John Cena stood face to face with Austin Theory on the March 6 episode of WWE Raw, setting up their WrestleMania 39 clash.
During the promo, Cena cut down Theory by mentioning that he couldn't win at WrestleMania, even if he lost, and brought up WWE piping in the crowd noise for Theory.
Speaking to Sam Roberts on Not Sam Wrestling, Cena reflected on the promo.
"Austin is great and easy to work with. We wrote that together. He was in every step of the process. There comes a point where sometimes people need creative solitudes so they're like, 'I'm going to go away and write my thing, come back, run it by you, and see if it's okay.' Then, there are some guys who are like, 'see you out there.' I can dress for weddings or funerals, just tell me what color suit to wear. I respect everyone's process. I do know, that from all my experience, if you do not have something to care about, you do not have something. My job is to make them care. This is not a process I just do with Austin Theory," said Cena.
Later in the interview, while reflecting back on calling out The Rock for writing his promo on his wrist, Cena once again brought up Theory.
"That's what I love about WWE. Fans can see through the BS if you don't believe in your character. It's what I said to Austin Theory. 'You are young, you are athletic, you will work for this company, you will do interviews. I don't believe what you do when you're out there. I don't.' I said it to him personally before I said it to him publicly. I'm serious. In a room, with Austin Theory, I said, 'The reason I came back to Boston is because you can't do this yourself yet. You cannot carry a WrestleMania promo yourself yet. If you fail, we waste the equity that I'm willing to give. In that match, if I get hurt, I hold up production, which puts 300 people out of work. Let's do this right. Let's get some equity here.' Then you start thinking about the angles, what's the most important thing, what's our story? 'I don't believe what you do,' that's what I'm going with," said Cena.
Cena challenged Theory for the WWE United States Championship at WrestleMania 39, but came up short in his quest to win the title.
Cena has not been on WWE television since WrestleMania 39. Theory remains the WWE United States Champion.
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