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Maybe it was the fact that The Rock just bragged about getting his missing balls trending worldwide. Maybe it was because The People’s Champ also called him a Kung Pao bitch. But whatever the reason, John Cena came to the ring on a February 2012 episode of Raw — ahead of their second consecutive WrestleMania main event — and delivered one of his sickest live burns in a long history of them.
Cena said he didn’t need words like respect and loyalty to trend worldwide, “just like I don’t need my notes for my promo on my wrist.”
You can relive the whole promo here as it’s classic stuff the whole way, but Cena’s line comes just after the 18:00 mark:
As Cena told Logan Paul this week during a lengthy conversation on Paul’s “ImPAULsive” podcast, that line wasn’t something he had planned — and he now regrets it.
“I didn’t know I was going to do that,” Cena said when asked by Paul if he had that response queued up. “No, I didn’t know I was going to do that. It was one of those things where it happened last minute, and … Looking back at it, it was f–king stupid, because we have the biggest star in the world coming back when they don’t need to. Like, giving our product ratings, giving our product relevancy, getting people to talk about us. And what do I do?
“The guy is going a million different directions,” Cena continued. “Probably flew in from God knows where, working a full day — I now know what that feels like — and just wants to do the best he can. I don’t blame him for that, I blame myself for taking advantage of that.”
Cena also said that if he was being truly professional, he would have told The Rock ahead of time, “if you do go out there like that, I’m going to use it.” And that kind of heads up does sound warranted under the circumstances.
Cena’s whole angle of attack on The Rock at the time was that he was only around WWE when his schedule allowed, something that is true about Cena these days too as he spends more of his time on movies and TV. It’s caused him to reconsider his stance back then, and that applies to this interaction as well.
But while it’s nice to hear him suggest he was wrong, it was still an amazing moment at the time that will live on forever in the minds of WWE fans.
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