Why John Cena Was Concerned About Public MJF Meeting

John Cena has discussed his very public meeting with MJF and explained he was fearful that the AEW star wanted to steal a moment with the WWE icon.

John Cena and MJF came face-to-face on the red carpet for the premiere of The Iron Claw. MJF served as an Executive Producer on the movie centred around the life of Kevin Von Erich and his tragic wrestling family.

Speaking to Chris Van Vliet, John Cena explained how his meeting with MJF happened and admitted he was worried the AEW star was going to try and make it into a moment on the red carpet:

So the whole totality of the thing is I knew he was going to be there. And I don’t think the old me would have associated with him just because of how maybe WWE I was, I still am WWE, but there is room for competition and competition is great. And just because you don’t wear the company brand I have doesn’t mean you’re a bad performer. Sports entertainment is a finicky business. And again, there’s a lot of chance to make moments. So this is one of their top performers for AEW. And I don’t know if I’m going to be the target of a moment.

I’m just going to support my friend in a movie. He couldn’t have been nicer. He couldn’t have been more cordial. And we meet each other and I got pulled away to take some pictures. And then we were about to go do everything else before I even got to you.

And I was like, hold on, give me two minutes. I shook his hand. I said, Man, I’m so sorry. Excuse my ignorance, I didn’t know what to expect from you today. You are a class act, I can’t believe you’re as professional as you are. That’s just my ignorance. I’m sorry, I had that judgment, I want to thank you for being so special, thanks for making my night.

John Cena Wants MJF In WWE

John Cena then admitted he spoke to MJF privately later and made no bones about trying to convince the former AEW World Champion to join WWE:

Then we got back I was able to talk to him more. And I kind of [said] maybe we can get you to play for the right team one day, all that. There’s no denying the fact that he’s doing good work. And I don’t think that I should ignore that. Honestly, I was floored by his professionalism, where it would have been an easy target at a wrestling movie premiere, to have yourself a moment.

And we did have a moment and it was one that the internet paid attention to. It was one where I was hoping that this person that I met, I could once bet on like, man, oh, we just get you over here. That’d be awesome. But it was great. It was great to meet a professional, classy, driven young man.

MJF has not been seen in AEW since he lost his title to Samoa Joe at Worlds End at the end of December 2023. MJF could miss a considerable amount of time from the ring due to an injury with his return to the company up in the air for now.