Although John Cena became one of pro wrestling’s biggest stars, he believes that he could have been more productive with everyone’s time, including his own.
WWE has designated the month of June to celebrate the 20th anniversary of John Cena’s debut, and the man, himself, sat down to rewatch the moment on a series called “WWE Playback.”
Instead of choosing to celebrate the occasion, Cena took the time to break down what he could have done differently. Cena criticized his own mannerisms during a backstage segment with the Undertaker, who shows him respect after a young Cena upset Kurt Angle in the ring. Cena wasn’t happy with how his demeanor came across but is content with how everything went down due to what he learned from it.
“It’s not a shame ’cause it was a good learning experience, and the story turned out okay,” Cena said, “But especially now, after I see the match and I see the audience with where they lose interest, you have to slow down, you have to tell a story and just doing what I was told in performances like that almost got me fired. I could see why ’cause you look at the audience, nobody cares.
“I guess looking back at it, I’m grateful for the moment, I’m grateful I debuted in such a historic arena with such an amazing performer [in Angle], but I’m also grateful it didn’t go well cause it taught me, especially when ‘The Doctor of Thuganomics’ character was introduced, I was neither ruthless nor aggressive. I was quite submissive, and passive, and acted like a fan, and I was. That’s okay, but you can’t do that there. You have to stand out. You have to have a personality where somebody can attach to, and everybody would have done the exact same thing in my interaction with the Undertaker, whether they were a paying customer or backstage. Everybody would have done the same thing. So what does that make me different than anybody else? That stuff is nice, but it didn’t help at all.”
Cena will be making his return on the June 27 edition of “WWE Raw” which is the exact date he debuted on “WWE Smackdown” to face Kurt Angle.
