John Cena recently made his return to Monday Night Raw earlier this month, and Austin Theory wasted no time coming out to interrupt him. Theory gifted John Cena at shot at the United States Championship at WrestleMania 39 and after some back and forth between the two stars the match was made official.
During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, Austin Theory talked about meeting John Cena for the first time during his early days in NXT, and he noted that he waited almost three hours to talk to Cena one on one.
“Man, the first conversation came about at the Performance Center one day when we were all leaving. We got told ‘Hey, just everybody stay, we’re gonna have a little meeting before everybody leaves.’ Out comes John Cena. He took the time out of his day to come down there and talk to everyone who’s aspiring to be on the main roster. A lot of us weren’t even on NXT TV then, so this was the very beginning for me. He told us ‘I’ll answer any questions you guys have but if there’s anybody that wants to talk to me personally, I’ll stay here all day. I’ll go into this office room and you guys one by one can come in there.’
I remember waiting like three hours to talk to him and I just went in there, I remember the first thing I showed him was the picture of me as a kid where I couldn’t afford the actual shirt and wristbands, so I made my off brand stuff. I was eight years old and I showed him the picture and was like ‘Man, this is probably crazy but check it out.’ He was like ‘That’s not crazy, that was awesome.’ We got to sit there, I really just asked everything I could because this is the source, this is the man that held it down for well over a decade. It was a lot for me to take in at the time, you know, because he was spitting knowledge but I’m still, woah, this is John Cena. I’m just trying to take everything in. That moment specifically I’ll never forget.”
WrestleMania 39 will air live from SoFi Stadium on April 1 and April 2. WWE has yet to announce which night will featured the John Cena vs. Austin Theory match. Stay tuned for more updates as they become available.
H/T Fightful
