John Cena’s record-setting work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation is well known, as the 16-time former world champion has granted more than 650 wishes to kids throughout his career. But while WWE has often touted Cena’s charity work, it turns out “Big Match John” didn’t initially want to go public with it as he felt it was exploitative. Paul Heyman described the conversation Vince McMahon had with Cena about it during a new interview with Rick Rubin this week.
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“I don’t have the words to convey the admiration I have for John Cena as a human being,” Heyman said (h/t WrestlingNews.co). “There had to come a point in time where Vince had to sit down with John and say, ‘You need to let me go public with these Make-A Wish visits. You have to. You know you’re hurting Make-A-Wish by not allowing me to do that because if people understood how much of your time you give to Make-a-Wish and to these kids, they’ll be inclined to contribute. They’ll be inclined to get involved. You will help them if you allow this’, because Cena never wanted to exploit it. He never wanted publicity for it. He never wanted recognition for it. He wanted to just do it. That’s a hero.”
Cena arrived at WrestleMania 39 back in April with a group of Make-A-Wish kids, which he later confirmed was WWE’s idea. When asked on TODAY last month why he’s so involved with Make-A-Wish, Cena said, “The hope, love, fulfillment, gratitude. Any good, warm thing that makes you feel great, you get that This year, at WrestleMania… we got to give 15 or 20 Make-A-Wish kids a WrestleMania entrance in front of 88,000 people at SoFi in Los Angeles. Normally, the entrance is something you do by yourself, but WWE had the idea to give the Make-A-Wish kids the moment and the perspective that very very few people get to see. I was all on board, and it was great.”
WWE Money in the Bank 2023 Card (So Far)
- Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Ricochet vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. LA Knight vs. Santos Escobar/Mustafa Ali vs. Butch/Baron Corbin vs. Matt Riddle/TBD
- Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Zelina Vega vs. Zoey Stark vs. Becky Lynch vs. Mia Yim/Bayley vs. Shotzi/Iyo Sky vs. TBD
