John Cena On Vince McMahon Allegations: When You Love Somebody, You Take Them As Imperfectly Perfect

John Cena still has a lot of love for Vince McMahon. 

John Cena returned to WWE on the March 6 episode of WWE Raw to set up his WrestleMania match against Austin Theory. Vince McMahon was reportedly backstage at the show to say hi to Cena. McMahon retired as WWE CEO in July 2022 amid sexual misconduct and hush money allegations but returned as a member of the board of directors in January to help guide a potential sale of the company. 

Speaking to the AP News, Cena was asked about WWE potentially selling. 

“That’s way above my paygrade. I just don’t know what’s going on with that. I love Vince McMahon. He’s everything you could want in a great friend, business partner, father, mentor. I love the man. But his business dealings are his business and what he shares with me, that’s between us. But I don’t know what’s going on with the corporate structure in the WWE or the creative direction of the WWE. But when I’m there as a performer, it’s (WWE champion) Roman Reigns’ show. In my mind, he needs to be in the conversation, and in my mind, he’s the greatest of all time,” he said. 

When McMahon’s sexual misconduct allegations were brought up, Cena was asked if it was tough to reconcile his feelings towards McMahon. 

Cena replied, “No. I mean, everyone has the right to have their perspective. I have the right to have mine. When you love somebody, you take them as imperfectly perfect as they are. We all make mistakes, we all have poor decisions. Lord knows I’ve made my collection of poor choices. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to love somebody. There’s no way I can go on record and say I don’t love Vince McMahon.”

McMahon reached a multi-million dollar settlement with Rita Chatterton in January. She accused McMahon of rape in 1992. 

McMahon is reportedly not involved in the creative direction of WWE despite returning as the chairman of the board.