John Cena Reveals Brutally Honest Conversation With Austin Theory
John Cena has pulled back the curtain a bit to reveal that what he told Austin Theory in the ring on Raw is similar to what he told the US Champion privately.
It was well known going into WrestleMania 39 that John Cena would be challenging Austin Theory for the US Title. However, they needed to set it up on television to make it official.
On the March 6th episode of WWE Monday Night Raw, John Cena appeared for a promo that was interrupted by Theory. It was the only time Cena was on WWE TV before WrestleMania 39. During that promo, Cena told Theory that he wasn’t ready and said other things to try to motivate the cocky US Champion, who is 20 years younger than Cena.
During an interview with Sam Roberts of Notsam Wrestling, John Cena revealed that he worked on that promo with Theory.
“Austin is great and easy to work with. We wrote that together. He was in every step of the process. There comes a point where sometimes people need creative solitudes so they’re like, ‘I’m going to go away and write my thing, come back, run it by you, and see if it’s okay.’ Then, there are some guys who are like, ‘see you out there.'”
“I can dress for weddings or funerals, just tell me what color suit to wear. I respect everyone’s process. I do know, that from all my experience, if you do not have something to care about, you do not have something. My job is to make them care. This is not a process I just do with Austin Theory.”
As he continued, John Cena explained that what he said to Theory on camera is similar to what he said behind the scenes.
“That’s what I love about WWE. Fans can see through the BS if you don’t believe in your character. It’s what I said to Austin Theory. ‘You are young, you are athletic, you will work for this company, you will do interviews. I don’t believe what you do when you’re out there. I don’t.'”
“I said it to him personally before I said it to him publicly. I’m serious. In a room, with Austin Theory, I said, ‘The reason I came back to Boston is because you can’t do this yourself yet. You cannot carry a WrestleMania promo yourself yet. If you fail, we waste the equity that I’m willing to give. In that match, if I get hurt, I hold up production, which puts 300 people out of work. Let’s do this right. Let’s get some equity here.'”
“Then you start thinking about the angles, what’s the most important thing, what’s our story? ‘I don’t believe what you do,’ that’s what I’m going with.”
Austin Theory got the win over John Cena to retain the US Title on WrestleMania Saturday. Theory’s reign as the champion continues on Smackdown while it’s unknown when Cena will return to WWE again.