The Miz recently joined the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast, where he reflected on his career, praised John Cena, and revealed the most valuable lesson he learned from the 16-time world champion.
Miz explained that early in his WWE run, he wrestled Cena on non-televised live events, where Cena took the time to mentor him. “I got in the ring with him, and he was like, ‘Listen.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m listening to the audience. I hear them chanting, you suck,’” Miz recalled. “He’s like, ‘You’re not listening. You’re not listening to them. You’re not hearing them.’ And so he taught me how to actually hear an audience and what to do with that audience. And that’s one of the biggest things that I’ve learned from John Cena.”
To demonstrate Cena’s relentless work ethic, Miz shared a memory from a WWE European tour. “People were like, ‘What’s one thing that you remember, that you always remember about John Cena?’ And I remember us being on a European tour, and he had flashcards, like a child in elementary school,” Miz said. “And on one side was Mandarin. On the other side was the English version. So he was practicing his Mandarin on the European tour… He’s like, ‘I wanted to learn Mandarin.’… And so he knows it.”
The two men’s careers are forever linked, having main-evented WrestleMania 27 in a WWE Championship clash that Miz proudly won. “If Cena would have beaten me, it would have been forgotten,” he said. “But I won’t let you forget that. And it will go on and on and on for life.”
With Cena now on his farewell run, Miz reflected on what the next generation of talent might miss out on without him around. “I got to learn from John Cena… and now these kids that are coming up from our Performance Center won’t get that opportunity,” Miz said. He also added that he hopes Cena will hit a Skull Crushing Finale in one of his final matches as a tribute to their rivalry.
Cena will step into the ring against Brock Lesnar today at Wrestlepalooza on ESPN.
