John Cena Says He Violated The Rock's Trust Heading Into Their First Match

Hindsight is 20/20. Through life experiences and the passage of time, we are granted clarity and can learn from our mistakes. John Cena certainly learned his lesson when he called out Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson ahead of WrestleMania 28.

During a live taping of the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, Cena discussed the state of his friendship with his former foe. While they are good now, the "Peacemaker" star admits that there was "one little patch where I really messed up." He acknowledges that he was being selfish and only thinking about their highly-anticipated match when he publically questioned Johnson's love of professional wrestling all those years ago. By doing that, he violated a cardinal rule of wrestling — not trusting your partner whether in the ring or on the mic/social media.

"It's all in good fun and it's all for the business, but you're supposed to have trust with each other and I violated his trust," said Cena. "It's only when we started the build-up to New York that I got to look at myself in the mirror deeper and say I was wrong. Not only did I hope that he would understand my perspective, but a year later I could admit that my perspective was wrong ... We could've done it with everyone working together and playing nice and that was my fault."

After he lost the match "with as much humility as possible," Cena asked for forgiveness from The Rock, but also from The Rock's mother Ata Johnson, who has a rich family history in pro wrestling. With their blessings and the realization that he is a hypocrite since his career now is everything Rock did back then, the former world champion has seen the error of his ways.