John Cena’s emotional bond with major WWE figure stuns wrestling veteran

Former WWE manager Dutch Mantell recently spoke about John Cena's relationship with his former boss. The Cenation Leader is admittedly very close to Vince McMahon and owes a great deal to the former WWE CEO.

Cena stood by Vince McMahon during one of the most turbulent phases of the promoter's life. The 17-time Champ made it clear that, despite the lawsuits, he always shared a deep emotional connection with Vince. John even attended McMahon's birthday party last week.

This week on the Story Time with Dutch Mantell podcast, the veteran mentioned that he has newfound respect for Cena after his comments about McMahon. He liked their relationship as a father-son bond. Dutch Mantell felt that John loved his former boss and credited all his success to McMahon. He noted that Vince's actions might have been wrong, but that did not diminish Cena's love for the 80-year-old.

"I respected John Cena more after that statement than I did before. Because he said he loves the man. When he said, 'I love the man, I don't care what he does.' He still loves him. Say it's his son, whatever they do, may have been bad, but that doesn't affect the way you feel about him personally. So you gotta take that out of the equation."

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Mantell continued:

"I'm sure John thinks, I loved him and I still love him. He shouldn't have done it. There's nothing I can do about him now. But that doesn't affect the way I feel about him."

John Cena was seated at Vince McMahon's table

WWE legend and Hall of Famer Teddy Long was also among the attendees at Vince McMahon's birthday bash. While speaking on The Wrestling Time Machine, the veteran mentioned that he and John Cena were seated at Vince's table.

Long also spoke about a warm conversation with his former boss, where he expressed his gratitude to Vince. Teddy mentioned that R-Truth also joined them at the table for a while.

While using the quotes, please credit Story Time with Dutch Mantell and give an H/T to Sportskeeda for the transcript.

About the author

Prityush is a WWE news writer for Sportskeeda Wrestling who started watching wrestling in the later part of The Attitude Era. Although he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Prityush was a creative writer for his college, and his flair for creativity and love of pro wrestling eventually led him to the journalism field. After an initial stint in 2016-2017, he has been writing regularly for Sportskeeda since 2021.

As someone who loves and respects the business, he prides himself on factual, clean, and ethical reporting, free of plagiarism and AI usage. One of the ways he ensures this is by transcribing videos that he reports on.

Prityush had the privilege of interviewing superstar Matt Hardy in his career so far. Although, his favorite wrestler is CM Punk, as he relates to his Straight Edge philosophy.

When he is not reporting news, he loves reading and collecting WWE action figures. He currently owns over 500 wrestling figures and merchandise.

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Edited by Prityush Haldar

John Cena’s emotional bond with major WWE figure stuns wrestling veteran - "He said he loves the man"

John Cena was seated at Vince McMahon's table