25 Things You Didn't Know About John Cena
5. Cena Regrets His Behaviour Towards The Rock
Generally, despite collectively knowing they were doing monster business and had chemistry during face to face promo segments, John Cena and The Rock didn't see eye to eye. They weren't friends behind the curtain during their 2011-2013 rivalry. If anything, John believes he was a little rough on Rocky throughout, which is something he apologised for during a chat with Howard Stern in 2024.
According to Cena, he "was wrong" to publicly question how much Rock loved wrestling. At the time, he just couldn't understand why 'The Great One' was splitting his focus between Hollywood and WWE. Obviously, given his own success in film, he understands that mindset now. Looking back, JC is slightly surprised that The Rock was able to be so professional in the face of some verbal jabs John sent his way.
It was all business, albeit with an edge.
Cena openly mocked Dwayne Johnson for scribbling promo notes on his hand/wrist before segments, and he stuck the boot in pretty hard when building towards their matches at both WrestleMania XXVIII and 29 (WWE's love/hate relationship with Roman numerals should be studied). The crux of John's argument seemed to be that Rocky had bolted on wrestling once the silver screen came knocking.
Nowadays, both guys get along famously. Rock was even there for Cena's fabulously-executed heel turn in 2025. He didn't play much of a role afterwards, but they'd come a long, long way from 2 guys who looked like they wanted to headbutt the other for a few years. John takes a lot of the blame for how tense things got between them.