John Cena's WWE schedule has become very sporadic as of late with the leader of the Cenation taking months off at a time over the past couple of years as he continues exploring the world of television and film. After taking a break following this year's WrestleMania, Cena returned on the July 4th edition of SmackDown Live and is now embroiled in a feud with Rusev.
Complex had the chance to catch up with Cena recently and asked why he chose to become a "free agent" who can appear on both RAW and SmackDown Live moving forward.
"The reason that I wanted to be a free agent and the reason they kind of granted my request is because I don’t know if I’ll be available for Smackdown-specific only or Raw-specific only, and I also know that my days are numbered. I just turned 40 in April and we have so many young and talented performers, I don’t know how many years I have left. So in the time I have left, I’m gonna do what I can to dedicate to this company I just want to be able to do it the most time that I possibly can."
Reduced schedule or not, Cena is still one of the hardest working wrestlers in WWE and he went on to explain his mindset now that he's working in a very different manner to the past.
"I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of great things happen, a lot of great opportunities, I could’ve just taken a month or two off and just sit back and relax and gotten myself together before the next thing but I don’t want to do that. I think it’s imperative to be home with what I call my family and when I have any time available I will bring it into a WWE ring. I will work nonstop. I won’t just [say], “okay I’ve made it out of the WWE,” which is what a lot of folks aspire to do they want to go onto something bigger and better when I think the WWE is the biggest and the best."
Finally, Cena went on to explain why he views himself as an all-timer in WWE and why it's ultimately not his choice to be away for so long while he's shooting movies and TV shows.
“I haven’t danced around it, I explained that the reason I cannot be on the program is because the movie folks, their insurance doesn’t allow you to. That’s a dealbreaker, it’s not negotiable. But instead of laying low for a few months before I start another project, the second that I wrapped, I scurried on a plane and got right back into the WWE fold. I guess that’s what I mean by all-timer.”
While Cena's career is far from over, it does appear to be wrapping up and he'll probably take on a true part-time role (similar to Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker) at some point in the next few years. The big question for fans before then is whether or not he'll win a seventeenth world championship before then as that would beat Ric Flair's record and give him legendary status.
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