John Cena Believes WWE’s Future is Less Stable By Betting on Him

John Cena returned to the WWE last month for a 15-city tour dubbed the “Summer of Cena,” which will eventually culminate in him challenging Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship in the main event of SummerSlam. Cena hasn’t been able to consistently wrestle for the WWE in a few years due to his growing career in Hollywood, though he has stated repeatedly in interviews he’ll never truly leave the WWE. In an interview with USA TODAY that dropped this week, the 16-time former world champion talked about his current role with the company, pointing out that at 44 he can’t be the No. 1 star in the company like he was in his prime.

“Man, I wish there was some sort of fountain of youth where I could be a full-time contributor,” Cena said. “The longer they continue to bet on an aging prospect, that makes (WWE’s) future a little bit less stable.”

But, as he stated in an interview with Forbes that dropped on Tuesday, Cena’s current run won’t necessarily end after his match with “The Tribal Chief.”

“I didn’t want to really leave in the first place but I was faced with a bold choice and that bold choice is try your hand at another way of entertaining people through movies and television but if you take that risk, then you can’t be on the WWE in a full capacity,” Cena said while explaining why his WWE appearances had been so rare prior to his July return. “I could speak maybe or I could be an announcer but you can’t participate. You can’t have matches because the insurance companies bound you to the production. That’s very fair terms. This is the first time, like Fast came out, The Suicide Squad is coming out August 6. We just dropped the trailer for Vacation Friends. I’ve been filming movies a lot and that’s why I’ve been away. This is the first time I got a break. I have this block of time, so instead of taking a deep breath and kind of letting it all sink in, I wanted to go home and see my family in WWE, so back to the ring I go!”

“Man, never say never about the WWE,” he added when asked how long he’d be staying. “Like I said, I had a month to myself and here I am back in a ring. So maybe if I get another month to catch my breath, I’ll hopefully make another visit back. I’m going to have to defend that championship that I win from Roman somehow (winks)!”