Despite being a babyface for the majority of his WWE career and being the face of the company, Cena was often rejected by the fans who would boo or chant "Cena sucks."
Cena has heard it all from fans, both in the arena and online, and those comments have helped shape him into the person he is today.
"A lot of it comes from WWE and its audience," Cena told Chris Hardwick on ID1OT when asked how he deals with the perception others may have of him. "Being told 'you suck' every time you go out, five times a week, genuine visceral. The reason I know it's genuine is, I was a fucking good guy. I was deemed the role as a hero and there was an adversarial visceral force of reminding you 'don't get too close to the sun. You suck.' A lot of that helps...one, take their opinion in and understand why they think I suck. Two, be okay with being humiliated every night. Three, look in the mirror and being like, 'I'm okay with what I see.' I always say, I owe the WWE audience more than I can explain. They made me into the person I am, not the professional. I take a lot of professional tidbits from my time there, but they molded me into the person I am."
Cena continued by saying, "In WWE, when you hear that reaction, the thing to do is to turn on the audience and become a bad guy because they are telling you what they want. Under our set of circumstances, it's like, 'Nope, go out there and smile.' I have to have the patience to deal with that and having to be told, 'You cannot waver' helped my resolve, patience, and empathy."
Cena received a hero's welcome when he returned to WWE at Money in the Bank, which he said surprised him.
Elsewhere during the interview, Cena revealed he asked WWE to work more dates upon his return. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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