WWE Executive Producer Bruce Prichard recently spoke on his podcast, “Something To Wrestle With,” about a variety of professional wrestling topics including John Cena working with Make-A-Wish and how Cena did not like to have his charity work publicized, which has been said by others who have known Cena.
Prichard said, “John hated doing Make-A-Wish if there was presence of any kind involved, even our own people. John would always insist on, ‘Their wish wasn’t to be surrounded by cameras and press. Their wish was to meet me and they’re gonna get an experience with me, a one-on-one experience with me, and I’m not doing it for publicity. I’m not doing it to have people say what a great guy I am. I’m doing it because a dying child asked to meet me.’ That’s John Cena.”
“The battle to get John to allow us and allow Make-A-Wish to acknowledge him for everything he had done was a bit of a battle. He’s like, ‘Why do you want to recognize me for something that I do because it’s the right thing to do?’ That’s not work to him. That’s just his love, his appreciation that someone appreciated him that much and that was his give back. He truly loves those kids and loves doing that.”
“So that’s the real John and that’s the guy that, you know, when people point to Make-A-Wish, ‘Oh, yeah, they’re doing that publicity.’ Man, the fight to even be able to say it, was a fight. ‘It’s about one thing and it’s about that kid that day, that moment. That’s their moment. That’s not my moment. It’s not your moment. That’s there’s’, and, you know, eventually, you got to the point where parents, Make-a-Wish, and everybody, just bragged on it so much, and okay, yeah, you know, we made it public and so on and so forth, but you never heard about all the Make-A-Wishes that he did.”
“It’s a big deal when somebody from Hollywood goes and, you know, makes a wish come true. As many as John’s done, as many times as John has looked at his schedule and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got 12 hours. I can make a flight, you know, four hours someplace, to go meet a child, spend a few hours with them, and then fly back four hours and do what I needed to do.’ Instead of saying, ‘I’m gonna sleep in. I’m gonna train. I’m gonna go eat at this restaurant or whatever.’ It’s like, no, ‘I’ll make that work.’ You don’t hear about that stuff, and again, that’s the thing that makes John Cena the human being, the great human being he is that then makes him the huge megastar that he has become.”
Also on the podcast, Bruce and Conrad Thompson discussed Cena’s rise in WWE and the beginnings of his film and music careers. Prichard also discussed his relationship with Cena.
You can check out the complete podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
