WWE News: John Cena gives high praise to the Rock

What's the story?

Set to host the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards this Sunday for the second year running, WWE Superstar John Cena commended his former rival, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, in an interview with The Wrap.

The 16-time World Champion had some really kind words for The Great One.

In case you didn't know...

The only word to describe the previous relationship between WWE Legends John Cena and The Rock is Beef.

This all started back in February 2011, when The Rock returned to the WWE for the first time in seven years to announce that he was to host WrestleMania 27, having gone onto pursue an acting career in Hollywood back in 2004 following 6 years at the top of the company with the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H.

WWE instantly built-up a feud between him and John Cena upon his comeback. WWE used the angle of Cena not liking The Rock for being in WWE as only a part-timer.

The feud would last for over two years, and very personal insults from both sides saw the sports entertainment become very much reality-based.

The pair ended up facing each other in two consecutive WrestleMania main events, at WM 28 and 29, with The Rock winning the first one, and Cena beating rock for the WWE Championship at the next one.

The two soon became real-life friends, making up following their rivalry.

The heart of the matter

In a very humble way, The Cenation Leader labeled The Rock as someone who is in a league of his own when it comes to the WWE and sports entertainment, one which outranks Cena's.

Cena said “The Rock is in a conversation by himself. He is an anomaly, he’s done unbelievable things in the world of sports and entertainment. There is only one man even involved in that conversation and it is him, he sets the bar rather high.”

Cena praised The Rock even further by saying that he looks up to him, which is why he is still not as good as him.

Cena, who himself is pretty trendy when it comes to the likes of Instagram and Twitter, then went onto praise how The Rock inspires people with his excellent use of social media in ways that The Brahma Bull probably does not even realize.

“It’s guys like that who not only work hard but use their platform. He is unbelievably gifted at using social media to spread the fact that hard work is how you achieve success,” Continuing, Cena explained that “Hard work is also how you achieve significance. He inspires a lot of people, I don’t think he understands the depth of how much. He is someone I look up to — so if I look up to him, there’s no way we can be in the same conversation,”

Lastly, Cena reminisced about a discussion that he had with The Rock before he was an established wrestler, and said he will never forget how 'candid' and 'kind' Rock was to give up his time to talk to him.

“I sat down with him and we shared a special moment long before I stepped into a ring, he gave me his time and he was very kind and candid in his conversation. It is something I will never forget,” Cena said.

What's next?

The Rock will surely continue his massive success in Hollywood, but his WWE Days might be over.

He hasn't appeared in WWE since WrestleMania 32 in the AT&T Stadium when he and Cena united to fend off The Wyatt Family.

It would be awesome though if we saw him appear at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans.

John Cena, despite his own busy Hollywood schedule, is seemingly going to take on The Undertaker at the big event on April 8th, in what will be a dream match.

WWE and Cena have been heavily teasing it as of late, but Undertaker is currently nowhere to be seen.

Maybe, we will see The Deadman confront Cena after he faces Kane on this Monday's episode of RAW.

Author's take

It is stunning to see that 5 years since their big feud from 2011-2013, in which real-life heat between John Cena and The Rock existed, that the two now get along very well.

In my opinion, Cena is righting the wrongs of his previous comments by praising The Rock, s as his criticisms of The Rock's part-time status were seen as hypocritic, especially as he is himself a Hollywood actor who is not with WWE full time anymore.