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Welcome to PWInsider.com's ongoing coverage of Chris Jericho Live! on the WWE Network with his guest WWE United States champion John Cena.
Welcome to PWInsider.com's ongoing coverage of Chris Jericho Live! on the WWE Network with his guest WWE United States champiojn John Cena.
Jericho welcomed everyone to the first episode of Live! with Chris Jericho. John Cena was already with him Jericho congratulated him for his match with Cody Rhodes at Raw and said he could see Cena had a shiner.
Jericho joked with Cena that he had Five Moves of Doom but now he's added a Michinoku Driver and a spingboard Stunner. They joked about whether they could use those names. Cena then named the original five moves of Doom.
Jericho asked Cena about not being in the main event. He said he's never gotten caught up in the idea of being in the main events and wants to lead my example. He said that he's constantly trying to do his thing and evolve and if he can work with Cody Rhodes or Dean Ambrose and use himself to get their names out there a little more while creating something fun, he's all for it. He said he just wants to do everything he can with the opportunity of carrying the U.S belt.
Jericho asked Cena if it ever got stale being on top for PPV after PPV. Cena said that because they have so much content, there is a portion of the audience that might grow complacent, but no matter where he is on the show, he's happy to be there. He said people think he was just given the key to the city but he's been in the first match, the last match and the middle of the card. He appreciates being able to do his thing.
Jericho said that when he was World champion in 2009 and then was working with Rey Mysterio, he felt it was a way to bring the belt up. Cena said that if you have a title, you want to do eveything you can to make it mean the most. Jericho pointed out he has the Open Challenge for the U.S title and that can do it.
Jericho said that he has a hard-hitting question for Cena. He was asked what would he have done if Funaki had answered the open challenge. He said that Cena's first riding partners were Cena, The Bashams, Funaki, Ultimo Dragon, and Tajiri. They were Team Stay Cheap. Cena joked that Ultimo Dragon with everything he's done in his career, he was now sitting in the back with all the luggage. Cena told a story of Tajiri, after having a few, suddenly talking English and everyone being shocked because he would feign that he didn't speak it well.
Jericho asked him about his relationship with Vince McMahon. Cena said they have the same vision although creatively they are different. Cena said some people love the pro wrestling business but he loves this company. Cena said Vince is "all in, here we go, let's move forward." Cena said his goals are getting the company into places it's never been like India and China. He wants to leave WWE bigger then it was.
Jericho said he was the World champ but never the guy and asked if Cena and Vince have secret, clandestine meetings. Cena said he and Vince have a good relationship and he's given the freedom to be creative and tell his stories. Some nights are good and some nights, it's not. He admitted he still gets yelled at by Vince McMahon and said, "Everybody does." Cena said it doesn't piss him off because it shows the passion that Vince McMahon has and that gets Cena going. He said that Vince is still passionate after 31 Wrestlemanias. Jericho said that part of Vince is infectious and he'll never ask you to do something that he isn't willing to do himself - and sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes it's not.
Jericho said the relationship was not always great with Vince. Cena's first PPV bout was against Jericho. Jericho said when someone comes in, there's always a little backlash and it happens to everyone. Jericho was booked to go over and he called Vince saying that the finish needed to be changed because they had something special with John and Vince disagreed. Cena said he remembers those days well and talked about meeting Vince for the first time. Kurt Angle was supposed to wrestle Undertaker but Taker wasn't there. Cena joked about how bad his hair looked in that era and noted he had been working as a bad guy in OVW but was told he was debuting tonight against Angle as a good guy and basically shoved into Vince's office. Vince looked at him and said, "Cut his hair!" They cut his hair and shoved him out to the ring.
They talked about promos. Cena thanked "Crazy" Jim Cornette and Danny Davis for all they did for him and others. He talked about Cena doing backwards promos and Cena showed an example of it. He said he was willing to take a chance. He said that's what defines success and failure in WWE. He said they have a lot of great talents in the back but some of them aren't willing to take that chance. He noted that some of them gave Vince heat for his "brass ring" comment but Cena loved it. He said that as much as Vince yells at guys and tells them what they need to do, but Vince can also hear the audience. He said that if guys feel something is right, do it. They are all fans and can feel it out there. Don't do it because someone tells them not to do it and they have rules but you have to take a chance.
Jericho asked him if guys are afraid to take a chance because they are so regimented with the rules. Cena said that if you go out and knock the fans dead, you aren't going to get your walking papers when you return to the gorilla position.
Cena talked about his respect for William Regal and told a story about having a terrible dark match tryout while he was wrestling for Rick Bassman's UPW in California when he was just awful. Cena returned to the back and asked Regal for feedback on the match, which he said was rotten. Regal said, "Oh Lad at least if you get some boots you will look like a wrestler." Cena said that he thought that Regal meant that he had it all down but needed to look the part. Instead Regal was trying to be kind.
Cena went out and bought 75 pairs of booths and in OVW, wanted to be like Ric Flair with the new robes every week, so he never wore the same boots on TV twice. Cena said that he still has them all.
Jericho talked about the OVW class that Cena was part of with Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton and Batista. Cena said walking in there was like Keanu Reeves walking into the waiting room in the Matrix. Cena talked about each of them and Shelton Benjamin and then ran down some of the names that didn't break into WWE in a major way, such as Rico Constantino, who Jericho also said he loved. Cena said he knew he wasn't the #1 guy on the list so he worked hard and kept going there early and kept producing and worked at getting a chance.
Cena said he loved wrestling so much but it was a secret as to how to get into it. Killer Kowalski's school was 25 minutes from him and he didn't know. He joked about being the first ever reverse first generation wrestler as his father got into the business after him and still works as Johnny Fabulous.
Jericho noted that looking at the old photos, Cena was always a big guy and asked him if he ever used steroids or performance enhancing drugs. Cena said, "No, No, I was just lucky as a kid to be surrounded by motivating individuals." They showed some old photos of Cena lifting and in fitness competitions. He said that everything he ever competed in, he was drug testing. He said that people are going to assume he was on steroids but whether he was tested or not, his body has remained the same since he first showed up. Jericho said he believes Cena because Lance Storm has been able to do the same without doing steroids.
Jericho said that Cena is a mutant because Cena had neck surgery and went to the building for Raw the same day. Cena said he hates being away from WWE and it was all about doing his rehab in order to return. He said when he was doing rehab after his pectoral surgery, he was next to guys from the NFL who were happy to be hurt. He wanted to get back and that led to a cool surprise at the Rumble a few years ago.
Jericho said Cena is one of the few guys who can drink him under the table. Jericho tells a story about Cena counseling a couple in a bar who were fighting and at the end of the talk, the couple decided to stay together. Cena said the bar shut them down but they got a cooler full of stuff in Jericho's room. Jericho fell asleep, so Cena tucked him into bed and stayed up drinking beer and listening to Jericho's iPod.
Jericho asked who Cena thought could be the next face of the company and whether it even matter anymore. Cena said that the second someone is in that spot, they will find themselves in a polarizing spot. The audience screams for new but then when it's presented to them, the audience rejects it. Cena said Roman is excellent and is a star but the audience rejects people and says it's not good enough. Jericho said that WWE has built their brand to the point that fans go because WWE is in town, where before it was let's go see Hulk Hogan. Cena said that every band needs a frontman and there will always be a frontman. Cena said that they need to understand the risk of taking the chance they were told not to take. He said that if guys believe in it, it will work. Cena said when he's done, he will be able to say he did it his way. He said it's very tough for him to talk to the locker room now, because they didn't see his experiences. When he tells guys to risk it, they thin k it's easy for him to say because they weren't able to see how Cena was almost at the point he was fired He said they need identity because once the fans love you or hate you, you have identity.
The discussion turned to NXT. Cena said the steam the brand is building is amazing. He said it's not guys doing training matches but being put into a situation where the fans are reacting. He talked about being booed out of the building the night he inducted William Perry into the WWE Hall of Fame and how you get tossed into the fire so this allows them to experience that.
They talked about The Rock program. When Rock came in, Cena wanted Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James but when Johnson returned, justifiably because Cena had done everything to call him out, Rock would trash him. Cena said that he wanted a chance to take that jab at Rock. Cena said that Rock had done so well outside of wrestling that Rock was genuinely protected. Cena said that he never cared what Rock said but was upset about not being able to jab back. He said that when Rock walked in, you had to be "sniper sharp" on your A Game.
Jericho asked Cena about calling Rock out on having his promo written on his arm. Cena said that a referee realized Rock had something writtten so Cena called him on it and that was the moment Rock knew he had to go back to being Rock. He said Rock was pissed and they had some abrasive times because now he can look through Rock's eyes and he can appreciate it. He said Rock would go sit in his room with his camp and Cena would be sitting there scratching his head waiting to see how he would react. He said the night they wrestled in Miami, Cena went to his locker room and told him not to take anything personal because he wanted to do Jordan vs. LeBron, not Jordan vs. The Washington Generals.
They moved on to animosity between guys and how it makes for a better storyline and chemistry. Cena said that you want things to be genuine. He told Daniel Bryan to say anything he wants but trust him, Cena will be ready. Cena said he said the same to CM Punk. He wanted to be at his best and if someone can catch him, he'll be the one to say the other guy got me.
They talk about the dueling chants from fans about Cena. Cena said that the reason everything has happened the way it's happened is that he's just gone out and done the best he can and let the product speak for itself. Cena said that the nights he didn't get it done, he would say he didn't and he's going to dust himself off and move on. He said people either like that or they don't. He said it never bothered him when people booed him while he was a babyface. He said it was because he had such a ball working heel in OVW. He said he was ready to "play any hand."
Cena asked why guys boo him. He said there are guys who want something else and it's something intangible. If it's blood or violence, well, they are a TV-PG program. He said that he's seen the effect of what it's like to see kids light up and gives them validity to what they do.
Jericho asked him if sometimes Cena goes over the line with being "Poopy Cena." Cena said he does, but if you deliver the same product every night, you become stale. He said it was his feeble attempt to take a chance and to just try something different.
Jericho asked if John Cena would ever turn heel and if he's open to it. Cena said it was discussed briefly during the program with The Rock. He was told they were thinking about it and he ran to get new gear and music ready just in case. He said that if it had happened, it would have been great but at the same time, its so rewarding to be inspirational to kids. When someone says that needs to turn heel, his reaction is "You boo me anyway" and at the same time, you don't want to let down someone who believes in you. He said that when you meet a kid who believes in you, he doesn't care if that kid is the only person who is cheering for him. He said that as long as that kid shows up and it validates him, he will be there.
Cena said he would be open to doing whatever the company wants him to do. He said that if the day comes he has to turn heel, the company had better have someone ready to do what Cena does with kids. He said turning heel is not letting kids down. The company not having anyone to replace Cena doing what he does would be letting those kids down.
They talked about the origins of Cena's hand symbols.
Cena was asked his favorite match. He said it will be his next one. He said that the first Rock-Cena was special because it lived up to the bill.
Cena was asked his relationship with Rock today. He said it was awesome and he has gems of career advice that make a boat-load of sense.
Cena was asked about his future. He said he thinks about it one day at a time.
Jericho closed it out.
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