During a recent interview with Rolling Stone, John Cena discussed why he hasn’t turned heel, his injury and rehab, the current WWE product and more. Here are some highlights:
On the current WWE product: “I’m a 38-year-old man. I’d much rather it be a program geared toward me, whether that’s TV-14 or sometimes even more graphic than that, which is what I like. For one thing, profanity brought fire out of people with personalities that backed the language. It’s very difficult to say, ‘Oh, you’re being poopy,’ especially when they’re meant to be fighting words. And now, if someone starts to bleed, the referee intervenes to stop the bleeding. But before, you’d just let it fly. Blood is one of the things that made fights cool. Like, you knew it had gotten serious. I understand why we don’t do it anymore. Vince has been a coach to me, a father figure, a boss and a friend, and his goal and my goal are the same: to make the company be as big as it can be. But, yeah, the blood is one thing I miss.”
On not turning heel: “Look, your job as a superstar is to manipulate the audience and try to tell your story. I like the dynamic of the audience. Every single night it’s different. But what’s weird is that I’m a good guy because of all the kids and parents who like me, and a bad guy because I won’t turn heel, which actually makes me both good guy and bad guy in one person.”
On keeping his drug test results on his wall at the Hard Knocks gym in Tampa: “There’s 60 or 70 of them. I’ve passed them all.”
On his injury and rehab: “It’s been two and a half months since the surgery and 107 rehab visits so far, and I’m already doing things they said would take nine months. I was antsy on Day Four. Being away from the product just makes me want it even more. Sure, OK, it’s very easy to get too caught up. And not to mention the blur between real and not. I mean, anyone who brings up the word ‘fake’ with me is truly ignorant of what we do. We entertain. We’re TV that develops right in front of you as it happens. People think we are who they see. That’s kind of true, but not. I mean, we’re as real as fake can get. Like, I’m Superman, but I’m not. Although a lot of people in the business don’t know when to turn the switch off, I do, and I’m John.”
