WWE: John Cena on In-Ring Retirement Plans, The Rock on Getting Ownership of “The Rock” Name, SmackDown Commentary Team Update

Jan 24, 2024

John Cena Comments on Future of His In-Ring Career & Retirement Match Plans

Entertainment Tonight held a recent interview with John Cena. One of the topics discussed included Cena’s thoughts about being near the end of his in-ring wrestling career and his current plans to retire by the time he is 50 years old.

“That’s not a maybe. That time is gonna come and it’s gonna come soon. I made a promise to the consumer early on, to WWE fans, ’cause I know how tough it is to be a fan. You gotta come out of pocket — and WWE has a ton of content — it takes a lot to be a passionate fan and our fanbase is passionate and global. I never wanted to go out there just for the sake of going out there. And I’m gonna be 47 this year. I feel great. So inside I feel great, but I know what it takes to be a WWE performer night in and night out and I don’t ever wanna just go out there and do it to do it. I wanna have the passion — the same passion as the fanbase — and I wanna give them exactly what they give me. The miles on the speedometer say, ‘Hey, that’s gotta be done before 50. That’s the timeline I’ve put on myself,

Cena also gave his thoughts about the difficulties of juggling his acting career with his WWE career.

“It’s tough to juggle both because, you know, when you’re filming Argylle, Matthew [Vaughn] won’t let you go do anything else because of insurance. So as long as the phone keeps ringing and we’ve had some good opportunities here, I’ll kind of preserve that for as long as I can. But even coming back for these one-at-a-time things or short three-month periods, it takes its toll more and more and I’ve just had an incredibly fortunate run with my health. I feel great. I just want to continue to feel great the rest of my life.”

In a separate recent interview with BBC’s The One Show, Cena gave his thoughts about wanting his retirement match to take place at a WrestleMania event in London.

“So I’ve gone by the construct in my life of never trying to pick my opponents because that’s way above my pay grade, but I’ve been an active advocate for London to be a host of WrestleMania. A lot of people think when I go out in the middle of the ring and I say that, it’s just for the local moment, like, ‘We’re the show, we want to make the show happy.’ Fans in the UK, WWE fans are the best, and fans in London specifically, they will let you know how they feel. I don’t think I’ll be able to choose my opponent, but if I could choose a venue, it’d be the O2 in London. So I hope we can make that happen.”

"UK Fans of @WWE are the best!" 🥊

How do we make this happen?! 👀#TheOneShow 👉 https://t.co/OQU2gKpxx8 @johnCena pic.twitter.com/yYCtqtis5I
— BBC The One Show (@BBCTheOneShow) January 23, 2024

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Dwayne Johnson Comments on Joining TKO’s Board of Directors & Gaining Ownership of “The Rock” Trademark

As noted before, TKO Group announced on Tuesday that they had appointed Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the newest member of their Board of Directors.

A recent episode of CNBC’s Squawk On The Street show featured Johnson as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Johnson’s thoughts about gaining ownership of his “The Rock” ring name and trademark as part of his deal to join TKO’s Board.

“There is a business side of that, as we know. There is the economics side of that, but it goes much deeper than that. This idea, the name of The Rock, for me, I owe that name everything. Without that name, there would be no wrestling career, no Hollywood career. Also, that name was a derivative of my dad, Rocky Johnson, who was the first black tag team champion in WWE, trail blazer, paved the way, man of color, for a kid like me to be embraced in a bigger way when I came along. This is one of the reasons why this deal is so unprecedented, the one I was able to do and cut with Ari here. Again, I want to acknowledge Ari and give him his flowers. At the end of the day, he had a million reasons to say no, but he found a reason to say yes. The reason why is he understood, as he told me face-to-face, this is your name and it comes from your family. That’s important to me. Family is very important to us and the name The Rock, this is why it became invaluable. The street valuation of the name The Rock, it has some heft behind it. More importantly than that, it’s something I’ve earned, built, and I owe so much to that wild lunatic called The Rock, that by the way, the greatest benefit of now completely owning the name The Rock, no gimmicks, no BS, across the board, full ownership, is the name The Rock, years ago, really allowed me to be me. That’s very special.”

Johnson also gave his thoughts about becoming the newest member of TKO’s Board.

“I’m excited and I’m always looking to grow. I like to say that I’m a builder of things and I enjoy building. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. With something like this, everything I do and everything I do touch, there 100% is a deeper meaning to it. Joining this board, I have been asked to join other boards in the past, joining this board is unique, different, and special. I’m sitting at a board that my grandfather and dad helped build and help building a company and growing it globally with a global footprint with a guy that I love and admire.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1 & 2

Update on Kevin Patrick’s Removal from WWE SmackDown Commentary Team

As noted before, WWE recently dropped Kevin Patrick as the lead commentator for their SmackDown brand over issues revolving around WWE officials feeling that things were not working out with Patrick’s commentary career.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Michael Cole is currently expected to be replacing Patrick as the lead commentator for this Friday’s SmackDown show in Miami, Florida.