John Cena On His Underdog Mentality, Prototype Gimmick, Hip-Hop, Superstitions, Favorite Player

As noted, John Cena was interviewed for YES Network's "Centerstage with Michael Kay," which will air tonight at 11pm on the YES Network. The YES Network is available nationally on DirecTV, Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-Verse, and also throughout the country on a variety of cable systems. To learn more about the YES Network's availability beyond its home-team footprint (which consists of all of New York State and Connecticut, north and central New Jersey, and northeastern Pennsylvania), click here. Here are more highlights that they sent us:

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His underdog mentality has served him well:

"Even from the second I walked into the Ohio Valley Training Center (for his debut), which was a very dingy small armory in the heart of Kentuckiana, I thought that I wouldn't make it. I kinda always thought that I was on borrowed time, because I would walk in and I would see 300-pound Brock Lesnar, who has amateur Olympic credentials, and 330-pound-at-the-time Dave Bautista, and Randy Orton, who just made any movement look as effortless as it could be. I remember seeing Shelton Benjamin walk in and then seeing, without any hands, him leap up to the apron of the ring. I'm like, "Okay, pretty impressive," and then (seeing) him leap up to the top rope and just walk the top rope and I felt like Keanu Reeves when he goes in to see the Oracle in The Matrix and the kid's bending the spoon and he's like? "This is out of my league, man." I always thought that I would never make it. But it was cool because even though I felt out-gunned, it gave me that sense of, well, I have nothing to lose. I'm just gonna go for it, and I really have kind of lived by that my entire life. It's let me take chances that a lot of the other Superstars are afraid to take."

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Being "The Prototype" in developmental:

"I was half-man, half-machine, a hundred percent mayhem. And they called me The Prototype, and that was the same friend that was like, "Hey, man, why don't you come on down and train." (He) just couldn't believe the things that I was doing in the gym for my age and the dedication. And it just stuck."

Kissing his dog tags:

"The names of all my brothers (are on the dog tags). The names of my father, my mother, and Nicole's (his partner's) first name as well. And it's just a reminder to them that like, "Hey, you guys are always with me through this whole crazy ride."

His "You can't see me" hand gesture:

"The whole thing came about as a dare and a joke. We were playing (music) tracks that were supposed to be on the rap album that I cut a while back, and I would always use my younger brother as, like, the litmus test. And I would play a track for him and if he kinda grooved to it, like, "Okay, we got something here," and there was a dance with the video "In the Club." That's 50 Cent and the G-Unit crew, and Tony Yayo, one of 50's (Cent's) guys is doing this [gestures], and that was his dance and, like, we played something that my brother really liked and he was doing this, and I'm like, "Man, that is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. I'm gonna do that on TV," and he said, "No you won't," and I said, "Okay. Watch this." And back then, nobody was watching me or cared about me. And I kinda had liberty to do what I want. So, I did it, but I wanted to do it different, and when I got my opponent down, I could do this, like, "You can't see me," and I'm like, wow, that is such an easy way to be like, 'I'm over here and you're not even close.'"

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His unique superstitions:

"If I see a penny on the ground heads up, I have to pick it up, no matter what. I always knock on wood before the match. I always shake my opponent's hand, say "Good luck. Be safe. Have fun." Even when they wanna kill me, and that's most of the time that they wanna kill me. I always eat Tic Tacs before the match, starting about three hours (prior to the match). I consume probably five boxes of Tic Tacs on a daily basis before a performance."

Being a member of the "Roach Patrol" as an All-American offensive lineman on the Springfield College football team:

"That (Roach Patrol) is basically a title given to the offensive linemen at Springfield, which are like the forgotten heroes. You don't? play offensive line for any other reason than you love football. They named the offensive line the Roach Patrol because what they came up with was when a person is on their back (after being blocked) and struggling to get up, they look like a cockroach. So, if you roach-blocked someone, it means you? Not only carried out your assignment, but to the point of putting (them) on their back."

Tipping off opposing players as an offensive lineman at Springfield:

"You kind of know what's in front of you the first snap of the game. I would get down in my stance and I would look at my brethren (his fellow offensive linemen) to the left, my brethren to the right, and they'd kind of give me the nod and if somebody like 72 was in front of me, I'd say, "Hey, 72, we're passing. Let's see what you got." And I would let him know the play and it only backfired on me once."

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His album reaching No. 3 on Billboard's "Top Rap Albums" chart:

"I was more, much more in tune to hip-hop style than I am now, so I would just wear all the latest fashions, and then I was like, man, you know, the music they have for me is just so rotten. I could create my own and it wouldn't be this bad. So, I was like, "All right, book some studio time" and then I presented my boss with an album. I said, "Is there anything you can do with this?" He said, 'Yeah. We'll just put it out.'"

Favorite baseball player:

"My favorite ball player of all time was Don Mattingly. I think it was just the way he carried himself. There was always something about Donnie Baseball. I think it might've been the nickname. Like, the guy's named after the game.

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"Fast forward to the chance where I got to throw the first pitch out for the Dodgers (August 20, 2009), when Donnie Baseball was the skip (coach) over there, and I thought I was just throwing to the bullpen catcher, like you normally do. So, I'm warming up and I'm feeling good on the side and then this idiot right there brings over Donnie Baseball to catch my first pitch. So, like my entire youth is like swinging on this one fastball that I very accurately threw 45 feet and then hopped twice to the plate. But just like a good first baseman, without even flinching, (Mattingly) just scooped it up, like, "Hey, kid, good job." That's a long story, but my favorite player was Don Mattingly."

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