John Cena says he was “selfish” in Dwayne Johnson feud

You may not be able to see him, but John Cena wanted Dwayne Johnson to hear him, as there was a time when he really didn’t like the smell of what The Rock was cookin’. But Cena has since come around, expressing some regret over how he spoke about the Brahma Bull with the media.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, John Cena said his emotions got the best of him when he blasted Dwane Johnson for putting his movie career over his wrestling one. “I got selfish and me — living WWE at the point and not having any concept of growth or someone else’s perspective — I took Dwayne’s comments [about the business] as not genuine…My view was if you love something, be there everyday. Like, what a hypocrite I am, because I still love WWE and I can’t go all the time. And I just didn’t see that. I was so selfish.” Cena added that his behavior ended up coming off immature. “Instead of going like, ‘Hey man, I’d like to try to do this thing to hook you back in and maybe we can collaborate and really make it big,’ I was just like, ‘Eff this, I’m calling this dude out. This is a moment. You gave me an opening. I’m going to kick the door in’…And I was diligent and I understand why he got upset.”

To put it into wrestling terms, reportedly, there was some backstage drama that was far less kayfabe (presenting staged moments as real) and more shoot (legit occurrences). John Cena and Dwayne Johnson would face off at Wrestlemania 28 in a main event booked as a “Once in a Lifetime” match. But it wouldn’t be (hey, that’s wrestling for ya!). Even though The Rock laid the smackdown on Cena, they had a rematch at Wrestlemania 29, where Cena was able to lay The Rock down for the three-second tan. Now if we can just get the oft-speculated showdown between The Rock and Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania 40 to see who the real king of part-time wrestling is…

According to John Cena, he and Dwayne Johnson get along quite well now. They’re not exactly frequent collaborators in the squared circle or the big screen, but they do share a credit on Fast X, in which Cena plays Vin Diesel’s brother (after first playing him in F9) and Johnson briefly reprises his role as Luke Hobbs. Cena previously said he hopes something can be done with an ultimate showdown between the characters.