Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
the joe rogan experience train by day joe rogan podcast by night all day
What's up? John Cena in the fucking house. Let's put these on. Pretend we're professional. What's up? Good to see you, man. Thanks so much for having me. My pleasure. And there's no way I'm having a pro wrestler on without Tony Hinchcliffe. Of course. He's the expert. He knows more about pro wrestling than I know about UFC.
Yeah.
Sometimes I translate little things here and there.
That's cool. It's all right. Yeah, he has to. He has to. And he's a giant fan of yours, too. You know who else is a giant fan of yours is Brian Simpson. Brian Simpson was going on last night about how intelligent you are. It was really interesting. You sure it was me? Yeah, man. Well, you do speak fucking Mandarin, which is kind of crazy.
Yeah, yeah.
How long did it take you to learn that?
Man, I was doing that for quite a long time. I've since kind of... kind of declined on the studies. Uh, A wonderful takeaway from the study of Mandarin, just because you know a language doesn't mean you know the culture. So that was a fantastic experience. But I studied Mandarin for like a decade. And I would say like not even conversationally fluent. It was a really tough hill to climb for me.
It seems like a really big hill.
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Chapter 2: How did John Cena learn Mandarin and why?
Yeah, yeah. You were in Mongolia? Inner Mongolia, yeah. What's the difference? I don't know, because I've never been to Mongolia. But Inner Mongolia was, man, I was the only person that looked like me there. And everyone would say, look, it's big white guy, Honda Byron, Honda Byron, they would call me.
Wow.
Yeah, yeah.
Wow. So what motivated you to learn that? It seems like such a task.
Honestly, man, it was everything in my life seems to be wrestling related. It was wrestling related. Like WWE's reach spread everywhere. I mean, I've been able to, lucky enough to perform everywhere from like
moscow philippines south africa bangor maine every place in between except china china was like the one place that didn't understand what we did so it's literally like it's a it's a universal language because you can turn it's like ufc like you turn the volume down but you can see like oh this is two guys best guy wins i get it uh chi the chinese just didn't get it so i figured if like one of our superstars spoke the language
maybe that would help break down the barrier. Was it your idea? It was my idea, but the WWE offers, and I think they still offer it, they offer a free second language program. So when they rolled out the initiative of financial advice and they'll pay for portions of your secondary education and free second language, this is like 2011, 2012, big talent meeting in an auditorium.
I'm one of the old guys at the time sitting in the front being like, these kids don't know how good they have it. I should stand up and tell them. I'm like, no, fuck that. I'm actually going to lead by example and take a language.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did John Cena face with his Mandarin learning?
So I signed up right then and there for Chinese because I wanted to get us into China. Wow. And like I said, it worked, but it kind of only worked. I think actually right now China is experiencing what wrestling is to them because I've read articles that there's promotions over there that are thriving. So like now they get it.
Oh, so they have their own promotions now? Yeah, yeah. And this is a fairly recent thing?
I think so. I just read recent articles that pro wrestling is thriving in China, and they have their own way of doing it.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow. That's wild. It's wild how expansive the pro wrestling business is, that they would be that big.
open-minded to say like let's let's give second language programs to the athletes well you know I just it's it's weird the origins of the business are carnival related it is like a carnival attraction and then it was like ruthlessly territorial and then when it became national it was still trying to find its way it's almost like you see pro sports doing it you know the more a sport succeeds the more benefits they offer to their competitors and athletes so you know WWE kind of hit that stride
Yeah.
It's just such a smart thing to do, you know?
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Chapter 4: How does John Cena's experience relate to cultural understanding?
But like no one, it was never enough. Nobody was happy. Everybody was fucked up. And it was like murky waters for me personally. And it was weird. Like I'm not... I think I might have been the only guy almost to get canceled for doing his homework. We're trying to learn and try to do something. But the cool takeaway, we can learn from every mistake.
My mistake was just because you know the language doesn't mean you know the culture.
Did they even refer to it as Taiwan? I think they referred to it as Chinese Taipei, right?
Man, what was in the – I know what I read in the thing. So that's – again, I don't know enough depth to know – And now people are like, oh man, can you speak Mandarin for this? I just won't do it.
It's a skill that I have, but it's a skill that's gonna remain with me because I don't have the depth of field to know what to call that place in that region of the world, and I haven't done enough research, and I don't have the wisdom, and I don't have the cultural fluency. So it was a cool lesson. It sucked, because I thought I was just trying to do something good, but it was a cool lesson.
Was it really that big of a deal? Man, I thought, I was filming Peacemaker season one, and when they came out with all of this stuff, I went directly to James Gunn and was like, hey man, if you have to fire me, I understand. Wow. It was that serious?
Yeah. But it wasn't even words that you wrote. The WWE wrote it?
No, no. It was for the movie I was promoting. Right. So the movie, the people that made the movie wrote it. So I don't know. Like when you do these press tours, let's say, if I'm doing a movie for Warner Brothers, let's say, let's use Peacemaker as an example. I'm doing a global Peacemaker tour and we go into China or we go into South America.
you meet the PR person there, and they have all the stuff you're supposed to do, and they curate your experience, and they hold your hand, and you're like, okay, now we're gonna go to this station. By the way, they just want you to do some shout-outs. So anytime I go anywhere globally now, as much as I wanna thank fans for their attention and investing in the product,
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Chapter 5: What challenges do successful people face?
There's so many variables that will fuck you up. Yeah. Dude, you're right. So many gifted people have... Just have that roadblock in front of you.
Which is why I think conversations with successful people are so important because you get to hear those stories. You get to hear, like with Jensen the other day, he was talking about how Nvidia was basically bankrupt. They were on their way out and someone gave them a chance. Like some one guy that was an investor gave them a chance and then they wound up becoming successful.
And then there was these moments
Chapter 6: How do roadblocks impact talent in wrestling?
And people need to know that you're going to have those hurdles. You're going to have those roadblocks. You're going to have to figure out how to adjust. It's not easy. No one who has been successful at anything will tell you the whole ride was easy.
Yeah, but a lot of the time, man, sometimes we'll be in it. I... So I've been through, like, three generations of knowledge and learning, 23 years in the business operating at a high level. I have seen thousands.
And, like, it is the – man, if you're a stud in Pee Wee Football League, then you go to this junior high school, and then you're the number one player in college, and then you're the number one player in high school, number one player in college.
eek out a spot in the NFL and then a year later you're gone because the funnel just gets so thin like WWE has like 200 personnel in their NXT development program right now maybe 10 will make it maybe and of those 10 like really honestly maybe one will make it and what the hope is is over a six year period
of those classes of 200 that get matriculated probably every four months, so we're talking 6,000 people, I'm hoping one makes it. In five or six years, I need one because my top guy right now, my Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes and the Charlotte Flares and Becky Lynch's of the world, They'll they'll last half a decade to draw. Maybe if we're lucky, maybe we'll get it more.
They can, you know, maybe parlay it into a decade or two. But that's an anomaly. You got to play the legit math of like after five years, I better have somebody in the on deck circle. So out of like five, six thousand, I just need one. But it's still everybody's biting their fingernails of like we don't have the person yet. It's so many folks just don't make it. Just don't make it.
Yeah, that's the parallel to stand-up. Yeah, it's, man. So, you know, there's so many people that we were talking last night in the green room. Thousands.
And when I see them, like, in the ring do stuff, I'm like, I could never do that. But they just won't. They just don't make it.
It's just there's so many things that fuck people up.
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Chapter 7: What does John Cena say about failure in the entertainment industry?
So much self-sabotage. Dude. So much inability to stay the course. Being our own worst enemy.
Mm-hmm. You know, I don't know.
Yeah.
I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Happy accidents, though. Fuck it.
Well, yeah, happy accidents, but not just that. It's you being able to stay on course and you being able to recognize that, you know, okay, this didn't work. What do I do? You want me to rap? Okay, I'll fucking rap. Like, a lot of people would have been like, I'm not fucking rapping.
That's beneath me. I'm here to be a wrestler.
I'm not a gimmick. I'm not going to be a buffoon.
Yeah, I'll be a buffoon. Because it beats working a real job.
It's not only that. It's part of the entertainment of it all. Even the cringe aspect of it.
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Chapter 8: How does gratitude shape one's perspective on success?
The best. You know who my guy is right now? Dominic Mysterio. Love Dom. Oh my God. So he's... Were you at... No, you're here. You weren't at Petco, were you? No. Oh gosh, we had fun over there. I bet. I caught a lot of it, yeah.
Man, that kid's good, too.
Like, good human being, too. I happened to be in Salt Lake City doing a gig. I was doing stand-up in one arena, and the WWE happened to be in the other arena in Salt Lake City just a few weeks ago. And I'm like, ah, darn. But I look it up, and it's a 5 p.m. taping of WWE. So I hit up my friends at WWE. I go, I'm coming in. I'm bringing my openers, right? Uh...
Anyway, Dominic Mysterio's in a triple threat match, and his whole thing is he's wrestling royalties. Rey Mysterio's son, but he claims that he might be Eddie Guerrero's son because his father's one of the ultimate good guys of all time. So basically, he takes on the traits of Eddie Guerrero, whose whole thing was cheating and lying and stealing, breaking the rules in original ways all the time.
And he's doing a triple threat match, which means there's three guys at once, right? But if... if someone beats anybody, you could lose your belt. And his Intercontinental Champion, I think it's Intercontinental, right, is on the line, and he gets thrown outside the ring. And I'm having fun, right? I go, Dominic, cheat, do something, right?
And he's kind of on the other side of the thing, and he lifts up his head and looks at me and goes like that. He gives a big wink, and then he goes back down again. And I'm cracking up. I go, did you see that? I'm next to Pauly Shore. I go, did you just see him wink? He goes, yeah, man, what's he going to do, bro? I go, I don't know.
but these two guys in the ring are wrestling and one of them has the other one in a submission hold, a camel clutch. I can't remember who it was, but anyway, and I'm like, you, I literally, even me watching since I was a kid. And even though he just winked at me, it was just enough time. I forgot that Dominic was over there because this action in the ring is really happening.
Something's about to happen. And you hear the bell ring and I look over and there's Dominic with the hammer in his hand, ringing the bell and, And the guy lets go of the submission and the referee goes, what the hell? And something I hadn't seen in 35 years of watching this thing. He was, he's innovative enough to find a brand new way to cheat in this. A brand new way to cheat.
And the crowd, everybody's cracking up. It's a whole new, right when you think you've seen it all. This guy, who you would love. He's literally built like me. He flexes like Nate Diaz without flexing. And he's just braggadocious. Oh, yeah. He thinks he won. But the ref's like, no. Hold on. I got to cut to Dominic. He just loves it. Yep. There's our guy. Dirty Dom. Yeah.
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