John Cena Details Why It’s Important For WWE To Expand Into China
John Cena provides a lengthy answer.
Former 16-time WWE World Champion and one of the staples of the company John Cena is still an active member of the roster after spending nearly 17 years in sports-entertainment. John Cena returned to the ring earlier this month at WWE Super Show-Down and he will be in action once again in the WWE World Cup tournament that concludes at ‘Crown Jewel’ on November 2nd.
Over the summer Cena was a resident in China because he was a part of Jackie Chan’s action-thriller film ‘Project X’. WWE has been releasing videos on their YouTube channel of Cena in China getting accustom to life and learning the language and ways of people in another country. Cena recently joined Trevor Noah on ‘The Daily Show’ to discuss his New York Times best-seller ‘Elbow Grease” and during their conversation Cena dove into why he has been in China and why it is important for WWE to expand into the country.
“There’s a crazy story behind that – WWE is a global company, we’re everywhere. We’re in 140 countries – close to 200 countries, like we’re across the world. We’re not in China. We were privileged enough to go there in 2010 to perform in Shanghai and I took a look around in Shanghai which looks like 20 New York City’s. I was like, ‘Woah, we need to be here’, and I wondered why, and it’s just because the culture doesn’t understand what we do and every other culture across the world understands WWE – good guy versus bad guy, storytelling, cheer, boo, whatever, they just don’t get it, and they don’t get it because they can’t relate.” Cena explained. “They have no cultural attachment, so after I left Shanghai, a couple years later we went back, and eventful we had an event but it wasn’t anything special and I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m going to be proactive about this. I’m going to learn [how] to speak Mandarin because maybe if one of their top superstars can actually speak the language, hopefully we can bridge the cultural gap and WWE can truly be the global company that it says it is’. So… this has kind of been an experiment five-and-a-half years in the making and I’ve still been failing” Cena jokingly said. “We still go over there only frequently. Every time it gets a little bit better and a little bit better but this is not happening overnight. I know it’s not gonna happen tomorrow, I know it’s not gonna happen next year but I continue to work at it and I continue to keep learning, not only about Mandarin but about Chinese culture… and I honestly don’t think I’ll see it in my tenured lifetime in the WWE.” He continued, “I think the WWE’s connection with China will be for the generation after me, so all this work, isn’t even for me. It’s for the other guys, so they can go wrestle, in front of all those crazy, wonderful, fantastic cities in China.”
As mentioned, John Cena is a part of the WWE World Cup and to get a glimpse at the seven other competitors in the field with John, click here.
If you are going to use the quote above, please credit ‘The Daily Show’ with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
