John Cena was on the losing end of his Universal Championship match with Roman Reigns at SummerSlam this past Saturday. The 16-time former world champion has one appearance left on his “Summer of Cena” tour — WWE‘s return to Madison Square Garden early next month — and will otherwise be stepping away from pro wrestling again to concentrate on his acting career. Cena took to Twitter on Monday to thank fans for welcoming him back over the past month, writing, “Words cannot describe how appreciative I am that the @WWEUniverse allowed me the opportunity to return and perform. Thank you staff, superstars, and most of all FANS for giving me an unforgettable summer at ‘home’ with my ‘family.’ The journey takes me away now but I’ll C U soon.”
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He then appeared on Good Morning America and reflected on the defeat, saying (h/t Fightful), “I think I will try to do the best I can until I feel I’m offending the consumer. There’s nothing like the energy of being in that ring with the audience around. I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to do a whole lot of stuff. That energy is indescribable. That place is my home. I wouldn’t be who I am without it. The audience is my family — I want to be kind to them — I still feel good even though I finished second so I still feel I have something to contribute.”
Cena talked about how much longer he intends to wrestle during a recent interview with Chris Hardwick, saying, “Returning to WWE, it’s a brand new world. A new cast of characters, new direction with the company, new platforms, new environment. There is a challenge there. To challenge myself as a 44-year-old to go back, there is an Intrinsic challenge there, a set of circumstances. That’s a good challenge in many ways. My body could tell me after this extended stay, ‘dude, you’re done’ or it could tell me, ‘You’re so far from done it’s crazy.’ That’s another interesting conversation with myself. If physically, I’m slower, I’ve said openly to everyone that I will keep doing this until I feel I’m offending the customer. I will continually go out there and do what I can to contribute and add.
“I don’t want to go out there and be like, ‘Okay, just let him go out there and (do his thing).’ I’m not into that because I know what it’s like to pay for a ticket,” he added. “If I were to get that on this go-round, it’s a humbling and tough thing that I will have to hurdle. If I get the opposite and it’s like, ‘You’re quicker and can do some things better and define a new personality,’ then that’s a new conversation because I do not have much time left and if I want to give it like, ‘let’s really commit to this thing and really go all in,’ that’s an honest choice where other stuff will have to take a backseat.”
