What WWE Legend John Cena Feels Is Most Important In Wrestling

John Cena has remarked on what is truly important in pro wrestling matches. 

The legendary 17-time WWE World Champion John Cena wrestled his final match in a WWE ring in December 2025, tapping out to Gunther after a year-long retirement tour.

Since then, Cena has talked a lot about memories from his 25-year WWE run (23 years on the main roster) and given his thoughts on what works in pro wrestling.

In his many interviews, Cena has spoken philosophically about many aspects of his career. During a recent interview with Slice Joint, Cena made the point that being authentic is just as important as anything, including chemistry, when you’re performing in WWE.

“I would say it’s not as important as authenticity. Chemistry is fun because you don’t have to worry about mechanically achieving something – you can strictly put all your resources towards physical creativity.

“If you are unauthentic, the audience can see through bulls**t. Authenticity, believability and character is the most important metric. All the other stuff is a bonus.” (H/T Wrestletalk)

John Cena Admits It “Took A While” To Appreciate The Rock

In the same interview with Slice Joint where John Cena was promoting his new Netflix movie, Little Brother, he spoke about his relationship with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Cena and The Rock famously had a rivalry spanning across three WrestleManias, which led to Rock beating Cena at WrestleMania 28 in 2012 and then Cena beating Rock for the WWE Title at WrestleMania 29 in 2013 to “win” the feud.

“He’s great. You have someone who has a high level of success in one realm of entertainment, and then switches relatively quickly to another realm.”

I’m inching along, dude. I did a lot of bad movies early in my career, I came back with bit parts, one thing at a time, trying to get a little bit more in the window, and here we are talking about a big release of Little Brother coming out on Netflix. Fantastic.”

That led to Cena speaking about The Rock eventually leaving WWE in the early 2000s to pursue his acting career.

“Dwayne is selling out arenas and then goes straight to The Mummy. I think it was so groundbreaking that when I was talking trash about him, I didn’t understand it. I have the utmost respect for Dwayne Johnson as a professional and as a person. And it took a while.”

John Cena would go on to admit he was wrong to criticize The Rock for leaving WWE when he did because what The Rock was doing was making WWE a better place even when he wasn’t there.

“My original issue with him was, this is a long time ago, ‘He says he loves the business but he’s never around.’ Yeah, he’s never around because he’s making an awesome name for himself, and by making a name for himself, is doing better for people like me. So again, it was just me not having the wisdom to know when to open my ears and shut my mouth.”

Also read: John Cena Personally Requested That WWE Turn This Heel Star Babyface