When John Cena and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson were feuding in the early 2010s, the leader of the Cenation didn't shy away from taking some very real shots at his rival. There was a lot of reality in their feud, including Cena's frequent comments about The Rock being a part-timer who cares more about Hollywood.
The irony, of course, is that Cena is now a part-time WWE Superstar after finding success in movies. Earlier this year, the 16-time WWE Champion apologised for how he handled their rivalry and elaborated on that on WWE's The Bump.
"I've openly kind of come to a realization that the first foray into us competing against each other was probably a professional mistake on my part," he recalls. "And I've been very apologetic and open with my apology. The way I conducted business was in the realm of trying to do good business and we did great business."
"It was really nice to see a friend," Cena said of their recent SmackDown reunion. "He was actually generous with his time. We could actually converse for a little bit and that's the first time we'd seen each other since publicly apologizing for that. And I just wanted to make sure [he] heard it from me face to face as well. And it was really nice to see a friend."
"Respect is something that's one of my core values. It's on every hat, it's on every shirt. It's on every towel. But I believe respect is earned," he continued, "and I think mutual respect for your peers, it needs to be reciprocal. You've got to have a certain candour and a certain respect to gain that respect. I always say it's a boomerang. What you throw out there is going to come back at you."
Looking to the future, Cena also shared his thoughts on LA Knight before they team up to face the Bloodline at this Saturday's Fastlane PLE.
"LA Knight and my story run a little bit parallel. He kind of just refused to give up, never gave up and has done it his own way, even in a lot of times being an underdog and being forgotten by people in the bowels of the arena, but not forgotten by people in the arena cheering him on. And I think what he's done is incredible."
"We worked so hard to get where we're at, and this is a job that shouldn't exist. I sit in a director's type chair in wristbands and t-shirts, ball cap. This shouldn't be a thing. So when you get a level of consistency and you get to a certain level of relevancy, you don't want it ever to go away. And I totally respect that."
Teaming with Cena in what's expected to be a main event match is going to be huge for Knight and the expectation from there is that he will challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship (possibly as soon as next month in Saudi Arabia).
You can check out the full interview below.