Between his budding Hollywood career and his upcoming work as a television game-show host, John Cena has kept himself plenty busy outside the world of WWE. The 16-time former world champion has kept his appearances on WWE noticeably sparse over the past two years, most recently when he appeared at WrestleMania 35 in early April in his “Doctor of Thuganomics” gimmick. But even though WWE’s television ratings have been hitting or nearing record-lows in recent weeks, Cena stated in a new interview with The Wrap this week that he firmly believes the WWE doesn’t need him.
“I think I would have left the WWE high and dry, so to speak, [but] now they have so much talent and so many definable Superstars,” Cena said. “There was a time when I could genuinely say, from a financial standpoint, they needed me — that time is up.”
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“…The WWE does not need me,” he added later in the interview. “I need it and I love it, and I love every single moment I’m associated with it. But I felt it the first time this year at WrestleMania: I took a step back and looked at everything and (realized) it is such a powerful machine.”
Cena added that he believes WWE is creating new stars at a much faster rate than when he had the proverbial rocket strapped to his back in the early 2000s.
“[McMahon’s] class of the Attitude Era changed and they had to rely on new people,” Cena said. “In doing that, they took a tremendous financial hit up front, but in the longterm it ended up going strong for a decade and a half.
“[WWE is] certainly in a better place now than they were in let’s say 2003, and I know Vince will say on a quarterly call that he needs his stars, but he’s also aware that he’s developing them at a more rapid rate than he did when I started,” he added. “So I think the future is tremendously bright for WWE.”
Cena’s push during the “Ruthless Aggression” era of the mid 2000s led to him winning his first WWE Championship at WrestleMania 21. He’d go on to wrestle in five WrestleMania main events and headline hundreds pay-per-views over the next 15 years.
WWE was reportedly pressured by television officials from NBCUniversal and FOX in recent weeks to shake up its current format, which caused the introduction of the Wild Card Rule that has taken a sizable hit to the ongoing roster split.
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