— At the SXSW panel over the weekend, John Cena joked that because of his WWE lifestyle, he has no hobbies.
Here is another excerpt from the Austin Chronicle:
Dressed in what he called his superhero uniform (the baseball cap, the “Never Give Up” T-shirt and “you can’t see me” cap), the massive (“I refer to myself as full-figured,” he said) superstar took to the stage accompanied by his own theme music (which, by the way, he wrote). He works as hard as any man in the industry, and he’s a tireless volunteer for multiple charities including the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He is the face of modern professional wrestling, but in this tech-heavy crowd, he freely admitted: “We’re in a weird business. We’re in the world of entertainment, and the world of sport.”
He conceded that he was not initially that thrilled about going onto social media, saying, “I didn’t know how far behind the curtain I wanted to let our fans.” But he quickly understood that it gave him a huge new connection to the fan base. “In the NFL, when here’s a touchdown, nothing goes on. They just go straight to commercial. In the WWE, there’s something going on.”
Make no mistake: @johncena is John Cena. He runs the account himself. It is his brand, his thoughts, and there is no company editor moderating his comments.
Loux interjected. “You ever had a tweet you wish you didn’t send?”
“Don’t answer that,” laughed McMahon.
Maybe not every Tweet is perfect, but it reinforces the connection to the existing audience and, as Cena noted, it puts “new eyes and new ears on a product that we love so much.” As a test case for their network, less than an hour before their panel, Cena and Loux sent out a call over social media for questions. Five minutes into the presentation, Cena said, “We are overwhelmed already.”
— The Rock is currently in South Korea for a GI Joe 2 promotional tour. He won’t be appearing on RAW tonight.
— Ryback will be appearing at the Adventure Land store in Voorhees, New Jersey on March 30th from 12 noon until 2pm. Tickets are required for autographs and photo ops. Call 856-772-5900 for more information.
— Jack Swagger’s WWE theme song, “Patriot”, is now available for download on iTunes.
