John Cena was recently interviewed by ESPN (watch it below), and he was asked about some rather intriguing subjects. Not only did he touch on the similarities between professional wrestling and acting, but he talked about his future inside the ring.
Transcription by WrestleZone Senior Editor Tyler Treese.
On the similarities between WWE and acting:
WWE is sports entertainment. It uses sport to entertain. It’s an infinite narrative, we tell the story of good versus evil. It’s storytelling, just like acting is. It’s essentially the same thing, the major difference is the theater aspect of it. We’re in this giant arena, very similar to sports, if a basketball player in front of a sold out crowd drains a three [pointer], he’ll put his hand in the air, so not only people on the court but people in [section] 315 can see it.
On leaving wrestling behind:
That’s like asking an athlete ‘Hey do you ever contemplate retirement?’ and you can ask a rookie that and you have to. Because anything that relies on your body for an end result, time is going to catch up with you. So, there’s going to be a time when I can’t keep up with the pace. I made a promise to myself many years ago, before I had found my passion of being on-screen that if I can’t keep up with the pace I have to walk away. I don’t want to take a ticket buyer’s money and have them sit down and go “Oh, he’s just hanging on.” I never want that feeling. I don’t think that correlates with what I’m doing now. The biggest difficulty is trying to juggle stuff.
Why he can’t wrestle while filming movies:
I have learned, and I’m trying to fight this system but I’m losing, once you’re in production for a movie they don’t allow you to wrestle. I can’t go to a WWE taping, have my nose put over here. It not only doesn’t look good, but they shut the movie down and there’s 150 people that are expecting a paycheck from the movie, so I just screwed them over and the budget went up. As much as I want to do everything, you can’t. This is a giant misunderstanding I had about what The Rock was doing because he does movie after movie after movie, and I know the feeling of wanting to go back, and I’m going back as soon as I can, but I can’t go back until I’m done with this. I totally get it, and I called him out for it, but I was being an ass, young and stupid. I told him I’m sorry, and that’s something our fans don’t understand.
Check out the full interview below:
Let us know in the comments below when you think a John Cena retirement will happen.
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