John Cena Explains Why He Was "Foolish, Selfish And Ignorant" Regarding The Rock
John Cena sat down for an in-depth interview with The Gorilla Position to promote Bumblebee. During the interview, Cena took the time to thoroughly apologize to The Rock for the insults he made building up to their feuds at both Wrestlemania 28 and Wrestlemania 29.
Cena continues the transition from WWE's top superstar to a Hollywood movie star, however, fans haven't forgotten that he once mocked Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for making a similar switch and exchanging his wrestling boots for Hollywood lights. Cena acknowledged his hypocrisy in previously bad mouthing The Rock, claiming that ignorance, foolishness, and selfishness were to blame for the comments he once made.
"I'm sorry and I was wrong," Cena said of his past remarks towards The Rock. "That's the best thing I can do. I think my gripes were legitimate inside the WWE Universe. The WWE Universe is so dedicated and so fanatical, that they're giving me the same comments that I once gave Dwayne Johnson because every Monday and every, now moving to Friday, when they turn on the TV, that's their lives.
"That's the thing they follow the most. I'm not there anymore, I'm here promoting Bumblebee. They're gonna watch Bumblebee but it's only like they'll go to the movie theatre just once, twice, whatever watch it. It's every Monday! And if you're not there every Monday, as a viewer, especially since I've been with you guys for fifteen years, you now feel offended. Especially since before, I was like, 'Hey man, where'd you go?'"
Cena admitted that balancing a Hollywood career and pro wrestling is a difficult challenge. While he is sorry about his past comments about The Rock, he says that it did make for good television.
"This is a very tough balancing act and it's one, when I called out Dwayne, I called him out because of ignorance," Cena admitted. "I called him out as someone who had tunnel vision in WWE and didn't understand the process that when you make a movie, you are not allowed to do anything else. Because if you ruin this, if Seth Rollins puts my nose over here, I can't film the movie. And that's not conceded, there's 100 other people who's financial well-being depends on if I show up for work in one piece. So, if I stop production, that could shut production down. That cost the movie money, it hampers the success of the movie. So once again – I was foolish, selfish and ignorant but it made for awesome TV!"
You can watch the full interview above. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Gorilla Position with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.