With a helping hand from John Cena, 40-year-old heavyweight boxer Monte Barrett participated in a week long training camp with WWE’s developmental league Florida Championship Wrestling in late October/early November. As a close friend of Cena’s, Barrett has personal insight on the WWE Superstar. He commented on the hostile reaction Cena receives from grappling fans on a weekly basis to Power Slam.
“We talked about that on [November 14, 2011] and I asked him. A lot of the fans say, “John’s not great, and he’s only got a certain amount of moves,” Barrett says.
“The Rock [left WWE] and John took over. He just told me, “I don’t take it personally, so you don’t either. It’s a job.” Me, I was bothered because the people booed him to death [on Raw]. Rock got a standing ovation. Who knows? John might take a back seat for a while.
“People got tired of Michael Jordan always winning, the Green Bay Packers too. They want different champions, like Lennox Lewis in boxing. It’s our nature to want a changing of the guard. Maybe [Cena] needs to take a back seat, then rise up again in a year or two.”