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John Cena gives his view on WWE’s handling of crowdless shows
John Cena’s last bout in WWE was at WrestleMania 36 back in April where he was defeated by ’The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt in a Firefly Funhouse match. Despite not visiting the performance centre since his match, Cena has still paid close attention to WWE’s weekly programming, which has massively changed since before Coronavirus Pandemic
During an interview with Sports Illustrated, Cena gave his thoughts on how WWE is handling “empty arena shows”.
“I’ve always said that the most important superstar is the audience,” said Cena. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen a better indication of that than right now. The program is different.”
Cena then spoke about how he believes WWE will thrive during their time without a crowd
“I firmly believe that not only will it survive, it will thrive, but it has to, as an entirety, embrace this process,” said Cena. “I believe they’re beginning to do that. The longer they go without an audience, they need to transform as an entirety what sports entertainment is. I think they’re in this weird sort of middle ground, where they don’t know when crowds will be let back in. If you truly commit to a paradigm shift, that may scare away the normalcy the viewers are used to seeing. So you kind of have to operate like there is an audience, but there isn’t an audience.”
“It’s a very weird time. I don’t think they’ve committed to transition yet, and that’s absolutely justifiable because, eventually, people will be let back into turnstiles. It’s very complicated. There isn’t a clear-cut answer to be like, ‘Just do this and it will be better.’”
During the firefly funhouse cinematic match back in April, Bray Wyatt helped Cena revisit his past failures. Which included bodybuilding, rap and his heel turn. Alongside Wyatt, Cena was heavily involved in the creation of the match, which was the first of the cinematic series WWE has opted to add to the crowdless shows.
“I’ve had many experiences and many stories in WWE over my tenure there, and a lot of it has been embracing conflict and embracing the tale of good versus evil,” said Cena. “This isn’t the first time I’ve done something like this. For the viewing audience, it was the first time they’d seen a cinematic depiction of this, but this isn’t the first time that we’ve seen a conflicted John Cena character. As with all the opportunities I get in WWE, I never try to be complacent and I always like to push the envelope. This was an instance where we could do just that, and I think we put forth a product that certainly got people’s attention and got people talking.”
WWE Superstars have had to adapt their characters to fit a crowdless environment, and Cena didn’t hide his admiration for two top stars.
“Bray is obviously doing a great job,” said Cena. “And Seth Rollins has done an unbelievable job of adapting to a crowdless environment.”
Cena was asked if he could give any advice for the superstars currently working in the PC. He compared it to movie-making, explaining how storytelling is incredibly important in the current climate.
“The key is knowing your audience,” said Cena. “I worked a lot with the live audience, many times against the wishes of what a lot of people told me. I believe if the live audience is having a good time at a live event, then you as a viewer at home are having a good time. There were numerous times when, against many people’s wishes, I would involve a live audience and make sure they knew, 1.) I was listening, even if it wasn’t flattering to me, 2.) I understood, and 3.) I tried to incorporate. Now with an element that does not have a live audience, as a performer, you have to focus on what’s in front of you.
“It’s almost like movie-making. The biggest difficulty for me is not playing to the people in section 312. There are no people anymore. If there is ever a time to commit to story, this is it. A lot of times when there’s an audience, you really can lean on your ability to produce action. You cannot do that now. The viewer at home no longer gets caught up in the energy of the live crowd
“It’s literally asking someone to unlearn what they’ve learned, and that’s a bold risk. And a lot of people are not comfortable taking those risks. But I think the more people embrace story, even when there is none—and that doesn’t mean, ‘Well, the creative team didn’t provide a story, that means there is no story.’ No, I’m living proof that is not the case. You just have to use your imagination. In this realm, imagination is king. Action will not drive the product forward. It has to be imaginative, and it has to be well-presented.”
“It’s literally asking someone to unlearn what they’ve learned, and that’s a bold risk. And a lot of people are not comfortable taking those risks. But I think the more people embrace story, even when there is none—and that doesn’t mean, ‘Well, the creative team didn’t provide a story, that means there is no story.’ No, I’m living proof that is not the case. You just have to use your imagination. In this realm, imagination is king. Action will not drive the product forward. It has to be imaginative, and it has to be well-presented.”
Special thanks to Sports Illustrated for the quotes