John Cena

We have John Cena with us today, actor, wrestler, humanitarian, good citizen of the world, and John and I are going to talk about a lot of really fun stuff today. We're going to discuss what it's like growing up in the Boston area with four brothers. We are going to decide my new wrestling character and realize it is going to be incredibly successful.

We're going to talk about little brother, the movie that he's in, and how much fun

“he had working on it, and we're going to discuss how dress and suits are important to him.”

And because of that, I'm going to after this intro go spiff myself up and make sure that I am looking good for the interview.

But we always like to start these interviews by checking with someone who knows our guests,

who wants to ask us a question, ask our guests, and speak well behind their back. We are talking to our first undisputed champion on this show, WWE champion Cody Rhodes. Cody is calling in on Zoom from a beautiful lake, and I just like that he's a champ. I love talking to champs, and let's see what Cody has to say about his buddy and at times enemy and always mentor, John Cena.

So Cody, are you there? This episode is presented by all state. Checking all state first could save you hundreds on car insurance, not checking how long that recipe takes before you start cooking?

“Well, that's how you learn that simmer for four hours is buried halfway down the page.”

Yeah, checking first is a good idea. So check all state first for an auto quote, it could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with all state. Potential savings vary, subjects to terms, conditions and availability, all state North American insurance company and affiliates, North Brook Illinois.

Cody, hello, it's Amy, can you hear me? I have to share this with you, you might have heard this already, but where I teach wrestling, we use bowling for boats as a part of the curriculum. No way, how do you use it?

So it's a way, what I suggest I always ask is everyone, anyone ever seen the show, because

“there was a big fan of the show, but I always ask if they have and then they have to go”

home and watch that night, it's a way for you, young, the prospect of wrestlers to understand that social media, if you scroll through 300 positive things, but then you find that one guy who saw you were fat, there's no point. Go with everybody else, go with the people who already had your back, but we use that episode as brought up every camp, and most people know it too, so it's actually a lot

of fun. Oh my god, that's so nice of you here, I would never think to ask if anything from parks is used in any kind of curriculum, but you're right, I bet you have young people who are trying to figure out how to participate in feedback, which is really hard, especially for a young person to, like, not let that feel too personal.

Well, particularly wrestling is brutal, I feel like every funnel is one thing, but I feel like wrestling and star wars is the most divisive social I've ever seen, you can't just say you like it being, like it being means you dislike something else, and it means it means war. Speaking of what Star Wars is really interesting, I'm sure you've made this parallel before.

All of this, like, heroes, journey stuff is in the stuff that you all do, the stories that you make in the ring. It is very similar, which is the rise and fall and betrayal, and like trying to get, you know, like, figure out who you are in real time, there is a lot of Joseph Campbell parallels. Yeah.

I always tell people the heroes journey, for me as a baby face and John, as a lifelong baby

face, a lot of betrayal, and so every week, it's new betrayal. When you know a story line is happening, when you know, for example, you're going to get betrayed, let's say, by someone like John, do you guys look each other and go, yeah! Or do you look each other and go, oh, I mean, you guys probably never make that sound, right?

I make that sound a lot internally throughout the course of the day, because a lot of like,

where he hugs me and his face changes, then he was so excited.

“And I was more trepidacious in terms of, he had never done that and he didn't even make”

sense to do it at this point, he had never gone, gone road, gone bad.

So I just didn't want to screw that massive moment up. Right. He taught me everything I know, because I drove him around for two years before he got his big tour bus. John was such a fun riding partner.

Oh, yeah. We do this little ritual stop where he had to load up a styrofoam cooler with an extra 24 beers in the back of the car. Just in case. I've never seen anyone in terms of, he was our top star and the lead baby face at the

time, the lead good guy. And he was, he turned baby face, I'm obsessed with it. Okay. Yeah, he is the, he is the, I mean, he was even after what he did to me and we're still fearing him and booing me, so it was like, all right, okay, thanks guys.

John is pretty great at the magic in except for one area that is widely known to wrestling fans and wrestlers.

“John will not talk low or in Carney as we would say, like if I need to tell you, Amy”

Duck, the clothes line, I'd say like, "Diz Duck, you know, something, we, this little carney is like, little like fake language, like a pig Latin." It's like a pig Latin. Mead Snoop talk, but John yells everything that's going to happen in the ring as loud as he can possibly yell it. He calls it for the first four rows and interactive experience.

God, this is so helpful because one of my questions is like, to, you know, is figuring out exactly how you all improvise because you're improvising a lot, obviously a lot is written and, and, you know, beat it out, but you're talking about really big physical things that you have to figure out how to signal to each other in safe ways, obviously. That's really funny, that screams it screams it screams it and then there's the last match

I had with him at summer slam, he's about to slam me with his big finishing mood, which is the attitude adjustment from a table to another table. So it's highly dangerous. It's going to hurt, we're going to do it the safest way we can, but you can hear him yelling at me, why I'm on his shoulders, that he can't see because my arm is over his eyes.

And I, I never spoke back to John, it was, I never wanted to speak back, he's, you know,

a mentor to me and, but it was one of those moments where I thought buddy, I'm the one doing this. I don't get just throw me like I, I'm not worried about your, you're, you screaming at the top of his lungs. I can't see, um, I really love your relationship.

You guys have a very brotherly relationship. Oh, good. Yeah. Well, I, I mean, I can't think of another guy who didn't need to take the time. He definitely didn't need to, he had, he was the busiest guy on the roster.

He took the time. He, I was a, uh, another term, I was, he's not going to agree with this, but I was a job guy. Hmm. What's that mean? I was laying on my back looking up at the lights every night.

I was, uh, the three second tan as John calls it, you know, um, and he still wanted to,

he had a belief in me. Oh, wow. You know, you can speak a little French soup? Yeah. And Mandarin, right?

Yeah. The Mandarin. I can't. It's so annoying. I was just saying, like, uh, it's so embarrassed.

I can't speak another language, and I don't need somebody to be coming in here and showing off the two that they can't speak. Yeah. And now it's like keep it to yourself. Not on your turf, you know?

Exactly. Not on your turf. We ask the, um, the people we speak to before our guests to ask to give our guests a question. Or anything big or small, um, dumb or serious that, um, you think I should ask John about or you'd want to know about him.

Oh, man. What's he going to do with all this knowledge? Right? What is he going to do with it? We don't have a book yet, right?

There's no book. Does he plan to write a book?

“And what is he going to do with all this knowledge?”

And if he plans to do nothing, what was the point? I don't know. I've been thinking too much about it. I've been thinking too much about it. I've been thinking too much about it.

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I've been thinking too much about it. I've been thinking too much about it. Let's put our readers on. Let me see yours. I will do the full presentation again.

Starts out as a monocle. There you are. Now that falls under some Aberdashery. Thank you. Thank you.

I like that you like to wear suit. I do. I do. How come? I've tried to reflect on this.

I think it has to do with uniformity. I do.

“I do feel like there's the uniformity of knowing what you have but then the freedom to do cool”

stuff within that. Not exactly base suit colors. There's an aggressive stance with a pinstripe. It's still going to be like, okay, non-local waistcoat, two-button coat. Everything fits.

Do you get them made for you? That's another thing. I used to hate suits because these would be so uncomfortable. Like, no, no, we make it around you. Say what?

And then someone made me a suit and I put it on. It felt like a warm-up suit. Yeah. Are you the same gen as me? Are you Gen X?

Yes, I believe so. Okay. Yes. So I feel like in our lifetime we've watched clothing get just more and more and more casual. In our lifetime, I feel we have watched clothing get more efficient.

Yeah. You know, this one suit is made of stretch fabrics. So you can run a mile in it.

And you never have to wash it.

Right. It's more of that. Yes. And this connects kind of what I wanted to start talking about. Okay.

And just my lens. Yeah.

“But I think it connects to a bigger thing, which is there's something about the way in which”

you participate in what would almost be considered at times old fashion things, which are professionalism, the lightness, like wearing a suit, being like being able to be dependable. All those things sometimes feel like sadly that they feel sometimes old fashion. My experience, I've got a chance to work with you and I had the pleasure to get to know you a little bit over the last couple of years.

And like you're just such a professional John. Like you're such a hard worker. You do what you say you're going to do. And even the suit, like feels like a symbol of like I'm taking this seriously. I guess where does that come from?

Have you always had that? Have you always been that person?

Okay.

There's a whole lot there.

Have you got line? We're fine. I don't know how simple that. A simple yes. You want me to shape go to the gym.

Simple. Easy. I don't know. Right. Those things aren't easy.

Yeah. And you equate those things with success. Success is ambiguous. There is no one recipe for success. Yeah.

“What I do is what I believe will get me the next opportunity.”

But I'm also wrong a lot of times. Where do I get those things? Through wisdom and experience. If we were doing this interview in 2005, I would have an oversized sports jersey on. I would have a backwards Mitchell and Ness hat on.

I would have come in with more diamonds than I've ever seen in my life or I need. I would have been wearing a set of reboc pumps and a set of shorts.

And I never would have broken the character of the Doctor of Thugonomics.

Yeah. You would have stayed there. Because that at the time I felt was my path to success. How did I get these things? Good question.

So I don't know how to succeed. I always try to put odds in my favor and I appreciate people's opportunity. I'm also not supposed to be here. I'm a kid from West Newberry who didn't train for this. I didn't put in the hours of improv classes like you.

It's like a happy accident. I'll say life hands people opportunity and hands people some bad cards. If you get an opportunity card, men try to work to make the most of it. Yeah. I am where I'm at because I know how to fail.

And I talk to people about this a lot. Now I want to try to, I'm trying to expand on this idea to get it out to people. Yeah. The things you do in life, I can guarantee you will fail if you are unliable. Unprofessional, uninvested and uncoachable.

Those four things and I don't mean like work. I mean like life. It's so interesting to see that because sometimes when people ask about like succeeding in the stuff kind of stuff that I do,

I always say something that it feels like almost simple but it's like just be fun to work with.

And it falls under that category which is when people want you around, you get more opportunity. The final product of what's going to happen in your life to your point about what you're going to be successful at. You never know. You don't even know if it's going to be what you want.

It always changes. Sure. But the experience that way people feel around you, they remember.

“They remember I liked working with that person.”

I had a good time. Or I liked seeing that person. I liked being entertained by that person. I had a good interaction. Yeah.

It doesn't necessarily guarantee success. I'm not. What I'm not saying is if you're coachable, professional, reliable and passionate, you will succeed. Because they're still a level of magic dust and ambiguity and luck. And things beyond our control.

I can't tell you how to succeed. What I can do is if you are unprofessional and coachable and invested in unreliable, you will fail. 100% guaranteed. I want to talk to you about your thoughts about winning and losing and about collaboration. And I feel like it goes back to probably the fact that you grew up in a family with four brothers.

Five boys. Amazing. Yes. That is a feast. Your mom.

Well, I mean, she had, I'll be a shit probably. She probably had tough 30 year run. That's right. We got a chance to. So John and I got to work together a few different times in different ways.

And you told me a story about your brothers and you and crayons. Yeah. Can you tell that story? Yes, sure. So the house was wonderful and not too many safety guards.

So if helicopter parenting is constantly looking over your kid. My parents were submarine parents. Like, I'm trying to find the exact opposite. They were hiding in the basement.

“I think the only safety concern was at night.”

We do like a 10 in 10 inspection. You got 10 fingers. You got 10 kilos. Go to sleep. That was such a cool thing to have as a young person.

Yeah. Because we essentially could have an idea and do the idea. Amazing. So because there were so many of us and my dad would work in my mom would stay home. We would just do stuff like in a box of 64 crayons.

If one kid was behaving and coloring in the lines, three other kids grabbed as many as they could. And just ran on the walls and did whatever. Just to be like, those is great. Because at the time doing that as a kid, that is great.

But my poor mom would be like, oh, man, Matt, what a great.

What the f-- I can't even imagine. Meanwhile, like laundry for an army's coming up. And she's like, oh my god, now I got to feed everybody again. I just fed you guys three hours ago.

Taking years off for, like, man.

“But honestly, she had an uphill climb for three decades.”

And now all of us collectively as a group are like, man, we need to make-- we need to make sure she's doing all right. Oh, wait. So these last four plus decades have been a different chapter of my mom's life. And especially, like, the last 20 between all of us and her have been in real special.

I want to ask you about that because I know you've done some very special things for her. But growing up in Boston in '80s, not, like, you know, where you guys were-- was your family, you know? Like, were you known as, like, the scene of brothers? Oh, my god.

And they all can walk together. So this, I grew up in West Newbury. We have to take Boston out of the equation. I mean, we all say Boston. Yes, because anything around no one cares.

Right. So West Newbury is, if you keep going northeast of the state of Massachusetts, to do an hamper line, there's some old maritime towns that are quite beautiful. Yeah. And inland, there's some even smaller farming towns.

And that's West Newbury, 1200 people. And in 1985, your neighbor is acres away. And you got to ride bikes everywhere. It was like, God of a movie. Like, I don't know, it was like goonies.

Yeah. And you were, you know, awesome. So yes, we were in the sceneous. And we could show up in a basketball game would ensue, because we've brought the team.

It was incredible place to grow up.

Yeah. And I'm so glad it didn't stay there because it is not a diverse look at the world. Right. But man, what a cool place to grow up, especially because when you're a young boy, like boys, young boys are sometimes like dogs.

“Like run them out, you have to run them.”

Yeah. They need like a yard and geisha through the ball. And we had acres. And like, we could go out in the forest and try to burn the forest down. Thank you, West Newbury.

Far apart. We could have like pick up football games that would end in bra for all. So we're parents are just pulling up in their cars and rip it. That's my kid. But it was great.

And it was great. And did you learn how to, like, I learned how to lose a fight? Which I think is really like a man. That's why I'm a diplomat.

Like, you get your ass kicked a few times.

You know, like, you know, that this sucks.

Yeah. And what are some rules to lose a fight? Like, what did you learn by losing a fight? Humility, embarrassment, physical harm. And another thing is like winning a fight also sucks.

It doesn't feel good. Yeah. Especially when you're like, man, we just thought over like, who gets to play bases loaded next. Like, what?

And that kids hurt. Right. So you get on both sides of that equation. Yeah. And I don't think people realize that, you know,

and when we grew up, and my high school, there was a fight every day after. Yeah. And it was like, oh, who's going to fight today after school? And women too.

Young's coming. It was very common. And in fact, when I went to college for a while, I would go to parties and I would just kind of stand there. Like an episodic three clock high.

And people, and they'd be like, what do you worried about? I'm like, there's too many people here from different towns. Like, this is going to go down. The different town thing. Different towns.

So what's showed up at your party from a different town? Forget it. Yeah. But as, you know, You should have a board spy.

But the table can show up. Exactly. Yikes. Like kids from Uber and show up. Like, it's going to be a bloody mess.

But do you have to, like, as a big guy growing up as a tough guy with brothers? Like, but also you felt like you were. You were crazy. I wasn't going to shit kicked out of me every day.

Every day because I was a scrawny kid. And dressing like MC Hammer. And they'll be a devotee. It was like, if they'll be a devotee. And MC Hammer ran into each other.

Yeah. Way on. And airbrush denim. And you got paid. High top fade.

Be it up by your brothers or by people. By my peers. So it was a multi town high school with junior highs. It won't play us in the high schools. It won't play us.

And Marymax buses were here in grove. And buses were here in West New Brays buses over at high school. And I'm in junior high.

“And you have to, like, I see the walk down the sidewalk.”

As if it was yesterday. I'm walking down the sidewalk and I'm passing the kids. Who are like 15, 16, who can't drive yet. And still have to go to the bus. And I'm the one SOB wearing like, ray on polka dots.

In, in an 80s rock, country music combat boot denim. Yeah. You know, mullets. Like, you, you can paint the picture. And I stand out like a sore thumb.

And I was an easy target. And like a scrawny skinny kid. So even something as simple as, like, boom, down the hill I go. Right. Shitty comment.

That was on the daily. I was like the daily. But that's trauma. So, so. That's traumatic, John.

Uh, I appreciate you saying that.

It's traumatic. Life deals us all. Hills to cart. Yeah. I doubled down.

“It was, it was a great experience for me.”

Here I sit dressed loudly. Yeah. As myself. Right. Right.

I don't have a stylist. I prefer to do these things without makeup. Because I want people to see me as me. Now I understand if I'm creating a character. Yeah.

Put as much shit on me as you want. Right. But this is me. Right. And this is how I feel comfortable.

And when those kids picked on me for how I dressed. I would go straight to liberty. I would go straight to liberty.

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Which is a great time in New England because everyone comes home for Thanksgiving. And they go to the bars for Thanksgiving. And they're Thanksgiving football game. My mom's birthday is close to Thanksgiving. So we throw a Thanksgiving thing.

And it's not for my mom's birthday.

“Everybody comes over because we're key in the door”

to the house for the first time.

And play still smells new. And take in everybody for a tour. And I'm bragging about like, "Ah, this is this, this thing." And I built a bar over the garage.

Because I had one space for me. [laughter] My mom doesn't like that but she wanted to come see the whole house. And when everybody gets in the bar, I give my mom a birthday present.

And it's the key to the house. And she like lost it. Like she absolutely absolutely. She's like, "I can't. I can't." I'm like, "No, it's already taken care of."

"Moveers are coming tomorrow." My mom was living in the third floor of like a triple family. In an attic in 300 square feet with her stuff packed in. She was just by herself packed in and she was content. And happy that's who my mom is.

She's a lunch pill, like she'd go to work. She wouldn't accept it. So then I had to negotiate it and be a different amount of like you don't understand. There'll be trucks there tomorrow. Everyone's on board.

We're going to move your stuff over. I'll tell you what, it's already here. This isn't for me. Could you please at least give it a try. So all this doesn't go to waste.

Well, if it's going to go to waste. And that was like 15 years ago. And she's been there ever since. And now it's in her place. And we get together there on holidays.

And it's her place.

“And that's what a son should do for his mother.”

Well, again. Yes. I see her. But in mother house. She earned it.

She absolutely earned it. It's such a beautiful story to John because you also included everybody in that surprise. You know, like in and you. I just think.

I just think it's so indicative of how you're always kind of thinking about how can I.

How can I extend my gratitude. You're such a generous generous person. And we'll talk about that. But I'm after this. My parents are going to call me and say, why have you been here?

Yeah. A hundred percent billion. We're going to be like. We're against the war. We're in no space.

We heard John on the podcast. And we're wondering why we haven't built us a house. You know, my dad used to take me to wrestling in the 80s. We used to go. You're kidding.

No. So we used to see Hulk Hogan. We're. Sergeant. I know you're going to ask me this.

I forget. Maybe like the Worcester Center. Or as we would say Worcester Center. So it was Hulk Hogan. Sergeant Slotter.

Yeah. The Iron Cheek. Yeah. Hi, 80s. You know, very.

So there. Here's a cool thing. There are a lot more performers on that card. But you remember like. Yeah.

Americana Patriot. Totally. It wasn't. Yeah. It was a USA all the way.

See the phobic. But that was totally. That was a time. And I remember watching it and being. Like, like, you know, in retrospect, now it was kind of like the closest we could get to Las Vegas or something.

It's pretty. That's on the bullseye. Yeah.

“With audiences that were really, really invested.”

Yeah. And can you explain. Wrestling to me feels like a combination of. Dance, choreography, writing, and story.

And like magic that you will never know the secrets to.

I'll take that. Okay. Is that fair? I think that's very fair. So when you are performing.

And you are in that arena. And the audience gets to interact with you. And you are how much have you prepared for that day. Because the difference is like any other performance. There is such skill needed for the physical.

I mean, you like. Circularly doesn't wing it. No. But you, there is a, there's a amount of improv. In wrestling that I've noticed when I would see it.

And also in watching it now that is like, I can't. I can't always tell how much is. Prepared. How much is actually prepared and rehearsed. I guess.

And it completely depends on the performers. Okay. Yes. It's completely different. Some.

What do you like to do?

“I like to be an improvisational performer.”

Right. But that is not. I don't go out and wing it. Right. I prepare.

Right. I ask off. Right. So I start with the creative part. What is the story?

Yeah. So if we're fighting over the fact that you stole 10 grand from me. Right. The thing I do is going to relate back to your theft.

And everything you do is going to defend that you never took it.

And the thing that WWE is different than SNL that is different than sketch. The audience is the act. Not observing the act. The audience is the act. So as a performer the way I approach it is.

Okay. 25 minutes. We have a match together. And we've been telling the story of you've stolen something for me. $10,000.

For three weeks. It's a lot of money. You needed it for you. I was going to pay off my mom's house. And you took it away from it.

And now she can't get in. And now she's going to be addicted. Yep. So just by. What are you going to do about it?

You've kicked my mom out of her house. Yeah. What are you doing? You did that. Yeah.

And I almost. This is the last payment. Yeah. And I got the keys and I'm just swinging them right in here. Yeah.

Yeah. So now you be in a creative mind. We could have that wrestling match right now. Right. Give us 25 minutes.

I'll take 35. Okay. I love that. And then you're right. So the all the moves are kind of connected to that.

Right. Like everything goes back to that theme. And here's where it gets very interesting. Mm-hmm. If the story dictates in this match it dictates.

Mm-hmm. You stolen something from me. We're going to ring the bell. I'm going to show that I'm more skilled. And I've earned this the right to make this payment.

You're going to cheat just like you stole. And we're like, no, I'm better. Right. And then there's going to come a point in the story where the crowd is like, What do you do something?

It's the typical Hulk up. Yeah. It's called the comeback. So what I do is we have our why. What we need to really rehearse is from the comeback to the finish.

Okay. And that's what I see. We need to rehearse the physical part of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The third act needs to be adenazium.

You need to have it. Right. Because you're doing dangerous things. You are doing dangerous things. But there's a fundamental trust between performers that you know ex skill.

I know ex skill. Yeah. And the conversation we can have before is,

“Do you do anything specific that's outside of the fundamentals that I should know about?”

Right. And the person who leads gets all that information and stores all these things in there. And there is a card catalog. The third act needs to be prepared because it can also change. Right.

Basically, you use the first two acts to go out and improvise. Right. And if we get out there in the Worcester Center, which I believe to be a rowdy crowd, but slightly different than Boston and Hartford,

but they change. And they're like, we're for you. Right. We don't want that mom to have her house. But keep in mind, we need to be the Worcester Center.

We need to gear for that moment where they're like, John, do something. Right. So immediately a piece of line that I would throw them in the water is punch me in the face. And they might cheer. You would say that to me, punch me in the face.

I would say immediately, punch whatever we had planned if we talked about something. And they came out and were like, yeah, I can be. I'm like punch me in the face now. Or like, I'll go out. I want to make sure.

I want to go out and turn my shoulder to the crowd as if I'm confused. And when I come back, hit me in the face. Bam. So we did two things there. You threw the first punch, which is not fair.

Right.

“So they see subconscious things of like, different.”

Amy, but this is my mom and bam.

Oh, geez. Get on me. Come here. And then I would have you just beat the target. And they might like that.

And then I would just have you lean into that. Yeah. Where it becomes like, oh, man. It's like watching a bad fight. And then I would just listen.

To be like, what come on? Do something. Do something. No, screw. Do something.

Okay. Duck. Here we go. And then we go into it. Now we have the audiences working with us rather than against us.

But there have been instances where the people behind the curtain will tell the Raph to tell you like, switch the finish. So we've decided that the other person is going to win. So if you're super prepared. Wow.

You can change things. And we can change the finish. And change in real time. Now keep in mind, as I'm saying, when I turn around, punch me in the face. I'm listening to the crowd.

I'm hoping you're going to be there.

I'm also listening to my Raph. So sorry. That is. I thought that was real. No, it's fake.

So real rules. Anyway, I have the Raph being like you've 17 minutes left. You have 16 minutes left. So like it's all happening in real time. And there are coaches watching you from behind a curtain that will tell the

Raph what they think you should do. Right. Oh, you're getting notes in real time. In real time. But that's why live TV is so.

It's crazy. That's why I wanted to do it forever. And I just physically. I can't do it anymore.

“But that's why whenever anyone says like,”

What do you like more wrestling? Yeah. That's why I got run out of Hollywood the first time. When you talked about that, I love what you said, which is like, Look at what we just talked about.

That's. Like, you can feel excitement. Like, I want to be proud. It's noise. And then when you get, like, when you get fluent at it. Yeah.

You're like, oh, I kind of understand this. I'll do this and then the challenge becomes like, Oh, man, the UK crowd is throwing a beach ball around. How do I work that into the act? Go on, get that thing and pop it.

And you come back up. When you come back, I'm going to give you my finish. Real time, this stuff I've had people get married. I've had people start fights and stands. And we work it all into the act.

That's amazing. Just because you're prepared. It's the opposite of like doing stand up and not wanting a heckler. Basically, you want that feeling that people are listening and participating.

Here's the thing, it's not that we want it.

It's just, it is. It is. It's stand up to kind of protocol is like, enjoy the comedy. Don't hackle. Yeah.

Here, it's like, you have paid your money to heckle. Yeah. And there's 12,000 of you. All right, good luck. And you can heckle on mass.

Yeah.

“Chants start out that are too hot for TV that Netflix is turning us off and turning us off.”

It doesn't look like the audio goes out. It's crazy. And you can't. The more you try to be like, calm down everybody. Yeah, of course.

You know what? You don't want to be calm down. You're concerned that you're working with them. That would be my character. Part of the act.

I would be like, you guys calm down. Stop. I'd be like, hi. It's so loud. That would be my thing.

Guys, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud.

I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud.

I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud.

I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud.

I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud.

I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud.

I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud.

I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud.

I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud.

I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud.

I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud.

I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud.

I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it's so loud. I mean, it was confusing to not have the show. You know, like the super long hours, lots of waiting around for your time.

Totally. And you spoke about how in the beginning it was really confused as a young 20 something. Yeah. I wanted to be there and I want to go to the bar afterwards. Yeah, right.

And then doing the next time. Right. And then next time. It gets instant feedback. It's the best.

Yeah. And I'm not saying like, crush. It is awesome. It's the best when you bomb. Yeah.

Right.

Because then you're like, whizzing to be like, I got another performance in 24 hours.

What do I do? Yeah. It's the best. Yeah. And I just get feedback when you're shooting a, I mean, you do it from the director.

It's different. It's a different mindset. Yeah. And it took me appreciation of the mindset to really apply. Yeah.

And people like you to bet on me and know that like, oh, man, I'm getting an opportunity here. What can I do? Show up early and fucking be prepared. Yeah.

Ready to go. I mean, okay. So we work together in a movie called Sisters. Me and Tina, the Great Palo Palo. And it was so fun.

Tom's a comedian. It's great cast. Great cast. I was so fun to work with you. And you and Palo Palo fell in love.

You must be kidding. And I mean, to me. If you had a few conversations over one. You and Paula had a few wine.

“What did you guys do you guys hung out and drank wine?”

A lot. What's, I mean, what's so great about Paula? What do you love about her? I love her. I like her.

Her perspective. I love her courage. Man. Like, I just like that energy. Yeah.

Like, again, I say anchors and sales. She's a sale. Yeah.

You know, like always curious, always creative.

Yeah. Off the wall. Yeah. I just know. I know any idea is going to have like that whimsy that magic in it.

Yeah. And I want to be with those people. Yeah. Yeah. I want to be a comedy fan growing up because she's done a lot.

Yeah. What were you watching? What were you watching? What were you watching? At a young age, I was watching stuff.

I shouldn't be watching. So my dad was the only person in my only male and New England it didn't care for sports. Not kidding. Like, we never grew up at the Red Sox.

Because that stuff all happened when I got to junior high. Right. And I had to fall in a peer group. So like, I got to start caring about sports. Right.

My dad liked old 80s, Teddy comedies and pro wrestling. Like, Benny Hill. He loved the song. I'm watching like Benny Hill. People don't understand how important Benny Hill was.

I mean, unless you're my dad. It's, it's, and now you're watching out and you're like, Jesus Christ. This is his terrible show. Like, Benny Hill is talking about predator. It just didn't age well for the time.

But at the time, I remember being a little kid being like, What? Yeah. A lady standing behind a bunch of melons. Yep.

And Benny Hill's like, he like a cartoon character try to grab it. And it was a chase scene in physical comedy. And it was like, what is this? Yeah. And so in our psyche, Benny Hill.

Yeah. The chase with the music has become a meme. Don't you know how to do the Benny Hill style? I do chase the music. And it's, it's a meme.

Yeah.

“And did they watch like, did they watch like Kentucky Fried movies?”

Yes. Uh, animal house, catty shad, anything Rodney did. Yeah. Like, I mean, you name it. I mean, all those comedies.

Yeah. We talked about Mr. Mom, like, uh, it just 80s comedies. Yes. My dad would literally fast forward through the romance. Like the round cards.

Got into the jokes. But they were great. Yeah. But dude, some of them, like, you go back and you're like, Oh, my God.

Horkies? Like, Horkies was like, that was on. I mean, when you were a young woman watching Porkies, it was not good. So John, it really fucked.

It really fucked with our heads. I get it. Because it was like, what is going on? It's like, like, there was so much like, you know, I remember watching Weird Science being like incredible movie.

And then a couple of years later like, Okay, two teenage boys create a sex robot. It's Kelly LeBrock. And they're like, come sex robot. Come meet our friends.

And I'm like, that did, that does fuck you. It does. We saw it. I'm sure this is happening where you look at an 80's movie. You're like, this is hilarious comedy.

And then you paint your like, oops. There's a lot of that. But you have, you have a, like, you have a real knock and love.

“I think for comedy, especially, but you do all different kinds of acting.”

Um, what do you, what do you, like, what's your relationship to acting right now? Like what, you know, your, your, your, your, your. It's a tired. Uh, I'm a retired physical performer.

We'll see. No, no, no, no. Okay. So I have stated that speaking of absolutes is impossible. Yeah.

I've also used the term. It would be financial suicide for someone to be like,

here's what it's going to take.

And I'm like, you did it. I'm a liar. Financial suicide. You know what? Judge Judy, Judge Judy negotiates or contracts.

She slides over a number. That is, so she's such a G. And then she goes, and if you don't want me to do it. Guess what? Guess what?

Guess what? Of course. I got, I'm good. I got a, uh, I got 315. It's 307.

She's like, he slides. She slides. She slides and they look and then they go.

Um, but.

So never performing physically.

Okay. Got it. Got it. And there's, there's multi tiers to that. Uh, I, I need to stop because physically I want to be.

I want to enjoy a long good life. I don't want to have a bunch of crusty years. And punishing my body. The math is into my favor for the good years.

“What is the part of your body that barks the most when it's low back?”

But so I'm, I'm a male. Or I'm a human at 50. That's everyone. Yeah. Aside from that, I did really good.

That's great. Two like Pilates and yoga and like stretchy stuff. Heavy stretchy stuff. Yeah. And I hate it.

And I do it a lot all the time. Can you touch your toes? I can. I can't touch my toes. I can't.

I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't.

The suit is tough. My god John is doing it. He's touching his toes. Yeah. I actually can't.

Then farther than the suit.

Whoa. Yeah. But that's really good John. I can go hands find on the floor. That's my stretch.

That's flat on the floor. That's my stretch every day in the shower. And if you walk in on me taking a shower. You'll see me in a different POV. It's flat.

It's just all the funky bits. Spread open. That is the every morning full spread. Start with that full spread. Man, I was I was really hoping that you would be not flexible.

No, because that's I have to work. I have to work at it. That's incredible. I want to move around. Yeah.

So I can talk about it or do it. Okay. And sucks. I hate it. And I do it.

And it's great. You're good at doing things you don't like to do. But I like to do them because I like when it yields. Yeah. And forced austerities are a luxury because life gives you stuff that you don't really

don't want to do that you didn't get to choose. And a lot of times the choose like, I want to do this or I'm going to be good at this. All right. It's going to be a lot of things that are going to be tough. Yeah.

Okay. So I'll fucking stretch more. You got to. You got to. I mean, it's just like a crusty rubber band.

You got to make sure. Don't. Don't let it get too weird. Oh, God. Okay.

So you're physically good and you're feeling good.

“And your relationship to acting now feels like what?”

What have you learned about yourself as you've become as you've acted more and more? What if I learned? Yeah. Acting and wrestling is the same. Interesting.

I don't run the company so I don't control who wins and loses. Right. I get a chance to make choices within my story, but I can't change the finish. Mm. I should be prepared.

I should hit my time. I shouldn't ask for more than I'm given. And I should be grateful for what I have. If you do good work and you are professional, it increases the math that people call him back. Right.

And also I got to say, John, you know, such a softy. You're like, you're really, really, I talked about earlier, such a generous person. You're the person that's given the most. You know, you've you've fulfilled more. Make a wish wishes than any celebrity over 650 at this point.

You do incredible amount of charity work.

I know that about you. Giving them amount of time to people is expensive. It's a lot of energy. And even that sometimes, I'm sure you walk away feeling like I wish I could have given more. How do you kind of, when you approach people who are sick and ill because a lot of people are very scared of reaching out when people are in a tough place.

You know what I'm talking about? It's not easy to be around, especially young people who are having perhaps like, or perhaps close to the end of their lives. Remember your why? Why am I there? Am I there to be scared?

Right. Am I there to be sad? No. I am there to be the hope. And that is my why.

And now I'm retired. People like Cody, people like Rhea, people like Roman. It's their time to be the hope. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

Those experiences renew my faith in humanity. They give me gratitude for life. Yeah. I'm so grateful for the people I've met. Yeah.

Like, and man, when people are just raw emotionally excited, you see it. It's real. I like what I'm learning about you. John is like, you're chasing your chasing emotion. Like you're looking for it.

You like want to have real connection. Don't we all? No. I disagree. Well, I mean, I guess.

I mean, I guess we do. There's no 100% certainty in the end.

“I mean, I guess it's just that people don't make it a priority, right?”

Like, they might want it, but they, but it feels like you prioritize connection. That's what matters. I'm just saying like, I'm just trying to, I'm trying to do me the best. The best I can. Don't take a compliment.

You won't take a fucking compliment. I will say at this moment in life. I think my intentions will be swinging him around in the ring. And I'm going to give you a compliment before the finish. Now everybody calm down and get quiet.

So I can compliment you and now take it out. CDA, CDA. It's too late. Okay. And so the other thing is you, you brought up Cody.

So we do thing on the podcast where we talked to someone who knows our guest.

I did this for Idris. Oh, yeah, that's right. It's where I gave you the, it's where the mythology behind that bottle of wine. You've pounded during this show. Oh my god.

And forgot that I did your show. Yes. Yes. You did it. What was the mythology?

What is the? I told you the next time I see you bring a bottle of wine. Oh, I did forget that.

“I wish you'd be able to remember anything.”

I said that way. I wouldn't have had to carry that in my bag. No. This is so funny. I can't wait to do that.

Okay. Thank you for doing that for Idris. And it's Idris. I know. It's my guy.

And Cody talked to us today.

I'm so glad you talked to him.

Cody wrote first of all. Because I will say, not a lot of wrestlers on good hang. Try to have a diverse portfolio of people in entertainment space. Not a lot of WWE superstar though. Good hang.

Think I might be new. Yeah. Well, we're going to do today. It's right. See, there we go.

Chill out. We've reached our quote. I think this is a great day. It's a great start. You're in your population by a hundred percent.

You're right. And I do want to talk to more wrestlers. That's why I started the podcast. You know what? You're willing.

I've got to. Could somebody get the number in that guy? Guess we'll have him be crazy. But you know, I love talking to Cody. And that's good.

Well, first of all, I found out that the term baby face, which.

Yeah. Absolutely love and. He'll too. He'll. Would I be considered a baby face?

So this is another thing. It's kind of ambiguous. When I'm trying to be liked, you would be a heal. Fuck. I think if you went out in yourself.

Baby face. Born baby face.

“And then, uh, do women get different terms in wrestling?”

Do they? No, the terms are universal. Okay. Love that. Okay.

And it was really fun to talk about him noticing how much you. Not only care about your own work and pay attention to the good work of others, but that you're kind of constantly. Um, learning new things. I mean, you taught your, you learn, you know Mandarin.

A little bit. You know French, I hear. A little bit. Okay, congrats. Um, so, like, that's like, you know math.

I know a little bit of math. I don't know all of math. Okay. I know, I know. Could you speak, um, could you order in a restaurant in both those languages?

Yes. Congrats. That's great. Well, Cody was like, what do you? Cody's question is such a brotherly question.

What are you going to do with all this knowledge? He was like, write a book. And if you don't write a book, what's the point of it all? And then he was like, what can you not do well? But Cody was really funny.

His question was really the search for knowledge and get it. You really want to know things.

“What do you, what do you, what, what's, what's behind that search?”

What's behind like the drive for those things? Am I honoring life correctly? Yeah, but why do you worry that you're not? Because look, I look at you. Yeah.

Like am I, am I doing enough? Am I doing enough? If I'm not moving forward. Mm-hmm. I'm not honoring the luck.

I talk about like earning the sunset. I'm being on like honoring the luck. This is not in my control. This is like the weird mystical piece of the universe from who I am when I was born where I was born.

The opportunities I've been had that, that beyond my control, just go like hell and try to honor the luck. It's what I do alone. To focus, stay committed, do something hard, feel good about myself. Like it is mine.

But when you go to my wrestling matches, you're going to be encouraged to just take a break and calm down and take a nap. Just, you got it. You are. You want to talk about it?

I do think productivity is a career. You know, it can be a career. We've even money on the table. Okay. We're going to get a little quick lightning round.

Here we go. What are you reading? Right now, a mania's crisis and crashes. Eighth edition. What's that?

It is a history of market mania's crashes and bubbles. Uh-huh. Okay. Great. Because I just want to know about it.

You want to know about it. It's a tough book to read. Yeah. It sells the crisis. It's made of a bubble one, yes.

Okay. We'll see you for a minute. And Album that you're into right now. You've been listening to. I'm rocking to some cocktail jazz because I want to try to learn how to play it.

But when I'm alone, blues, like a John Lee Hooker, howling wolf blues. Okay. Fun movie you've seen recently or like a or a comfort movie. Like one that's on, if you see it, you're just like I want to watch it. Just watch the learn Michael's documentary.

Oh, yeah. Love it. Love it. Like reminds me a lot of what we do. And then when I walked to Howard Halls of Saturday Night Live.

Mm-hmm. The amount of respect I have for everyone. Mm-hmm. And then him. Mm-hmm.

Seeing that, it was awesome. It was awesome. It was awesome. It was awesome. You know you've made it when everyone has an impression of you.

Totally. He is what an amazing person. When I was wrestling in Canada. Um, okay, are you watching anything fun? We just got through four seasons.

There's going to be tapes, but we're taping it on Will Forte's birthday. How do you write that well? And that's happy birthday and hell will. That's Tina Fey's. Tina's the four seasons.

Great seconds. So we just got through the second season of that. Fantastic. Yeah. So that's that.

And then you're in the new movie Little Brother with Eric. Oh, great. Congratulations on that.

“And what was it like working on that in the experience?”

And the experience. Eric is an eccentric physical comedian. He is awesome.

I got to say I've always been impressed by what he can do.

Yeah. Give give someone the chance to show what they can do and you set yourself up to be surprised. Yeah. He crushed. Yeah.

Not only I read this script and it came from him and I'm like, do this is your vehicle. I will gladly do this because you're going to shine. There's also parts in there that are really heartfelt. Uh-huh. He crushed those as well.

Yeah. And like, what a moment. I think it's going to be a great movie. It's going to be a great movie for people who see it on Netflix. I'm very happy to be a part of it.

I got to a comedy. Yeah. Where you know with comedies you're like laughing all the time. Well, this is my last question, which is like, what I know you love to laugh and you love comedy.

What are you? What's making you laugh right now? Like, it could be anything. Yeah. Like is there a video a scene from a, what's something that you like.

No, you never know. I think, okay, X makes me laugh. Yeah. I rule out everything else.

“A lot of it is me, like the jokes on me.”

Uh-huh. Right. Being self like, yeah. Allowing yourself to be a soundboard for humor. Not only like, eases the tension.

Yeah.

You never know what it can lead to.

Right. A lot of it is like the big bull's eye and the fuchsia pin stripe. Right. So if you open that door, it's kind of cool. And then it gets like, you know, I'd be too crazy because sometimes ballbusting can be bullying.

Yeah. You always want to, you know, cool. Cool. Yeah. A little bit of teasing is like, like, just like, like, a door that, like, hey.

Yeah. Look, look at me. I'm such an idiot. Yeah. And then like, hey, let's talk.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're trying to get connection there. You're back to connection.

Laughter helps connection, doesn't it? If we're laughing about something, we're talking about something. It's so true. So I folks are going to love a little brother. They're going to laugh.

“They're going to wake up next morning and good, like, what's your favorite part?”

Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. We'll see you now. I love it.

It's such a good hang. I love seeing you. Yeah. And fun to talk to and fun to work with. And such a considerate, nice person.

Thanks for doing this pod. Thanks for the kind words.

I probably will never wear a tie again for anybody, but you never know.

We got thanks. Yeah. We literally just ran out and got it across the street. Yeah. Great.

And you just put this together. Like a lot of those just put together looks are really trying hard. Well, I realized half way through. I was like, he's going to show up in a suit. We got, and we were like, we got to get our shit together.

We got, we got, we got our super spapers fly. And the hat just, it's still a great thing. Thank you so much for doing it. Thank you. Yeah.

Thank you so much, John Cena. It was so fun having you here. And I can't wait to take this tie off. Get back to my regular, sticking it to the man. But no, it was so fun talking to you.

And such a pleasure always to hear your perspective and POV. And for this polar plan, just we wrap up. You know, we talked about John and I talked a lot about comedies, 80s comedies. Those like big dumb, funny things that we grew up on. And speaking of big dumb and funny, I just want to remind everybody that

Wet Hot American Summer, a film I did 25 years ago, is celebrating its 25th year. And there's going to be a million different ways to go back and watch what is really genuinely a funny dumb movie with a lot of cast members who are at the beginning of their careers. So check that out if you can and check out John Cena's new movie. A little brother and continue to support the arts and wrestling because if we learned

one thing, they are the same thing. Bye. You've been listening to Good Hang. The executive producers for this show are Bill Simmons, Jenna Weiss Burman and me, Amy Poler.

The show is produced by the ringer and paper kite. For the ringer, production by Jack Wilson, Kat Spelaine, Kaia McMillan, NLA is an eras. For paper kite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell and Jenna Weiss Burman. Original music by Amy Miles.