On March 6th, John Cena returned to WWE Raw and was immediately interrupted by Austin Theory, setting up their match at WrestleMania 39.
A number of fans criticised the segment after Cena said that people don’t believe in Theory when he performs and generally shot the young star down, while the United States Champion got very little back in return. Although Theory went on to pin Cena at WrestleMania, some feel that the veteran’s comments before the match did more harm than good.
Speaking in a new interview with Sam Roberts on Notsam Wrestling, Cena compared Theory with Roman Reigns, explaining that he’ll need to fail before he can truly succeed.
“I was really trying to hammer this home with Theory. It took Roman 10 years, eight years at the top, pushed for eight years for the lightbulb to go off and be like, ‘I”m doing it my way. I will work with who they say, I will hit my times, but I’m going to be who I really am…’
When I talk to somebody like Theory, who has stars in his eyes and at 25 thinks he’s got a long road in front of him. You really need to start now, failing. Don’t just perform, fail, like a lot and then one day you’ll get it. You need to have like 85 suffering succotash moments.”
The 16-time World Champion said Theory was involved in every step of the creative process of their feud, before revealing that everything he said on-screen, he said to the rising star backstage. Cena said that he emphasised the importance of capitalising on the “equity” he has as a WWE legend.
“Fans can see through the BS if you don’t believe in your character. It’s what I said to Austin Theory, ‘Dude, you are young, you are athletic, you will work for this company, you’ll do interviews, you’ll go X, Y, and Z, I don’t believe what you do when you’re out there, I don’t.
I said it to him personally before I said it publicly.
In a room with Austin Theory, I said the reason I came back to Boston is because you can’t do this yourself yet. You cannot carry a WrestleMania promo yourself yet and if you fail, we waste the equity that I’m willing to give. And if in that match I get hurt, I hold up a production, which puts 300 people out of work. Let’s do this right, let’s get some equity here and then you have to start thinking about the angles and what’s the most important thing and what are we really trying to tell, what’s our story. Okay, I don’t believe what you do, that’s what I’m going with. “
John Cena Admits His Body Can No Longer Handle WWE Schedule
In a different interview, John Cena opened up about his own career, and what he feels he has left to give back to wrestling. Interestingly, the star admitted that his body can no longer cope with life in the ring like he could when he was younger, commenting that what fans saw at WrestleMania, is all he has left.
H/t to f4wonline.com