John Cena is currently gearing up for a WWE Universal Championship match with Roman Reigns at the SummerSlam event later this month. The Suicide Squad star has been back with the pro wrestling promotion since his surprise return at Money in the Bank last month and he’s booked for appearances all the way up through WWE’s return to Madison Square Garden in early September. But between his growing acting career and his age (44), Cena’s amount of time in the ring has been rapidly decreasing over the past few years. And while he’s stated in interviews that he’ll never truly leave WWE, he explained on the ID1OT Podcast this week that he already knows when he’ll stop competing in matches.
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“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,” Cena told Chris Hardwick (h/t Fightful). “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.”
Cena also confirmed in the interview that he asked for additional dates for the “Summer of Cena” in order to attract bigger audiences for the company now that WWE is back on the road. So far he’s wrestled in nine matches, all of which were either tag team or six-man tag matches after episodes of Raw and SmackDown or at live events.
