John Cena Praises Roman Reigns: "I Watched This Young Man Mature Into 'The Guy'"

John Cena says Roman Reigns has become 'the guy' and talks about the eventual end of his career. 

At WWE No Mercy, Roman Reigns defeated John Cena after kicking out of several Attitude Adjustments. In the build-up to their match, Cena told Reigns he was not prepared to take Cena's place in WWE. Cena questioned Reigns toughness and preparedness to carry a company like Cena has. On Raw Talk after the pay-per-view, Cena spoke on what he thinks of Reigns and why their feud was important. 

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"People will say what they want about me. That is just the way things are, that's the way this business is. But every time I'm called upon, I put my heart and soul into every single time I step into that ring. If that's to talk or rather it's to go out and perform. That's all I wanted from Roman. I'm not saying Roman calls it in. But watching his work very closely, he just lacked that ability to dig deep," said Cena.

The two wrestlers began their feud after Summerslam. Cena said in that time he has seen a change in Reigns. 

"That's my job, to bring that out in you or prove you don't have it which means you're not on this level. Roman stepped up in a way to communicate with the audience, I said his parting shot to John Cena on Monday Night Raw was Kasparov brilliance. I thought he did a wonderful job. I said two weeks ago 'do your homework before you come out here' because that's what the guy does. He went home, he did some homework, and stepped it up," said Cena. "Tonight in the ring, I was beaten by a better man," he added. 

For a while, Cena doubted Reigns being able to take over his spot as 'the guy.' It seems Cena has changed his mind about that. After the match, there was a moment when Cena sat alone in the ring. The fans chanted "thank you Cena." He spoke about this moment on Raw Talk

"It was weird because here you have a guy who says he is 'the guy' and I don't feel right about it. I don't feel that he is. And then in a one month period, I watched this young man mature into 'the guy,'" said Cena. "Sitting there tonight, it felt like a giant burden had been lifted off my shoulders, in the best way possible," he continued. 

Co-host of Raw Talk Jerry Lawler directly asked Cena about retirement. Cena denied he was close to retiring but he did point out his age and said he wanted to consider his health and family when deciding his wrestling schedule in the future. He said if needed he would be like Batman and come when the signal is sent. Outside of the ring, Cena has been planning a wedding with Nikki Bella and landed a role in a Transformer's spin-off movie set to film this year. 

Raw Talk follows every Raw pay-per-view on the WWE Network. 

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