John Cena Reveals the WWE Legend Who Mentored and Shaped His Early Career [Exclusive]

I cannot see John Cena. This is not a joke, although it is one I apologetically make to him as we sit on a Microsoft Teams call, me on camera, the 17-time World Champion dialed in off-camera.

“I guess I’m just living the gimmick,” the recently retired 48-year-old laughs as we begin our interview. Truly, you can take the man out of pro-wrestling, but you cannot take pro-wrestling out of the man.

And how could you expect to? Cena put his body on the line inside the squared circle for a quarter of a century. First as a Prototype in Ohio Valley Wrestling, before being promoted, Ruthless Aggression and all, to the main WWE roster in 2002.

Across the next 23 years, we would bear witness to the birth of Thuganomics (of which Cena has a PhD), Big Match John, Super Cena and the Last Real Champion. Seventeen World Title reigns in all, towns made both big and small, Cena was a road warrior, drawing millions of fans and dollars to thousands of shows across the United States and beyond.

In his newfound retirement, Cena is happy. He appreciates the mixed response to his final 12 months, a fitting final chapter for a character who was once so divisive among the WWE fanbase. But booed or cheered, John Cena always had the people hooked. And he kept them hooked, much like the legs of his opponents during the final three seconds of his countless pinfall victories, until Saturday, December 13, 2025.

2025 was a procession of heroic send-offs for Cena. The boos that punctuated so many of his marquee main events between 2005 and 2017 are now long drowned out by unanimous celebration. Luminous t-shirts of yellow, green, blue, red and orange decorated arenas and stadiums across the globe in their masses. Hundreds of thousands showed their appreciation for a career of memories like no other.

In February 2026, two months removed from tapping his hand against Gunther's imposing Austrian forearms, thus signaling the end of a road extremely well traveled, John Cena can look back on a career that defines multiple eras.

In 2002, however, lightning had to strike in exactly the right time and place to light a spark that was almost extinguished before it had even had time to shine.

Typically, while surrounded by a locker room of the most well-respected workers in the industry, Cena did what he would become best known for. He got to work.

Making a strong choice

My time with Cena comes as he promotes a new campaign for household brand Hefty, of whom he has been the face for the best part of a decade. The new campaign focuses on making ‘strong choices’, so it is put to Cena, what is the strongest choice he made during his WWE career?

“The strongest choice I made in WWE, by far, was to be authentic. I debuted as a babyface with ‘ruthless aggression’ and I just did not know what that meant. I was trained in a way where you open your ears and shut your mouth and you worked on your fundamentals. And my peers were so much more fundamentally sound than me.”
John Cena

“Any time we had promo class or we worked these live events in small towns, I was able to hold an audience just by being authentically me.

“The lightning bolt moment was obviously where Stephanie McMahon heard me freestyling on the back of the bus and allowed me to do it on television.

“It was every single choice I made from then on; Do I try to dress like Vanilla Ice and look stupid? Do I try to dress too cool? Do I still announce myself from West Newbury and try to be from the mean streets? Do I wear wrestling gear? Do I rap to music or acapella? Am I fighting fans in the streets? Am I making my own album?

“Every one of those choices over the years, and even in the evolution of the character, when I stopped rapping, has been authentically me. Even though I’m not an in-ring performer any more, I authentically care and I think that’s my strongest choice.

“I want people to know, if they are willing to invest in me, come hell or high water, I’m gonna try and make them proud. And WWE could not be a more glaring example of that, from me trying to make ownership proud, to me trying to make my peers proud, trying to make the audience proud.

“Just look at the 23 years of real-time data you have on how I behaved and I think you can tell that I’m genuine when I say authenticity is my strongest choice.”

John Cena has his flowers. Now he’s handing them out

But, while Stephanie McMahon overhearing a freestyling Cena (who was, by his own past accounts, close to being released in 2002) was the ‘lightning bolt’ moment the 17-time Champion’s fledgling career desperately needed, that spark still needed to catch fire.

Fortunately for a young John Cena, he was surrounded by workers who knew exactly how to light that fire. And from Hall of Famers, World Champions, and well-respected good hands, Cena is more than willing to give flowers to those who helped shape him in the ring during his formative years, before he supernova’d into a pop culture icon in the aftermath of his first WWE Title victory at WrestleMania 21 in 2005.

“Oh my goodness, that list is long and distinguished. So you’re talking about a short period of time, so I’m going to leave out a lot of names that continued to, quote unquote, carry me from that point beyond. But up until then, Booker T, Eddie Guerrero, John Layfield, Kurt Angle, Rikishi.

“Man, the list goes on and on. Every performer with time in front of a live audience, who wasn’t from my OVW class, I was able to learn from. They took care of me. Matt Bloom, who was A-Train, guys like Kidman on Velocity, heck even matches I had with a young Bryan Danielson, Paul London, Brian Kendrick, Renee Dupree.

“To be able to learn from those guys. I was able to learn from every person I was put in the ring with, until I won the championship from a mentor who really took care of me, and toughened me up too, but showed me the ropes, in John Layfield. I’m grateful to them all.”

Looking ahead to the future

Now firmly on the other side of his pre-championship rookie years, Cena is able to enjoy WWE solely as a fan and is already looking ahead to the future of the company, during what he believes is one of the most transformative periods in its history.

“Gosh, we have called up a whole bunch of new superstars. The program is going through a transformation I haven’t seen since WrestleMania 20, at Madison Square Garden, and then WrestleMania goes Hollywood a year later. I think we’re in a period of transition like that, pouring the foundations for the next 15-20 years for the WWE.”
John Cena

And while fans around the world long for the trumpets to blare again for one more sprint down the aisle with Stew the cameraman and one more match, the most prestigious wearer of jorts in human history is more than comfortable with his decision to bring the curtain down on his championship-laden career as he looks ahead to continuing the navigation of Hollywood.

“I wouldn’t say the end of my career is sad. I want to allow everyone to feel how they want to feel, but personally, I feel great.

“As long as I’m in one piece, I have love and fulfilment in my life, it was time to close that chapter and I really thought the last year, we went out with a bang, there were a lot of mixed opinions, but from my perspective, retirement is treating me well, so far.”

The Takedown on SI will have more from our exclusive interview with John Cena throughout the next week, including what AJ Styles means to him, what he wants to see AJ do next and his relationship with Adam ‘Edge’ Copeland. If you use any quotes from this piece, please H/T and link to The Takedown on SI.

Hefty’s ‘Strong Choice’ campaign will roll out across channels nationwide, beginning February 2026. For more information about Hefty® products, visit Hefty.com.

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