John Cena Speaks on the Production Behind his Heel Turn

John Cena has been making the media rounds leading up to his last match in WWE. Cena appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, where he talked with Rogan & Tony Hinchcliffe on a variety of topics, including Vince McMahon.

John Cena was asked about the process behind his recent run as a heel, including the production differences & how he interacted with others to help make it happen. You can view the entire interview at the bottom of this article.

On the Production Behind his Heel Turn

“So I think that’s um I and I’ve been lucky enough to kind of take this perspective of not knowing everything and realizing that even with 23 years of fluency I’m not the smartest guy in the room. I don’t know the technology they have and what they can do. Now granted, a black LED board, I could probably come up with that, but what I what I’d like to do is lean on my resources. Like, hey, let’s go to production and see what production is thinking. And I don’t want to tell them what to do because I want to hear their ideas first. And production was like, “What if we just went basic?” I’m like, “How basic can you go?” “What if we just blacked everything out?” “But I know from what you guys have said, you also like to light the-” “No. No. What if we just black everything out?” “You guys would do that. Oh, that sucks. Yeah, let’s do that.”

“So, it’s not me with all of these things. I don’t have enough depth of field to touch all the bases, but I will go to every department. And say like, “Okay, entrance is a big part of what we do. What do we do for lighting? What do we do for production?” Go to camera. Like, “How do you guys want to shoot it?” And then it trickles down when you talk to the talent you’re working with. “How do we portray this message?” Of course it starts at the top with creatively, “I want to make you a bad guy, so we’re going to do that.” “Okay, sure. We’re going to do that. How do you want to do that?” We have a lot of talented people and just allowing them to do their job and let you know like, “I was kind of thinking this” and then tell them “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s do that.” You know, it’s amazing because I don’t know what I miss if I’m making all the demands.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Joe Rogan Experience with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.