John Cena Reflects On Loss Of House Shows: ‘Don’t Romanticize Days That Don’t Exist Anymore’

WWE is in a different era where live events are not a regular thing, and John Cena recently explained why getting stuck on those old days is a bad idea. The TKO era has accelerated the cutback of live events. The WWE owners cut 75% of live events have said they will “continue to prune” as appropriate.

The loss of live events is something older talent have bemoaned as it limits how many reps younger talent can do, among other concerns. Cody Rhodes expressed a similar sentiment to Cena on What’s Your Story?. Rhodes noted that live events where were talent could take big swings without worrying about being on TV.

Cena countered that live events are a thing of the past, and there’s a danger in romanticizing that. He pointed out some of the downsides of live events and said that TV events are still live events. You can see the highlights below:

On the Value of Live Events Allowing Talent To Try New Things:

“I’m not disagreeing with you. I think the arduous travel is not a good thing nor a bad thing. It’s a thing, it has pros and cons. Everything you stated. It certainly weeds out folks who don’t wanna be there. You earn every cent. There’s a lot that is different now about the business. But you are not wrong. But who cares? That’s not what we do. So either I’m stuck in a place that I wish was, and is no longer a thing. Or we just, ‘Where are we at now?'”

On TV Events Being ‘Live Events’:

“And you say, ‘Oh man, the live events were fun ’cause we’d take a big swing.’ Every time they turn the cameras on, it’s a live event. I never treat any event other than a live event. And when I hear people say, ‘Oh, we used to do this at live events, my knee jerk reaction is, well, what is tonight?’ It’s a television audience. It a live event. And if the audience is apathetic? I don’t care how good you think your story is, it’s not good. You want the live event.

“And I — through having a ton of reps. So my training is with a ton of time under tension in front of live audiences, but I treat everything like a live event.”

On the Downside of Live Events:

“Here’s a knock against live events. I would see performers like you and people in the middle go out and have fun on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And on Monday they would lose everything they learned and just do a surgical bland storyless performance because they knew they were on television.

“And they never took any of the wisdom or any of the fun they had, and brought and put it in here when the cameras were on. What I was grateful enough to have was teachers and mentors who were like, ‘Saturday is no different than Monday. Remember why the people got energized. It’s ’cause you did this goofy thing.’ And if you’re not brave enough to put the goofy thing on TV, put the emotion you had doing the goofy thing on TV. And they’ll believe.”

On Teaching Younger Talent To Use TV as Live Events:

“So we are where we are now. And we need to somehow let everybody know that like, ‘Hey, what you do is beautiful and athletic and strong and unbelievable. But the way they can attach to you is by knowing who you are.;’ And we gotta do that with — it would be very difficult for me, especially looking at the business model and the success of the business to go into Connecticut and petition for 220 live events a year. So that’s not what we have.”

On Not Focusing On What They Could Have:

“‘Hey, you have the Rock and Travis Scott.’ Awesome. We can plan all this stuff. ‘Hey, you don’t have those two guys anymore.’ Not once did you and I ever have — not once. The whole world has had this conversation about like, ‘What would it have been like if?’ The two guys in it with their dick in the dirt not once had a conversation about ‘Man, what would it have been like if we had those guys?’ No, it was like, ‘Okay, what now, what’s next? What do we do now?’

“So when I hear you say like, ‘Man, I do like this and I wish it was like this.’ If I could give you any more advice, it’s not anymore. It’s not. We have this so you — you are in a position though where like people watch you because of this [show]. You never know who’s learning what from you. And if you go around back there romanticizing about days that don’t exist anymore, that creates a culture that romanticizes about s**t that doesn’t exist. And that’s bad.”

On Road Stories Still Having Value:

“I think they can. But the the great thing about those stories is whenever you get a chance. If you have a layover after a double show in London. Or you do Japan or wherever, that’s when you can have a moment, a sunset of fraternity. And then tell those stories about like, ‘this is why we do this.'”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit What Do You Wanna Talk About? with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.