John Cena has explained why tapping out in his final WWE match against GUNTHER did not contradict the “Never Give Up” philosophy that has defined his career.
Appearing at the Tampa Bay Comic Con, Cena was asked about the irony of voluntarily submitting in his farewell match despite spending years telling fans to never give up. He explained that, to him, the phrase has always represented perseverance rather than blindly refusing to accept when something has reached its natural conclusion. He said,
“I’m going to clear some things up about perseverance, right? Uh, the words ‘never give up’ to me equate to perseverance. That doesn’t mean you should just be unaware of your surroundings or what’s going on. ‘Never give up’ for me is a philosophy about life. I fully gave up in that last match and I gave up my WWE career. That doesn’t mean I’m done with life. Never giving up is the ability to wake up every day and say, ‘Man, I’m going to do the best I can today to have the best day.’”
“Now, the things that life deals us become, in my eyes, like chapters in our book. I want to do the best I can here for this Q&A by answering your questions as genuine as I can. So, I’m putting my best forward to this. They’re going to bring out the hook in like 15 minutes and I’m going to have to get off stage. We’re going to have to end this chapter. So, essentially, I’m going to ‘give up’ the stage and then I’m going to go back and take some more pictures and do some more autographs, but each of those sessions is going to conclude and then I will give up.”
“It was interesting to see the fan reaction with me voluntarily tapping out for the last match, cuz they’re like, ‘Oh, you’re the never give up guy. Why’d you give up?’ It was my last match, win, lose, or draw. From a fan sentiment, I’m not sure if you guys expected me to win, because essentially in the pro wrestling uh cycle of life, that’s not what happens. So I wanted to gracefully bow out in a way that the fans understood that it was my time to go. That doesn’t mean I have given up on life.”
“So to bring it back to your question, does ‘never give up’ sometimes box you into a rabbit hole when you know you got to move onward in life? No. Awareness of what’s going on is certainly a a good indicator of like, man, I got to pivot. I call them pivots. That way you’re not just giving up all the time. But the never give up thing comes to the quality of life. And as long as I’m alive, man, I want to stay curious and active about life.”
During the same convention, John Cena was asked about his heel turn. He said,
“I will never classify myself as the most talented in anything. You guys have seen my work. Michael Cole has politely called me unorthodox as far as my running style and my wrestling ability. I think there’s people who can talk circles around me. One thing I do put myself at the top of the ladder on is preparedness. So when you asked me if a lot of preparation went into the heel persona, it did. The idea for the heel turn kind of came out of nowhere. They wanted to do something special for Toronto. They knew they could get some stars in there. They called me up and asked me if I wanted to go in this direction a few days before the show, and I said, ‘Yes!’ That started the prep for all of that. I had to, in my mind, research: ‘Why am I doing this? What’s my motivation? What am I going to talk to the audience about? What am I going to talk to my opponents about?’ The amount of preparation is unexplainable.”
“I will do my best to explain it with an anecdote. Love me a good anecdote. When I wrestled Dwayne Johnson once in a lifetime down in Miami, Vince McMahon was like, ‘Hey, we might turn you heel. We might.’ He left it at that. Nothing. I went away from that meeting. I recorded new theme music. I got 10 new outfits made. I got wrestling robes made. I got wrestling boots made. I had the WWE file for the trademark ‘Fear My Name’ that never got used. None of this stuff got used. I practiced walking, like how I would move through space in the new singlet and robe. I practiced my mannerisms, how I would carry myself. It never came to fruition. He came back four weeks later and said, ‘We’re not doing it. We’re scrapping it.’ That’s how prepared I try to be. Somebody gave the inkling that this might happen. All I want to do is put my best foot forward for y’all. So that’s an example of how prepared I was for the heel stuff.”
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