John Cena says he “stunk up the joint” in the WrestleMania 41 main event.
At WrestleMania 41, John Cena won his historic 17th WWE World Title by defeating Cody Rhodes. With Cena having turned heel at the time, the match was not without controversy and saw him win with help from Travis Scott and a low blow.
Cena has never shied away from admitting the heel run came at the wrong time and was ultimately a failure, but has maintained that there was nothing wrong with attempting something new. In an interview with Uncrowned, the star said he uses the WrestleMania 41 match as an example for young talent to “swing big” and not be afraid to fail.
“I think it’s a great template for when I talk to young talent — and I try to do this all the time, I remind them to swing big and don’t be afraid to fail. A lot of them think I’m talking from a glass house of like, ‘Yeah, sure, it must be easy for you, because you, you never fail.’ And then I’ll look back, especially on that last year because the retirement tour did have a lot of eyes, and I’ll say I took a big swing at WrestleMania and we stunk up the joint. We failed. But what did I do? I got back up, we dusted ourselves off, course-corrected the ship, and we culminated with a fantastic finishing of the story, as Cody would put it, at SummerSlam.”
“It Sparked Conversation And Thought” – John Cena On Final Match
John Cena continued to swing big to the end, and his final match also ended divisively when he smiled as he tapped out to Gunther, ending his career on a major loss. Cena says that regardless of what people thought of the ending, it succeeded in sparking debate.
“As far as the last match goes, gosh, there were a lot of easy routes we could have gone creatively and I appreciate the bold swing at the end. So, it’s authentically me. I didn’t leave anything in the tank physically.
“I gave it my all, got to work with a great opponent. I thought we had an ending that surely everybody talked about. Regardless of whether it was acclaimed or criticized, it sparked conversation and thought, which I think is really cool.”
John Cena is currently promoting his namesake tournament, which will see exhibition matches between the main roster and the stars of NXT.
