If you're a professional wrestling fan, you'll surely know that John Cena's final-ever WWE match takes place next weekend at Saturday Night's Main Event (you can learn who he'll face by clicking here).
With WWE soon to be in his rearview, Cena will focus entirely on his Hollywood career. For DC fans, that's exciting, as DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn has repeatedly teased big plans for Peacemaker's Christopher Smith in the DCU.
Cena has been doing the rounds this week to promote the end of his retirement tour and spoke with Joe Rogan about a 2021 controversy. At the time, he inadvertently waded into the debates surrounding Taiwan's highly disputed status as a country.
"I studied Mandarin for a decade. I lived in China for a little bit. I filmed a movie with Jackie Chan, so I was there for six or seven months. We were in Inner Mongolia, Yinchuan province," the 17-time WWE Champion explained (via ComicBookMovie.com). "I figured if one of our Superstars spoke the language, maybe that would help break down the barrier."
"I made a pact with myself. I’m going to do 70% of my media in Mandarin. At the very end of the day, you do a bunch of prompter reads. The people who made the movie wrote it," Cena continued. "One of them said, 'Taiwan...be the first country to see this.' It was all in Mandarin. I didn’t check the reads. I read the prompt. It’s like a Ron Burgundy moment."
China was not happy with Cena's comments, prompting him to apologise to the country. However, in doing so, he acknowledges now that, "In apologising to China, I pissed off my home country. I’m a patriot. I love the United States of America and everything it stands for. But no one, it was never enough. Nobody was happy. Everybody was f***ed up."
"I think I might have been the only guy almost to get cancelled for doing his homework," Cena shared, adding that he believed it put his role in Peacemaker Season 1 in jeopardy.
"I was filming Peacemaker Season 1, and when they came out with all of this stuff, I went directly to James Gunn and was like, 'Hey man, if you have to fire me, I understand,'" Cena recalled. "Not only did I not try to fix the hole in the boat, I sank the Titanic." He wasn't fired, but Cena said he will no longer speak Mandarin during press tours for fear of offending.
Peacemaker Season 2 ended with Chris being left stranded in Rick Flag Sr.'s multiversal prison, "Salvation." The character is expected to return in Man of Tomorrow, but Gunn reportedly has no plans for Peacemaker Season 3 as of now.
You can watch the full interview with Cena in the player below.