John Cena was the latest guest on Variety.com’s Playback podcast with Kristopher Tapley to promote his new movie The Wall, which released in theaters this weekend. Here are the highlights.
The wrestling industry changing, and being able to create a new character for Southpaw Regional Wrestling:
“It’s amazing, because it captures everything of that era, but we never show any wrestling. It’s great. It just goes to show how far sports entertainment has come. The sports entertainment of yore, the old WWF, or the WWE Attitude Era, or even when I started coming in as a newer generation post-Attitude Era, you very much focussed on your brand and only your brand. I remember being the hip-hop guy. I dressed hip-hop, made an album, made videos, free-styled people in the parking lot; it’s constant method acting. That was me, I love hip-hop culture. But at the same time, that’s not all me. I also love to tell jokes, if you get me in the right scenario I’m pretty decent with my hands in a fight. There’s certain facets of your personality, and because you have to identify with the audience, you try to showcase the one that will resonate the most. And in my case, the fact that I’ve been on TV for fifteen years, my life is an open book to these people. So now I’m at the point where I really have a lot of fun, and I like to mess around with stuff like [Southpaw Regional Wrestling].”
The creation of his Lance Catamaran character, and how he came up with the name:
“I, like you, was a fan of Gordon Solie. Lance Russel came to mind, and I tried to get a commentary name that sounded like Lance Russel, but not like Lance Russel; almost sounding like Ron Burgandy. I remember passing the Catamaran Hotel in San Diego, and going Lance Catamaran. Holy s— that’s it, it’s Lance Catamaran. It sounds like a sailboat, it’s distinguished – he’s Lance Catamaran! And the reason I chose Utica is because Ithaca College has a wonderful broadcast program. And nobody tells you this, but once again, you get out of it what you put into it.”
The success of Southpaw Regional Wrestling and its future:
“That is what’s fun about the creative environment. It was a hit, and there’s a great core audience in the WWE that looks for stuff like that. Yes they like to see heated rivalries, and they love that good versus evil story, but they also have a sense of humor. And we’re essentially laughing at the industry – we’re parodying the industry the way it was. People enjoy it, and here we are thirty years from that era or more, and we can look back and laugh at the way things were done. It was really fun, and there’s more on the way. I have seen Tex Ferguson unleashed – be on the lookout for more Tex Ferguson.”
