It was Paul [Triple H]’s idea. And he even says himself, he asked me, and in two seconds it was a yes. Just like facing Brock [Lesnar], [Randy] Orton, or Gunther. Yes. That’s how I do business. Yes. Just let me tell the story my way, you know.

So if we never did it, I would have been fine. It would have been nice for you guys to write about, like, ‘Oh man, he never did it.’

I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m glad we got to do it because it helps me now when I speak to younger talent and say, ‘Yo, be bold, take chances, don’t worry about failing.’

I come from a place of activity, not a place of privilege, where I’m in some sort of protected bubble. A lot of folks will say, like, ‘The heel turn failed.’ Okay, I accept that as a failure, but I swung boldly.

A lot of folks were upset with the finish of the last match. Goodness, I accept that critique, and I feel great that I swung boldly in my final moments.

It helps me as now a conduit to talk to people who might not be able to understand my journey and be like, ‘Yo, man, I’m swinging.’ Even with the John Cena Classic, I’m still swinging big.”

I’m gonna take your chant and say that because a lot of you folks spent a whole lot of resources on my farewell tour. And if I decide to selfishly come back for ego-driven reasons, basically that’s saying I’m lying to every one of y’all.

You might not mind, but there are people who paid a fortune to sit at that last match, and for me to be like, ‘just kidding.’ I’ve had so many families that put so so much effort into saving just to see those moments. For me, I’m out of it with my health. I feel good. I got good clarity, good closure. As far as me falling down ever again, I’m out.”

They used to, at least back when I broke into the business around 2000, they would make cuts in every April and every December, but there would also be a list of people on the bubble. So, at least they would make you aware of, like, ‘Hey, three months, show me something, kid.’

But I had nothing and I had little understanding of how I could find myself. But because I had nothing, I had nothing to lose. And I went into a professional environment with the advice of ‘mouth shut, ears open,’ which was great. I learned a lot, but I never spoke up for myself.

When I knew the ship was sinking and the guys were rapping in the back, I was like, ‘F*ck this. I’m just going back there.’ And the head of creative happened to be sitting at the front of the bus, and they were like, ‘Can you do that on TV?’

I said, ‘I sure can.’

And it wasn’t like, ‘The kid’s a star.’ They started putting me in forgettable matches on their Saturday night broadcast that aired on nowhere, right?

But in 100% commitment, I was like, called myself Mr. Saturday Night. Like, the show was my show. You give me an inch, I’m going to take a mile.

But it was just the direction of, ‘Hey, you’re the white kid from West Newbury who’s the rapper.’ I get that. I can I can work with that. Let’s let’s go onward.”

The reason those movies, or the reason I can control that those movies sucked, I wasn’t wholeheartedly invested.

I wanted to be in the ring.

Because as a 27-year-old spending 15 hours a day to watch one thing blow up in a library quiet set is not near as cool as being in an arena in Lexington with 22,000 people going apesh*t to be like, ‘This is the best thing I’ve ever seen in my life,’ and then you drive to the next town and do it again, and you’re like, I wanted to be there. My focus was elsewhere.

And again, I think I’ve had at least a bit of control over knowing when something is happening. Like, ‘Do you want to rap?’ I do. It’s going to be ridiculous. I’ll do it. Like, I’ll be ridiculous instead of putting roadblocks.

By the time I auditioned for Trainwreck, I was like, ‘Hey, you’ve already been run out of the movie business once and you’re also doing okay. You have other things going on.’ I was hosting the Today Show. I was reading the news, doing live programming. I was having fun.

So, if you’re going to get back into this, I just told myself, put the same amount of passion you do in wrestling into this.

And at the very least, you won’t regret your choices. And that’s exactly what I did in that audition. I’m sitting with very funny people. I have no business being there. But I didn’t give a f*ck and just let it go and realize that, like, I was the joke in many cases.

So, I didn’t put the roadblock in front of myself like, ‘I can’t laugh at myself because I’m cool and that.’ Like, let’s go. Let’s make the funniest, coolest thing.”

“What was tough about that one is I’ve had my butt kicked by Brock Lesnar before, and you guys loved it. In Indianapolis, I got my butt kicked by Brock Lesnar and you hated it. So that made it physically and mentally tough.

It was easily the toughest match of my career.”

If an opportunity comes where you’re like, ‘Oh man, this could be really good, but it’s not who I am,’ people see through that immediately. Immediately. Then you feel guilt. U.S. dollars are paper. U.S. dollars are cool, but the currency you have is your integrity, is who you are. ‘Everybody’s got a price’ is a real comment. You just have to be accountable. That weight’s heavy. It’s heavy.

[Is there an example you would feel comfortable sharing?]

I think one time I tried to get involved with an entrepreneurial social network startup, and I didn’t tell my boss. We talk about everything. This was a, ‘Man, we’re gonna do this together.’ In potentially being part of this startup, I would… my name is John Cena, so I would essentially be leveraging intellectual property. That’s a team decision.

I love and trust my boss. He’s far more than my boss. This is Vince McMahon.

I was just trying to get more money, simply. I have my own philosophy on social networks. I’m very limited in my use by design, so it’s not something I’m interested in. I’m not too fond of limited-access stuff, and this was a curated idea. It seemed nice, but I looked at the projections.

Man, my boss found out, and to be honest, he was great. He was great. He walked me through it. ‘Okay, this is the choice you’ve made. Let’s walk through all the tentacles of what might happen.’

It was a direct violation of trust with somebody I had worked with for years, and he had invested years in trusting me, too.

So, it was a moment where he could have just gone nuclear because trust takes years to build and moments to destroy. But he didn’t. He had patience and tolerance, and I think, possibly as an entrepreneur himself, he tried to put himself in my shoes. He walked me through it, and it took five minutes or less to realize, ‘I’m such an idiot.’

I immediately called the company back and said, ‘I’m out. This isn’t for me.'”

I remember being so confused because I was like, ‘Man, I’m this obnoxious, over-the-top, cocky heel.’ And he’s like, ‘I feel like that’s not going to last too long. You’ve got to be yourself.’ I was like, ‘How do I do this? I’m a bad guy.’

I even remember him telling me that after the match at Mania. That match, to me… I have a picture of myself as a kid holding my little brother, and I had a cardboard cutout of Cena in my room. He was always my dude. So just having that match with him, and how awesome he was through the whole experience, that’ll stay with me forever.

Something cool, too: my grandfather has always taken the father-figure role for me. When I was a kid, he told me, because he knew I always wanted to be a wrestler, ‘All I ask from you is that when you face John Cena, I get a hot dog and a Coke in the crowd when it happens.’

I told my girl that day, and she brought them to him. God, what a crazy moment, you know what I mean?

After the match, I remember Cena telling me, ‘Hey, I went and talked to Vince [McMahon], and I told him you’re not a bad guy. So hopefully that helps you become a good guy.'”