John Cena on How He Can Still Say ‘Never Give Up’ After Tapping Out

Most fans who know pro wrestling history likely expected John Cena to lose his final match and put over Gunther on the way out. That’s typically what is expected of the greats, to give the next guy the rub. Still, it shocked a lot of people that he did so by tapping out with a smile on his face, when his motto, as seen on every T-shirt, is “Never Give Up.”

At the Tampa Bay Comic Con, Cena took questions from fans, and inevitably, one of them brought up the apparent contradiction between his finale and his slogan. Cena took the time to offer a multi-part explanation.

On What the Slogan Means to Him:

“I’m going to clear some things up about perseverance, right? Uh, the words ‘never give up’ to me equate to perseverance. That doesn’t mean you should just be unaware of your surroundings or what’s going on. ‘Never give up’ for me is a philosophy about life. I fully gave up in that last match and I gave up my WWE career. That doesn’t mean I’m done with life. Never giving up is the ability to wake up every day and say, ‘Man, I’m going to do the best I can today to have the best day.'”

On Taking Things One at a Time, Being Fully Present:

“Now, the things that life deals us become, in my eyes, like chapters in our book. I want to do the best I can here for this Q&A by answering your questions as genuine as I can. So, I’m putting my best forward to this. They’re going to bring out the hook in like 15 minutes and I’m going to have to get off stage. We’re going to have to end this chapter. So, essentially, I’m going to ‘give up’ the stage and then I’m going to go back and take some more pictures and do some more autographs, but each of those sessions is going to conclude and then I will give up.”

On Fan Reaction to Him Tapping Out:

“It was interesting to see the fan reaction with me voluntarily tapping out for the last match, cuz they’re like, ‘Oh, you’re the never give up guy. Why’d you give up?’ It was my last match, win, lose, or draw. From a fan sentiment, I’m not sure if you guys expected me to win, because essentially in the pro wrestling uh cycle of life, that’s not what happens. So I wanted to gracefully bow out in a way that the fans understood that it was my time to go. That doesn’t mean I have given up on life.”

“So to bring it back to your question, does ‘never give up’ sometimes box you into a rabbit hole when you know you got to move onward in life? No. Awareness of what’s going on is certainly a a good indicator of like, man, I got to pivot. I call them pivots. That way you’re not just giving up all the time. But the never give up thing comes to the quality of life. And as long as I’m alive, man, I want to stay curious and active about life.”

See the whole Q&A here: