WWE legend and 17-time World Champion John Cena spoke with Tom Rinaldi about various topics, including the challenges he anticipates when retiring from the ring.
Cena said, “I don’t think there’ll — no, I don’t think so. I don’t think there is one. Yeah. I think once, like — man, we’re all gonna go, you know? And I think I address that all the time. And I think once you address that. Once you realize that you’re mortal and you don’t put yourself on some fictitious timeline that, ‘I’m gonna try to do my best not to go tomorrow. But we’re all gonna go. And I don’t get to choose what time I go.”
On how he has signed a new five-year deal with the company:
“So the last part [never being in the ring’ is the true part. I will be an ambassador to the WWE. I’m already signed on for another five years of which — I was like ‘Please, as long as you can do it. I would like to be in this family as an employee, as a contributing part for as long as I can.’ Physical activity? 100% — and I rarely speak in absolutes because you never know? I do know in this case. This is why I can speak in absolutes, because I don’t want to let the people I made a promise to down. And by setting a standard that this can be something successful, it can also help Superstars face their mortality, to not to have to die twice. Like, ‘Hey, if you have some time to think about it. You have to plan this long lead.’ So I’m planning this nine months before the first show in the Intuit Dome. Which means I have nine months to think about all this. And everybody’s asking like, ‘Oh, what’s it feel like?’ I’m like, ‘I’m good. I’m good, because I had nine months to plan the idea, to pitch it. I have nine months to think about it. You don’t have to die twice.”
On not wanting to perform when he’s not at his best:
“Since I got here, since I started performing at a high level, I promised people that ‘Man, when I miss a step? I’m gone.’ So if I break that promise — you can like me or hate me as a performer. But I would do that more for me than anyone else. Never again. And another thing is, there are people spending hard-earned money on these events. And I do not fault multiple farewell tours of musicians. I do not fault that. That’s their choice. I’m not gonna head-fake somebody like that. And that’s just my lane that I walk in. Neither one of them’s wrong. That’s my recipe for chicken soup, I’m okay with it. But I want somebody to be like, ‘Man, this was the last time he was in London.’ And that’s it. And I like that.”
You can check out Cena’s comments in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
