John Cena discussed his health stopping him from wrestling more in a new Busted Open interview,”Well, I get excited with potential. I really do get excited with potential and it’s because I think in my origin story, I wasn’t exactly someone that people were betting on. I kind of got hired defensively so I wouldn’t go to WCW for peanuts. I had some people who saw me perform who were advocating to people who didn’t care about my performance, which granted me some opportunities and then I was lucky to have some people who supported me. I remember the first time I kind of experienced, I would say, the ‘WWE life’ was in Japan with you (Bully Ray) by my side and that was my — in my perspective, that was your way of saying, hey, welcome in. This is kind of what we’re about and this is where the secrets are shared and this is where the wisdom is passed and although it may not be your thing, this is our thing and if you wanna be in our family, we’d love to have you but this is kind of the way our family does it and I never got to thank you for that so thank you very much for dragging me out in the streets of Tokyo to have the beginning of what would be a wonderful ride on a lighting bolt and you know, you don’t do it by yourself which is why I don’t think anyone — you don’t pass it to anybody.
You just hope to put energy out there and anyone with potential can get it. It was said that I passed the torch to Roman (Reigns) years ago and he absolutely is the face of the franchise. In my mind, he’s the greatest of all time. But, I try to do what I could and when I did it, it wasn’t the miracle, it didn’t happen. He got it on his own terms. I just like seeing people who are passionate about the business, who wanna be there, who wanna show up, who aren’t using it as a vehicle to do something else because the thing itself is awesome and it’s okay if you get other opportunities outside. That’s a testament to your work but man, I wish I was still there every day. My body can’t do it anymore. I don’t wanna give the consumer a bad product. That’s another thing I learned from those veterans at the time. Guys like Eddie (Guerrero) would just risk so much and he’s like, ‘I’m never gonna give the consumer a bad product.
I don’t care how I feel, I don’t care how I feel physically, I don’t care what baggage I have mentally, when I’m on, they paid good money and I’m gonna go out there and give everything I have and sometimes find it when it’s not there’ and I’m at a point where everything I have in comparison to the bar that’s been set, boy, what I have is what you saw at WrestleMania 39. That’s what I feel confident that I can deliver and that’s really nice for here and there. That’s not every day in the WWE, that’s not every day in sports entertainment. Sports entertainment has raised the bar and I’m humble enough to say that’s awesome because you’re supposed to leave it better than you found it. The people are supposed to advance it and that’s why you’re supposed to go from smokey bingo halls to the Pontiac Silverdome to now, towns offering us financial incentives to be in for WrestleMania.”
