John Cena doesn't know if bringing back live events will be a good thing.
There has been a recent push from some top WWE names to bring back untelevised live events in some form. One of the talents that has been very vocal on the subject is Cody Rhodes.
The Cenation Leader addressed this notion during his recent appearance on the No Contest Wrestling podcast. John Cena questioned whether it is a good idea, however, mentioning how a lot of wrestlers go into business for themselves in name of having fun at live events:
There's a lot of the performers that want more live events. I don't know if that's good or bad. We've only been doing this a couple years, and all the data points say what we're doing is great. I asked the performers why? They said 'We want time and attention.' Great answer. When I watch live events, a lot of times, you guys are going into business for yourself. Fuck off.
You have fun. But it's not fun that follows the narrative of the show, and it's a disconnect to the audience. So you want more freedom to be able to - if the crowd is chanting 619, should I do one right now? That's different than like, 'I want to do a fun spot that I think is going to be fun with my partners [but] it'll be a disconnect from the audience.'
Make My Job Harder: John Cena
The 17-time-world champion explained that the freedom of live events still has to fall under the overall narrative of the show. John Cena gave the example of CM Punk as someone who can do this without people realizing that he is breaking character:
Like I said, I watched every event, and when a lot of the performers have fun, they go in business for themselves. That's it. It's not...CM Punk is one of the smoothest who can - inside baseball without ruining the narrative. You never know his tricks. It's like that when he was like, 'I miss you already,' like in Saudi, he literally dropped the act for one second. No one noticed it, and he almost made me bust out crying. It was so emotional. But he never ruined the narrative. He never went in business for himself.
So I don't know if more live events are the answer, because all I've seen, is people take advantage of that and make my job harder as somebody who closes the show. They just mess around, have fun, but they don't listen to the audience whether they bought it or not, and if they buy it, do they buy it in the right way? Like I don't, I don't know any of these answers.
