DUB Magazine Feature : John Cena
In an era where the line between “good” and “bad”—or, in this case, “face” and “heel”—has been blurred beyond recognition, professional wrestling provides a microcosm of our often ambiguous existence as we experience it. And while most of us aren’t likely to end up on the receiving end of a “Pedigree,” “RKO” or “F-U,” when bad things happen to us, we all feel the pain.
Former WWE Champion John Cena sure has. During a match with Mr. Kennedy on the October 1, 2007 episode of “RAW,” Cena suffered a torn pectoral muscle while executing a hip toss. Though he finished the match and withstood an attack by Randy Orton after the match, surgery the following day found that his pectoralis major muscle was torn completely from the bone, requiring seven months to a year of rehabilitation. As a result, he was stripped of the title, as announced by WWE Chairman of the Board Vince McMahon on the next night’s episode of “ECW,” ending what was the longest WWE Championship reign in over 19 years.
Nonetheless, Cena remained as effervescent as always, and made his return to the squared circle (months ahead of schedule), on January 27, as the final participant of the Royal Rumble, winning the event when he eliminated Triple H. Then, on the February 18 edition of RAW, Cena defeated Orton, the current WWE Champion, in a non-title match to earn a Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship between him, Orton and Triple H at WrestleMania XXIV, to take place on March 30, 2008 at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida. As you’ll see, throughout everything, Cena has remained as genuine and real as always, never pulling his punches.
DUB: Since the last time you were in DUB, what changes have you gone through?
John Cena: Before, I wasn’t exactly noticed. So, in an attempt to get noticed, I tried to be as loud and obnoxious as I could with excessive jewelry, excessive modifications to vehicles and excessive vehicles, for that matter. Now, I’ve kind of let people accept me for me, and I really dig muscle cars, and I’m still loud and obnoxious but in a much different way.
DUB: What was it like seeing yourself on the silver screen?
Cena: Doing movies is fun. It’s very different than sports entertainment ’cause it’s instant gratification what we do in the ring. There are 20,000 people letting you know that what you’re doing is either really good or really bad immediately. Filming a movie is a lot of work on a closed, sometimes very quiet, desolate set. But, then, when you see it on the big screen, it totally makes for a new experience. You have to wait for a while for the payoff.
DUB: Are you planning to pursue more movie roles in the similar vein or do you want to branch out to other roles?
Cena: I know that I’m 6 feet tall, I know I’m 250 pounds, and I know that I won’t be filming Legends of the Fall (Columbia TriStar, 1994) any time soon. I’m doing more action movies. People can check for a movie called 12 Rounds (WWE Films). We’ll probably start production in early March, so, most likely, it’ll be out winter ’08 or spring ’09. It’s gonna be f*cking awesome! [Laughs].
DUB: What about your music? Are you still writing and recording music or have you put that on the backburner for now?
Cena: As far as the music goes, it’s still something I’m doing. The NASCAR driver Carl Edwards has an independent label called Back40 Records, and it’s got a few artists that are going to give me some guest appearances on some songs. There’s nothing really as far as solo projects going on. But it’s really cool to have somebody say, “Hey, man, I heard your album. Would you like to do a verse on my album?” Or, “Would you like to get on this project?” That’s where I’m putting myself musically right now. I just don’t know if I have enough time to dedicate to a solo project. So, 16 bars at a time, brothers…16 bars.
DUB: Will you ever return to your rapper gimmick?
Cena: The thing about the rapper gimmick was that half of it was gimmick and half of it is legitimate truth. Like…this is me; this is who I am: a regular ratty ball cap, a T-shirt and a pair of shorts and sneaks. The accessories, the bravado, like the street savvy, that was me basically taking my understanding of hip-hop and trying to create a character that you guys hated and eventually fell in love with. Guess what? It worked. The fact that I can rap, that’s just something that I’ve always been able to do. It’s something that I’m gonna hopefully keep doing in the future. So, as far as the rapper gimmick coming back, every now and then on WWE TV I dust the ol’ six shooters off and give ’em a lil’ somethin’ of what they miss. But, it’s not really my identity—but, it is the WWE, so never say never…[crosses his arms and tilts his cap to the side]. Word life…
DUB: During the shoot today, you wore a special T-shirt. Would you like to explain a little bit about the T-shirt?
Cena: Yeah. It’s weird. People in the magazine are going to be wondering, “Why is he wearing a dirty T-shirt?” But, the truth is, this is actually a combat-seen T-shirt given to me by what’s known as the “Iron MPs,” the military police of the 1st Armored Division, a.k.a. “Old Ironsides.” There’s a bunch of Army folk over in Iraq as everybody else from the other branches of the military—the Air Force, Marines and Navy—but Army is the dominant force, and these guys kind of police the Army and all that’s around them. They’ve got a tough gig in a very hostile situation, and they were kind enough to give me one of their game-worn jerseys, for lack of a better term. I wear it proud, and I know they read DUB overseas, so, when they see it, hopefully it’ll give them a little smile on their faces during some tough times.
DUB: Since the last time you were in DUB, which vehicles have you added or removed from your garage?
Cena: The last time you saw me in DUB, I had a Cadillac Escalade, a Lexus SC430, a ’64 Impala and a bunch of pocket choppers. All of them have gone to the crusher. The Escalade was totaled out, the SC430 was traded in, the Impala was sold to a fellow WWE member—hint, hint, wink, wink—maybe a future article in DUB ’cause you have pictures of it before and it was completely stripped to the bone and redone, so you’ll have pictures of it after. And the pocket bikes, unfortunately, had to go to the welder ’cause we had an accident with the chain and somebody almost lost a limb [points at himself]…not a good thing. Boss wasn’t too happy about that. So we had to get rid of them. But, in their place, everything’s got four wheels now and some kick-ass, motherf*cking muscle.
DUB: From an auto enthusiast’s point of view (Cena owns more than 20 muscle cars), which trends do you feel will hit the hardest in 2008?
Cena: I believe that people are making automobiles their living room, and electronic conveniences will be the trend to make the most noise. Call me a young-old fart waiting to get old; I’m just not with that. I’ve thrown away enough money on modifications and what not. I found a real home with highly documented muscle cars; they’re really cool to drive around; they’re really fun. Not exactly the most highly optioned cars here in the Florida heat; none of them have air conditioning that works, but they’re worth a bit of money if you can take care of them and you buy the right ones and you make sure that they’re documented. You can shoot a cover with a bunch of Lamborghinis and Bentleys and estimate their total worth, and, then, in five or 10 years, their total worth will be cut in half or maybe more. These, in five or 10 years from now, will be worth double, triple what they’re worth because they’re just absolute relics of Americana.
DUB: Since you’re on the road a lot, how often do you actually get to drive your own cars?
Cena: The toughest thing about being on the road with WWE is that I don’t get enough time with these guys [motions to his cars]. Make no mistake about it; these are very highly collectible items, but I do put miles on them. I don’t go out and beat the snot out of them, but I do turn the motors on every one of them on a regular basis. Every one of them gets a little bit of mileage on it. I’d say anywhere on the low end 5 miles a year to 100 miles a year on the high end. This is my hobby. This is therapy. If I’m really stressed out, I’ll hop in one and just drive, and there are some really empty roads around here with nothing but the Florida country to look at. And it makes you feel good, with an arm out the window of an old American V8 just kinda buzzing down a certain highway…or go to a car show or go to a cruise night…say hi to the local motor heads. I kind of wish I had a little bit more time for that, but that day will come.
DUB: Do you do everyday people stuff like going to the movies, fast food restaurants, etc.?
Cena: Yeah, if you look at me, head-to-toe, I’m an everyday people dude. And I don’t roll with an entourage. I’ve seen people get not only mobbed by fans, but get into situations where their health is in jeopardy. I tend to handle each situation myself. I’ve been in some situations where a lot of people kind of rush me, and I believe that if you just let them know you’re not going anywhere, you’re going to spend some time with them, and talk them down, then half of that craziness goes away. I dig being able to walk into a place, especially those high-end, ritzy places, in a worn-out Army T-shirt and jean shorts, and pretty much get whatever I want. That’s one of those little things I hold near and dear ’cause people in those places—I’m not picking on anybody if they’re there—but most of the times they tend to judge you a little bit, and I’m not going to be anybody else but me. So it’s kinda cool to go in and do that. I do most everything everybody else does. You’ll see me at the local gas station filling up one of these any day of the week.
DUB: The last injury you suffered on RAW was a serious one. How did you finish that match?
Cena: I tore my pec, my right pec, which attaches up here [points to his right shoulder]. It came completely off of my bone, which is very painful. Don’t try that one at home. It takes a long time to get better and, f*ck, it hurts. It was a match on live television in which I think I competed for about another 17 minutes after the injury happened and walked out under my own accord. Once again, I’m not putting myself up on a pedestal because there is a group of people that would have, and have, done the same thing. It’s just a matter of how much do you enjoy what you do, and I have a lot of respect for those before me who have caught themselves in similar situations. So, when it happened, I just realized, “Wow, I’m in a lot of pain, but I think I can go through with it.” It worked out okay. Just had to take a little vacation.
DUB: How did you keep busy throughout rehab?
Cena: As far as keeping me busy while I was on the bench, a DVD came out, John Cena: My Life, the DVD. It’s in stores now—buy, buy, buy! But, for real, if you wanna get a peek at the entire car collection, not just what the stuff you see here on DUB, there actually is a disc allocated to the entire car collection of John Cena. So I filmed and promoted that. I went over to Iraq to see the men and women of the armed forces; I went over there for about a week to spend some great time with some great folks. That’s the fourth time I’ve been over there. The fifth time WWE has been over there. And if you talk to any one of our talent or front office, they’ll tell you that’s the most exciting trip of the year, and they’re truly not lying. It’s a special that airs every holiday season and it’s very important to me as well as everyone in the WWE. I went to South America to open a South American market for the WWE. WWE is a worldwide company. I think right now we’re just missing China, Russia and South America. South America, we’ve opened. China is on the way. And Russia, eh, hopefully we’ll be there soon, comrades, hopefully. Save me some vodka—on ice.
DUB: What do you treasure most in your life?
Cena: Seeing the sun come up every day. Every day above ground is a good day, no matter what situation you’re in—you could be in the sh*ts—and, trust me, I’ve been there—and it all comes full circle—I’ll be there again. As long as I see that sun come up every day, I know there’s a shot. There’s a shot at greatness.
Fak you randy orton you are stupie.bastard N.T.M
Fuck you randy orton.Bastard.N.T.M
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now listen to me fools i don”t care if yall like john cena but when you act like him it will be problems now i seen 2 people acting like john but for really don’t act like him cause you will get hurt by me.
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I like you cuause you are a romodel to me and i like watching you fight on wwe monday night raw or raw
john cena is 1 of the most best wwe fighters i kno luv him <3
Er schaute mich an und lächelte mir zu. In dem Augenblick hatte es mir gefunkt. Ich war für kurze Zeit zur Salzsäule erstarrt. Dieses Lächeln, das Gesicht, die wunderschönen blauen Augen – ich war total fasziniert!
Thank you ever so for you article.Much thanks again.