During his WWE career, John Cena has been part of some of the most spectacular entrances in WrestleMania history.
The 16-time WWE Champion returned to the ring at WrestleMania 39 as he made an unsuccessful challenge for the WWE United States Championship against Austin Theory. The match kicked off the show and Cena’s entrance to the ring took place with him surrounded by a number of children who were being granted wishes by the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
John Cena Reveals WWE Were Behind Make-A-Wish Entrance Idea
Speaking recently on The Today Show, Cena revealed that the WWE presented the idea of this year’s emotional entrance to him:
“The hope of fulfilling gratitude. Any good, warm thing that makes you feel great. This year, at WrestleMania, we got to give 15 or 20 Make-A-Wish kids a WrestleMania entrance in front of 80,000 people.
Normally, the entrance is something you do by yourself, but WWE had the idea to give the Make-A-Wish kids the moment and the perspective that very few get to see. I was all on board, and it was great.”
Cena was honoured in 2022 by the Guinness Book Of Records for his work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and former WWE Head Of Talent Relations Jim Ross heaped praise on Cena recently on his Grilling JR podcast:
“John’s granted more Make-A-Wish appearances and things than anybody ever in Make-A-Wish. That’s hard. People have got to understand how hard that is because we all know, Make-A-Wish is something that is done for these terminally ill children.
Meaning, they know the hand they’re dealt, they know they’re not around for much longer. So to be able to experience that – and Cena just didn’t do drive-bys; he’d go meet with them. He’d sit and talk with them. And I know that that would be something he’d have to process and still go out and work – and it wouldn’t be easy to go through that dialogue, those conversations with those children.
They were happy, they got to see John Cena. They were loving life, or whatever life they had left, they were loving that and John helped facilitate that.
Cena was special, he believed in it. A lot of guys we would go to, to do Make-A-Wishes didn’t have John’s commitment. Some of them would tell me ‘it’s just too hard for me’, ‘I have children’, ‘I think what it’d be like if they were my kids.’
Cena didn’t have any kids, so he had a little buffer there but it affected him and I’ve seen it affect him. I’ve always admired John for many things but his commitment to the Make-A-Wish kids, these terminally ill children was really really special.”
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