John Cena Recalls Asking The Undertaker Why They Drink Bourbon Backstage

John Cena learned a lot of lessons from his elders, and he recently recalled one when he asked The Undertaker why the talent would drink bourbon backstage. The Undertaker was a locker room leader for much of his career, and kept many traditions from the old guard of wresting. Cena recently spoke about the lesson he learned from the Dead Man about why talent would drink bourbon of all alcohols.

Cena made the comments on What Do You Wanna Talk About? with Cody Rhodes. You can see highlights below:

On Asking Undertaker Why They Drink Bourbon Backstage

“I asked Undertaker one time, ‘Why do we drink bourbon?’ He said, ‘Because it’s hard.’ No kidding. ‘And we gargle it because it’s difficult.’ And when I’m trying to get my eyes on a room of who are the right people. The business is tough.

“It will just — if you’re not ready for it, it will get the best of you. And it was a metric of among many, can you take a rib? Like can you do the hard stuff? Can you be up early? Can you be out late? Do you — can we trust you again? Again, a bit archaic, because the business has changed. But the reason they did that was because it was difficult.”

On What He Learned From That:

“So my takeaway from that was ‘Don’t be afraid to do hard shit.’ But also, what I loved about that time was the brotherhood, the fraternity. So what’s the difference? Why do we gotta drink it all at once? Pour me something, let’s sip on it and let’s have a conversation. Let’s grow and learn.”

On Shane McMahon Telling Him Why They Gargle Whiskey:

“So he gave me a mirror message of what Undertaker said. ‘We do it because it’s not easy.’ But like, so what I hear is, ‘We’re trying to bet on the right people.’ And I get that. I’m way more lenient. I wanna bet on everybody. I want everybody to win. But I also get why it existed.”

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.