John Cena on Negative Crowd Reactions Against Him, His Charity Work, WWE Talent Wellness, and More

– The Washington Post recently interviewed John Cena at the Susan G. Komen race this weekend. Below are some highlights:

Cena on his charity work: “When you walk down this career path — you say I’ve been doing this close to a decade — your goals change as your career goes on. You want to spend your time making a difference after you’ve become successful. I guess that’s the easiest way to say it. With this, early detection is the way to fight and beat this thing. D.C. has the highest mortality rate in breast cancer. So to be able to grand marshal the Global Race in D.C., it makes a difference. Hopefully it will help save some people’s lives.”

On occasional bad publicity for the WWE: “I think that bad news is relative. You hear bad news through all of sports, in all of life. It’s not just entertainers or athletes. There are people with problems in life. The way I stay on top of that is, honestly, regularly scheduled check-ups, listening to my body, making sure I push myself to the limit and not beyond. You can only do what you handle.”

Cena on WWE efforts to improve talent wellness: “With the addition of impact testing, the addition of drug testing, the formulation of developmental territories where these younger WWE superstars are getting the best medical attention, the best financial advice, getting future advice — the company has literally leaps and bounds improved the work environment to the best it’s ever been. Being a WWE superstar is now a greater achievement and a greater luxury than it’s ever been.”

His thoughts on getting negative crowd reactions: “Dude … On April 6 we just celebrated the 30th anniversary of Wrestlemania. I distinctly remember Wrestlemania 22 in Chicago, hearing the loudest one-sided reaction opposite me I’ve ever heard. Since then it’s been like that. It’s been eight years now. That stuff doesn’t transfer. The few audience members that it does transfer, they don’t have a proper sense of what’s going on.”