Cena has been appearing weekly on WWE television.
16-time WWE World Champion John Cena is currently in the midst of another run with WWE. He’s been consistently featured on television and has worked Premium Live Events. Next up on the docket for Cena is a singles match against Solo Sikoa at Crown Jewel.
For the 200th episode of WWE’s After The Bell podcast, Cena returned to the show. He discussed his current run and how it came about. He stated that as the SAG-AFTRA strike is ongoing, he received legal and written approval to come back to WWE.
Well, that’s certainly a happening that’s beyond my control (Cena said in response to the question of how his recent WWE return came to be). So, I’m fortunate enough to have a lot of things on the movie and television side lined up, and none of which I can’t talk about. We’re in the middle of a labor dispute. Then, the labor dispute happens and Screen Actors Guild decides as an entirety to go on strike which either leaves me idle or asking questions of well, what can I do? What is within my control? And I wanted to see if it was okay to come back to tour so, we called the proper people at SAG, we got written, legal okay that it would be okay to come back to WWE and once I had that, then I could ask the question of, ‘Hey, WWE, do you guys want me to come back and hang out for a little bit?’ So, here we are.
As the conversation rolled on, Cena was asked what’s left for him to do in WWE and here’s how he responded:
Dude, the great thing about WWE is there’s always another show and there’s always something to accomplish. I think individuals tend to look at it selfishly. Can I win a 17th championship? I haven’t won the Intercontinental Championship. I wanna win another Money in the Bank, I wanna win another Royal Rumble. It could be like, I’d like to help Roman Reigns become a larger, global phenomenon. I would like to be Austin Theory’s mentor, I would like to do as many live events as I possibly can because physically, I’m able to do them and just give the yield of trying to give whatever I have left to an audience that cares while they care. I don’t look at accomplishments in a perspective of, I need to win another championship, I need to do this. I just need a chance to get out there in any capacity and then I wanna be able to take that, okay, what’s the hand I’ve been dealt? Alright. I’m gonna try to play this the best I can. I don’t think I’ll ever run out of things to possibly accomplish. The sad struggle that I have every day is I’m 46, I’ll be 47 in April and everyone is so skilled (and) I can’t do the things I used to do anymore and I don’t know if you’ve been watching my stuff but I don’t do that much. So, I also wanna be able to contribute to the WWE and then walk away from it and I mean walk away from it. Not all hunched over and not broken and beaten but appreciative and healthy and with a perspective of this is a great chapter in the story of my life and one that has made me who I am.
He then dove into how appreciative he is to have his wife Shay Shariatzadeh with him for the ride. He stated that she’s seen all aspects of WWE such as being in the production truck and she’s written dialogue with him.
Cena added that she is a great sounding board and feels if they can reach her as a viewer, they can reach anyone in the audience. Cena stated that he learns a lot from her.
It’s been incredible (having my wife with me on this run) because I think when — certainly my perspective of when you partner with someone, you love someone, you wanna be able to share with them all aspects of your life and WWE has been such a big chapter of my life. Not only has my wife been here ringside, but she’s seen every aspect of the business. We went into the production truck, she has written dialogue with me. She’s sat and listened to how matches are and is a great sounding board for, ‘Does this make sense?’ Because this is her first real in-depth experience with WWE so I know if we can reach her, we have a chance to reach anybody in the audience and I don’t say that as a negative, but sometimes we get a room together of minds who are talking quantum theory when we need to be talking addition, and that’s what makes her presence very valuable. It’s because I hang out with the quantum theory folk. Yes (we live in the bubble). A lot of times, we just wanna, hey, do you understand this? No, but it sounds fun to you guys. Okay, I got to circle back and I gotta check or just when I’m trying to figure out what to say. Does this make sense? And I can look back and figure out, I’m being too wordy here, I’m being too inside here. Or, I know you don’t get this but this is a time to be inside. Go out there and see if it works and man, after the show, this worked, this didn’t. This was good, this was bad. It’s just another sounding board to be able to learn and I learn a lot from her, I’m very grateful she’s here. So now when I talk about, ‘Back in 2008, we did a media day and then we went into The Garden to do this and then we flew to Tokyo to do that,’ she knows what every aspect of that is and it’s great because I feel as if I can more openly share my life with her and she gets it.
The 11/3 Friday Night SmackDown will not be live. The show was taped as talents and crew would be traveling to Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel on 11/4. POST Wrestling’s review of tonight’s program will be available to listen to at this link.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit WWE After The Bell with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
