John Cena has opened up about his difficult relationship with his father growing up and their recent reconciliation.
The Cenation Leader stopped by the Joe Rogan podcast in his media tour ahead of the retirement match. The 2-hour conversation saw the WWE star touching on a number of philosophical topics apart from the talk about his wrestling career.
One of the topics of discussion was how one can use past mistakes and painful moments as motivators for their life. John Cena gave a very personal example to explain the philosophy, mentioning how he resented his father growing up:
"I had such a shitty relationship with my dad, and just recently, we've mended fences, and he's 80, so I'm glad I've done this, because we don't last forever. We're all going to the dirt soon, you know, but I just wanted him to be something else. I always wanted that motherfucker to change. I wanted him to be something else. And finally, I got out of my own way.
The hard thing is meeting that guy where he's at. The hard thing is allowing him to be who he is. Take the weight off my backpack and say, like, Yo, I might have needed you to be this in my life, but because you weren't. Man, because of your absence in being the dad that I had in my mind, I got all these fucking cool male mentors, who gave me a key to the gym at 15 and said, 'You better fucking be here in the morning.' And like, Dude, I still can feel a key in my hand from Dave Nock."
Getting Out of Your Own Fucking Way: John Cena
The 17-time world champion named the Dean of Students at Cushing Academy as another one of his male mentors. He mentioned how the Academy leader inspired him to get better grades so he can play more sports and earn a scholarship. John Cena explained that he was able to meet students from poor houses as well as kids with ultra-rich parents at the academy, and there he learned to be friends with everyone:
"I wouldn't have learned that in West Newbury, where it's 99.9% white, 1200 people in the small town, no stoplights. You either leave or you never leave. Just little things like that. You know what I'm saying? Like Man, I should do this. Deciding to meet my dad where he's at and be like, 'Dude, whatever I thought you were, you're not. You're just you, and I loved you for you.'
Man, when we sit there's some shit that he'll say that's all fucked up. He said some shit yesterday, like, I don't think John's last opponent should be [Gunther] and people listen to him because he's a wrestling fan. He's in the weird subculture zeitgeist. And I want to call my dad and be like, 'what the fuck are you doing?'
But then, like, no, he's doing what he does. This is him. This is the John Cena I love. This is the guy I can sit down with. Part of that is being able to process all that, but the opportunity I get from that, I've learned about my father's story. I've learned about what he wants to do with his life, why he does what he does, maybe what he wanted to do, dreams he didn't have. So I can gain wisdom from there, but that's the hard part.
It's like getting out of your own fucking way to do the thing you really want to do. The easy thing to do is hold a grudge against my dad. What I really wanted to do was tell my dad I love him, and sit down with him and be like, 'Yo, let's fucking break bread. Talk about whatever you want,' and now we do that and it's great. That's a small example of the easy thing to do is sit on the couch and say, 'Fuck it. Somebody else's fault.' The tough thing to do is like [realizing] life is handing me a moment right now."
