John Cena Reveals How His WrestleMania 39 Entrance Came About
John Cena made his WWE in-ring return at WrestleMania 39 last month, opening the two-night event against Austin Theory with the United States Championship on the line. The 16-time world champion lost the match, but not before arriving on the entrance ramp with a group of Make-A-Wish kids all cheering him on. Cena revealed in his latest Today appearance that the idea was actually pitched by WWE rather than him.
"The hope, love, fulfillment, gratitude," Cena said when asked what he gets out of being so heavily involved in Make-A-Wish. "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."
In a separate interview with Busted Open Radio, he discussed how he physically can't do much more — "I wish I was still there every day, it's just my body can't do it anymore and I don't wanna give the consumer a bad product. That's another thing that I learned from those veterans. At the time, guys like Eddie (Guerrero) would just risk so much [just in the name of not] giving the consumer a bad product. I don't care how I feel, I don't care how I feel physically, I don't care what baggage I have mentally, when I'm on, they paid good money and I'm gonna go out there and give everything I have and sometimes find it when it's not there.
"I'm at a point where everything I have, in comparison to the bar that's been set... what I have is what you saw at WrestleMania 39. That's what I feel confident that I can deliver, and that's really nice for here and there, but that's not every day in WWE. Sports entertainment has raised the bar and I'm humble enough to say that's awesome, because you're supposed to leave it better than you found it," he continued.