.

[DavidB6937]

1 hour ago, Supremo said:

No-one exciting is turning up. He won’t be wearing a salmon T-shirt. There’ll be no twist. He’ll have a basic back and forth match filled with shortcuts before he slowly walks up the ramp and gives Stu a fist bump.

And then poor HHH relucantly comes out and raises John's hand because despite hating the spotlight, he'd definitely do anything for John and it's absolutely the right thing to do being there in the last photo of Cena's career. I already feel sorry for Hunter having to suck it up and do that.

[Daaaaaad!]

1 hour ago, The Gaffer said:

being a melted puddle in one of his Pinstripe Potoroo suits

Spectacular reference. 

[Cannibal Man]

John Cena is Pennywise-esque

[theringmaster]

I made peace long ago that pretty much anyone who gets to the 'top' in the wrestling world (and entertainment in general) have to have sociopath tendencies, they basically don't operate on a human level like the normal person does.

It's like people say Taylor Swift is a 'work-alochic', no, she doesn't know how to do anything but run the Taylor Swift marketing machine, she functions purely to push her brand. 

Someone like Cena is the same, there is no 'hobby' or special interest in his life.