- We are going to talk about John Cena and The Rock.
This calls for a little bit of this.
This will indeed be a story of multiple perspectives.
Get ready.
- Two faces of their generation.
Two icons in their prime.
- Two of the greatest WWE Superstars ever
going head-to-head.
- 2011, The Rock has not been in a WWE ring in years and
John Cena starts questioning whether or not The Rock
cares about the business.
- John's popping off at the mouth and this is what happens
when idiots have confidence.
WrestleMania 28, John Cena versus The Rock.
- The buzz was huge.
Everyone was talking about it.
- My size-15 boot right up John Cena's candy ass.
It's really going to be a beautiful thing.
- Oh no, Rock Bottom to Cena.
- On a personal level, I just don't like you.
- He came out swinging.
I came out swinging.
It was as real as you could imagine.
I would be damned if you come in a visitor and
take my life from me.
- As a part of management, I'm thinking we really got
to get these guys on the same page,
but another part of me as a fan is saying,
"This is incredible."
- Once in a lifetime.
- You will always be a little boy who will go down in history
as The Rock's bitch.
- This rivalry has just escalated into a war.
- When two legends collide, their rivalry stays pinned
in our minds forever.
This is where we break down the legendary stories behind
the greatest rivalries of all time.
I'm Freddie Prinze, Jr., and this is WWE Rivals.
- This is a big fight.
They don't get any bigger than this.
- Two heads of the company at different times.
John Cena and The Rock.
- It's just icon versus icon.
When I tell someone what I do for a living, they say,
"Oh, what's that like?"
I'm like, "You know like The Rock or John Cena,
what they did?
"Oh, okay, yes."
It's hard to explain, but you could say two names
and people get it.
- You want your superheroes to be bigger than life.
That's one of the reasons you like guys like Cena and Rock.
These guys are bigger than life.
Just two alpha males trying to show who is the better
champion from their respective eras.
- Finally, The Rock has come back to Las Vegas.
[crowd cheers]
- Well, The Rock was the most electrifying man
in sports entertainment
and a charisma that was second to none.
- That's exactly--
- It doesn't matter what you think.
[crowd cheers]
- I had watched how The Rock had climbed the ladder and
really had this business down to an art form.
- In four seconds, they will all chant The Rock's name.
[crowd chants "Rocky"]
- Some of the most classic backstage interviews
with him were so awesome.
- A little professionalism, Lilian Garcia, please.
- The Rock, he was white hot.
- You don't have enough hair on your roody-poo-
- -candy ass.
- He spent a lot of time experimenting.
He turned the promo into his own work of art.
- If you smell what The Rock is cooking.
[crowd cheers]
- To help paint the picture, we're mid-2000s
and The Rock has left the company.
He had a role in a movie called The Scorpion King.
- Three, two, one.
Go.
- You started to see him develop and you saw his work develop.
All of a sudden, The Rock becomes
a massive star in Hollywood.
- There was a lot of concern in the company.
The Rock had become the face of the WWE.
He was a guy that could go on late-night talk shows.
He could host Saturday Night Live,
so that's why everybody was worried.
- Now, there's this huge hole in the lineup and we need someone
to batten down the hatches, and that somebody is John Cena.
- John Cena, the Doctor of Thuganomics.
- What John was able to do, whenever he would come out,
he'd rap when he get in the ring.
It wasn't something that was done before in WWE.
- It's time to make John Cena a household name.
I'm going to win the US title and keep changing the game.
Riding heavy.
Riding heavy, baby.
- I think he was picking up where the Attitude Era left off.
It just hit a certain chord with the youth of that era.
- SmackDown's fastest-rising star, John Cena.
The cover.
- Hook on the leg.
- One, two, three.
John Cena is the champion.
[bell rings]
- John then became the face of the company on every billboard
and poster, sides of the trucks, and on The Today Show.
For the company, that was a huge boon.
- Diamonds are a girl's best friend.
It looks great on you.
[laughter]
- Okay.
- John worked his tail off to get that position.
He built it brick by brick.
Now, the company got behind him.
- The fans didn't want that.
They want to be the ones to choose.
They want to have that effect.
- If the company's choosing him, we're going to boo him.
[crowd chants "Cena sucks"]
- "Cena sucks" was like,
"-- wow."
[crowd chants "Cena"]
- Every kid had a hat, a shirt, and I was just saying
to myself like, "Oh, I get it.
He's laughing all the way to the bank."
It just cements the fact that it was John's company.
- That's what I'm talking about.
Undeniably, unquestionably, John Cena has been the biggest
star in the WWE for years now.
Then I come to find out, John would go out publicly and he
would say disparaging things about me in this roundabout way.
- This is my take on The Rock and he's a genuinely nice guy.
What I kind of get peeved about is he, at one point, loved
wrestling and wanted to do this all of his life.
Then explain to me why he can't come back for a 15th-anniversary
show or why he can't make an appearance at WrestleMania.
Simply put, it's because he wants to be an actor, so I get
why he doesn't come back.
Don't -- me around and tell me
that you love this when you're just doing
this to do something else.
Just show up.
Just say hi and leave.
That's all he's got to do.
Do the eyebrow once and get out of town.
- You say things like that and you say things in such
a dismissive way like come back
and do your little eyebrow and leave?
[chuckles]
You got to be careful with things you say like that.
- What I was thinking was get Rock back on television 100%.
He gave me an opening and because
I was doing all the shows, the same thing he'd done in '99
to bring the company to unseen heights.
You can't see me.
I was telling him, he didn't feel the way he said
that he was all talk.
You see a guy with the world in the palm of his hand.
I'm just flicking a pebble at him and it really got to him,
which proves he really loves the WWE.
- In 2008, Rock comes back to WWE to induct his father
and grandfather into the WWE Hall of Fame and Rock was like,
"What can we do that's going to be really fun?"
The idea was we do like a little roast of the WWE stars.
Let's do a John Cena Marine joke.
- Highway patrol, this is John Triton.
They have a hostage.
It's my wife.
- There was a big controversy with the WWE
and illegal torture.
They would find Iraqi insurgents.
They'd sit them down, them up,
and they'd make them watch copies of the DVD, The Marine.
[crowd cheers]
- Now, I really have something and I think
we really got a chance.
If he's going to come back, I got a chance on
dancing with The Rock.
- This rivalry kicks off on a Monday Night Raw in February-
[The Rock's music plays]
- -when The Rock is announced as the guest host
of WrestleMania.
[music]
- Finally, The Rock has come back home.
[applause]
- I give you my word.
I am never ever going away.
[crowd cheering]
- This was what really kickstarted things because
afterwards, mainly, people were talking about
all of the John Cena jokes.
- You can't see me.
[crowd cheers]
- You can't see me.
What are you playing?
Peekaboo.
You can't see me.
I can see you.
Can you see me?
Oh, believe me, we all can see you.
How the hell do you think we can miss?
You come out here with your bright ass purple shirt.
Before that, your bright green shirt.
Before that, your bright orange shirt.
You're running around here looking like a big,
fat bowl of Fruity Pebbles.
[crowd cheers]
- John Cena, The Rock will see you at WrestleMania.
- This is the pinnacle of entertainment, WrestleMania.
- The Rock is hosting WrestleMania at the time.
- Finally, The Rock has come back to WrestleMania.
- The main event of WrestleMania is John Cena versus The Miz.
- The Miz would defend the WWE title against John Cena.
- You always wondered what the interaction between
The Rock and John Cena would look like.
This is the first time I feel really you had a sense that,
"Oh, maybe The Rock and John Cena could cross paths and
something could happen here."
- The great one coming back.
Remember, it's no disqualification.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
- The Rock, Rock.
- The Rock.
Oh--
a Rock Bottom.
The Rock Bottom on John Cena.
Will Miz take advantage?
- Rock interferes in the match and he catches
Cena with the Rock Bottom.
He costs him the title.
This sets us off to the races in a collision course
with two gigantic men.
- The Rock says we make history.
The Rock says we do something that's never been done before on
the grandest stage in the world.
WrestleMania 28, John Cena versus The Rock.
[crowd cheers]
- We've all collectively made the decision that we're going to
announce this match a year in advance.
- Once in a lifetime at WrestleMania,
The Rock versus John Cena.
- You don't do it in boxing.
You don't do it anywhere else, but in WWE form,
we're going to do something new and do it differently.
Where are you at, Cena?
Oh, I can see your monkey ass bitch
Where are you at?
We're going to grab this opportunity and we're going
to go to the -- moon and put on the show of a lifetime.
- How is this even going to work because we're not going to have
The Rock around that often?
It just seemed impossible based on the amount of stuff
he was doing in Hollywood, but they can take shots
at each other on social media now.
- When The Rock talks on Twitter, things trend worldwide.
The best part about having John on Twitter is,
a every once in while, I'll -- with him.
- Oh, yes.
- Thousands and thousands of tweets from his fans,
"You're so mean. Stop being mean to John Cena.
He's the best. Cenation."
You want to be like, "Hey, if you think I'm mean now,
you just watch what I do."
[laughs]
- This is an innovative thing.
Just when I think I don't have to deal with him until he shows
up again, we start going at each other's throats on Twitter.
If somebody's talking trash and I have the forum
to talk back.
I'll jab you back.
I give a damn that he had the balls to stand
in the middle of this ring, said that he was back
and that he was never leaving again.
Yet here I am and we all wonder where is the
so-called People's Champion.
- The Rock's Twitter blew up.
When The Rock said he was never going away,
that he has to be at
every single show, every single night,
every live event, no, John Cena, that's not what it means, idiot.
The Rock has already done it.
Every single thing you're doing right now in the WWE,
John, going to every show running your mouth,
"I'm here, everybody. I'm here, I'm here.
Rock's not here."
Shut up.
- I'm the type of guy that people do come at,
but I'm also the type of guy who enjoys that.
Rock's vignettes were gold.
They were just gold.
- John Cena, you got a lot of nerve coming
to The Rock's house.
Do you know why you'll never be as good as The Rock?
- Because I'm not that talented?
- Yes, John Cena, because you're not that talented.
How does it make you feel?
- I feel--
- It doesn't matter how it makes you feel.
- Rock is a brash, smack-talking.
His personality is super masculine.
- The Rock is back to scratch a major itch.
Enjoy your Fruity Pebbles, you yabba-dabba bitch.
- I can't outdo that.
The thing is I'm not looking at that defeated.
I'm looking at it like, "Okay, what can I do now?"
This Fruity Pebble that you're dealing with,
I'm not your average jabroni.
I'm like a big purple pinwheel, Rock, so go ahead and blow me.
[crowd cheers]
- Rock called me a Fruity Pebble.
I got a -- cereal sponsorship with that.
Fruity Pebbles is my champion chomp.
- The Rock starts poking holes in John Cena like,
"How many different, colorful T-shirts are you going to wear?"
He manages to take this insult and flip it into
a Fruity Pebbles endorsement.
Only John Cena.
- Action.
- There we go.
- After GI Joe wrapped, Rock had the opportunity
now to come back.
It was perfect timing because Survivor Series is like--
People say Royal Rumble kicks off WrestleMania season.
For us behind the scenes, Survivor Series really kicks it
off to really ramp up a good WrestleMania main event.
- I'm not going to do this out of friendship,
but if I'm going to defeat The Miz and R-Truth,
my partner is going to have
to be somebody who's going to bring it.
At Survivor Series, I choose my partner to be The Rock.
[crowd cheers]
- Sort of a staple in WWE, opponents teaming up.
There's a lot of interesting elements to having John and
The Rock team with each other at Madison Square Garden.
[music]
- It's a great shot of him with the tattoos
and he's so handsome.
I'm expecting to see a very emotional crowd,
very happy to see Dwayne back.
[crowd chants "Rocky"]
- I'm very emotional about seeing him back
here in The Garden.
We miss him in the ring.
It'll be great to see him back in the ring
and I know he's feeling it too.
- Survivor Series where these two men are forced to be
a tag team and you were there and you saw Dwayne.
- I'm sitting there and Dwayne came down there.
I just remember saying to myself,
"He's the only guy on
the roster that looks better than the video game."
The actual human looks better than the video game.
I'm just like, "He was in shape."
[crowd boos]
- He's walking in the back and you're about to see him go
back out there after so long.
You have the goosebumps.
You have the chills.
[The Rock's music plays]
- Damn, I miss it.
I miss seeing him perform.
[crowd chants "Rocky"]
- I want to see what type of ring shape The Rock's in.
- When he came out, oh, man.
- Wow.
- Big arm drag.
- And the Rock is cooking.
- He's just like riding the bicycle, man.
- Electric.
Always, he's electric like at The Garden.
- I think he's trying to show up John Cena.
- Survivor Series was when they really started planting
the seeds of division and frustration and resentment
between The Rock and John Cena.
- And here we go, folks.
- Top that.
Top that, Rock.
[laughs]
- The Rock started rocking and rolling.
- The most electrifying move in all of entertainment.
Oh, the People's Elbow.
[crowd cheers]
- The Rock and Cena win at Survivor Series.
- They did something I didn't think they'd do.
They stayed on the same page.
- What's going to happen when the next chapter
of this rivalry is written?
- Whoa, whoa, whoa.
- Oh, no.
- Oh, my goodness.
- Rock Bottom for Cena.
- I just didn't get a little physical with Cena.
I Rock-Bottomed that -- lips through the mat.
That's beyond a little physical.
Tonight was my night.
In the end, I got one up on him, but we got a long run to go.
[crowd murmuring]
- I'll be back.
I got to get some more--
- [background chatter]
- Did we do at least 20% last night?
- We did exactly 20%.
- Not too bad for being booed out of the place.
- Yes, you were 20%, Dwayne, 16%.
- You are -- ribbing me.
They did not like me last night at all, but it's weird.
They'll tell you to -- off and then they'll go buy your stuff.
It's tough.
I don't know.
- We were playing with a lot of different elements
between WWE's schedule, between Rock's schedule,
what dates Rock will be there, what dates he won't be,
but we could still keep the storyline alive.
- I was out here to talk about The Rock.
The guy who's not here this week, the guy who's going to be
here next week to address me.
That's going to be a fun time.
He should show up, raise an eyebrow,
hold the millions in the palm of his hand like only he can,
and then kick it back to Hollywood.
- John's popping off at the mouth.
This is what happens when idiots have confidence.
You find this all around the world.
We all know that.
Sometimes there's a lot of idiots out there who think
that they're kings of the mountain when, in reality,
they're just -- on a little hill.
- This gigantic figure in The Rock is coming back
and everyone is on Rock's side.
It's like John Cena versus the world.
I got to do whatever it takes because this isn't a promo.
This is now war.
- Rock doing his thing with me going out to interrupt him.
90 seconds before my music hit, someone to not be named said,
"Yo, do you see that?"
I said, "See what?"
"I think Rock has something written on his wrist."
Everyone was like, "Yo," because that's just not allowed.
- The greatest on the mic is using a marker
and writing his promos on his hand.
What?
[John Cena's music plays]
- I'll tell you something, Jack, I don't need words like
"respect" and "loyalty" to trend worldwide just like
I don't need my notes from my promo on my wrists.
- John saw there was an opportunity to level the playing
field a little bit, which is a very ballsy decision because
you're basically violating the trust of your dance partner.
- I don't like Dwayne Johnson.
- It just created this disconnect that was growing.
- I was around during that time backstage.
I remember there being real tension.
You come out of a promo segment, you think
everybody's going to be fine.
They're like, "Oh, they can't even talk to each other.
They can't even be in the same room."
I was like,
"Whoa," but it was making for great television.
- I will.
- Understand this.
You strip away WrestleMania.
You strip away the glitz, the glamour, the lights.
You strip away Hollywood, the movies, the fame.
You strip away the catchphrases.
You strip away trending worldwide.
You strip it all away.
Look at me.
You strip it all away at The Rock's core.
- What do you got?
- At the Rock's core.
- When we strip it away, what do you got?
- The Rock is 6'4", 260 pounds of man
that will rip your throat out.
[crowd cheers]
- You will always be a little boy who will go down in history
always as The Rock's bitch.
[crowd cheers]
- We know when The Rock gets out there and he starts feeling
the crowd and John Cena gets out there and starts feeling the
crowd, these are two guys who are more capable than just about
anyone in WWE history at going off the top of the head.
- I don't care if he's-- What did he say?
I don't care if he's 6'4", 265 pounds.
Big set of balls.
- Oh, what was that?
- Wow, huge balls.
- For the past few weeks, Rock's been legitimately pissed.
If you get stuck singing your song tonight, Rock,
it's all in the wrist.
- [singing]
Bet you're all happy you're listening to me and not some
goofy Eminem wanna-be.
Let's rock.
- Who won that promo battle?
- The fans.
[laughs]
- That's what I'm saying.
Most of the time, you can say, "Hey, X beat Y.
Y beat X."
Not in the match, but in the promos.
In this, it's so even.
And they made us want to watch it for a year.
For them to be able to pull that off in the modern era,
I always thought, was special.
- The past year, we've said a lot of stuff to each other
and I feel real comfortable saying this to your face.
I will be damned if you come in a visitor as good as you think
you are and take my life from me.
- The Rock ain't no visitor in the WWE, no.
This house, your house, The Rock helped build on
a professional level.
The Rock needs to beat you.
On a personal level, I just don't like you.
- Cena and Rock are headed down the road to WrestleMania.
- Feeling good?
- Yes, feeling great.
All right, let's do it.
- The last year's been really stressful.
It's a very comforting feeling to walk into the stadium today
and see that we're finally here.
All we got to do tonight is back up all the trash-talking
and put on a hell of a show.
- I eman, there was no other way to put it.
These is two of the greatest superstars in the business
going head to head.
And it had been built up for an entire year.
The fans had been waiting for this match for an entire year
and, finally, it was here.
- The energy was electric.
The thing with two performers like The Rock and John Cena
is that they're both, especially John Cena,
super polarizing, which can create
this incredible energy in the audience.
Our fans love to cheer them and boo them and
just be engaged with both of them.
It was one of the loudest audiences I've ever heard.
[John Cena's music plays]
- Clear, clear, clear.
- This is where I got to leave you, guys.
I'm going to go out and mess around.
[John Cena's music plays]
- What do you think?
Once in a lifetime?
I think so.
- The anticipation in that building was unbelievable.
The hair was standing up on the back of my neck
and that doesn't happen often.
[The Rock's music plays]
- There was tremendous pressure on Rock and Cena to deliver.
The stakes were incredibly high because you don't want to have
that match with so much hype
and so much personal stakes going into it flop.
- Two faces of their generations,
two icons in their prime.
- This match epitomizes WrestleMania.
[bell rings]
- It is thunderous inside Sun Life.
Here we go once in a lifetime.
- For that night, it was the two best where people could see
that they're in their prime and I don't know
what the outcome is going to be.
That's what makes it so special.
[crowd chants "Let's go, Cena.
Cena sucks"]
- You know this was going to happen.
- You felt the fans on that ride through every single step
of that journey from beginning, middle, to end of that match.
Even backstage, we were all just like, "Whoa."
Just to be there, it was unforgettable.
- Now, lay it-- Oh, no.
- Oh, no, no, no.
- Attitude Adjustment by Cena.
Cena's got him.
Cena's got him and The Rock kicks out.
[crowd cheers]
- I went out and I watched it live.
I felt like a fan too because you are.
You're feeling that whole place erupt.
This is it.
You may never see this ever again.
- The Rock.
- You don't see Rock go up there very often.
- The Brahma Bull perched on the top rope.
Cross-body.
Cena rolls through.
Cena powering, powering.
He's got The Rock up.
John Cena with an unbelievable show of strength.
- I can't believe it.
- The AA.
He got him.
Cena got him.
Oh, Rock, a kick-out again.
- Responding to the audience live is something
that I know Rock and John take a lot of pride in.
Maybe it was like, "I've taken enough --
and, now, I'm going to throw it back in these people's faces."
- Oh boy.
- What?
Oh, John.
This is great.
- This is awesome.
John Cena.
- It is electrifying.
- There goes The Rock.
Rock Bottom, Rock Bottom.
Rock Bottom.
The Rock has beaten John Cena.
[crowd cheers]
- When you lose the World Series, you have to
get out of the dugout, so there's a long walk back.
- John Cena, literally mocking The Rock.
- Some players just sit in the dugout and contemplate
the season and its enormity.
- Cena had him.
John Cena had him, but The Rock prevails.
- Then you just got to look out in space and be like,
"What went wrong?"
- What does the future hold for John Cena?
- What a night, what a match.
- Boy, boy, boy, what a WrestleMania, Michael.
- The goal was to put on the biggest match of all time
and create the biggest WrestleMania of all time.
It was a team effort by John Cena.
Even though we have our personal issues, at the end of the day,
he just wants one thing.
He wants to entertain the fans.
We went out there tonight, gave it our all.
We left everything in the ring for a record-breaking crowd.
It's a dream come true.
- I thought we had a great conversation.
The basis of my conversation was, "I hope you can see now
that this was just business, and I'm sorry that I didn't let
you in on the fact that it was business,
and that was a choice I made and that's not fair to you
because I didn't give you a choice.
You had to come at me with your best."
I thought he was all movie star.
Son of a bitch is tough.
By doing so, I really think we were successful.
We did the show in a stadium.
That's the biggest buy rate in pay-per-view history.
There's a reason for that.
When I tell you I was just trying to do some good business,
my intention was for the greater good.
My execution was awful.
I just did this to get him back in the ring.
- Hey, Miz.
Hey, brother.
- Good stuff, man.
That was -- awesome.
- Thank you.
- That was really good.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
- Still got it.
- [laughs] Never Lost it
- After WrestleMania 28, Cena and Rock found common ground.
- I think we are going to see the most electrifying
move in all of sports.
- They were able to take a step forward and have a mutual
respect and you could feel that.
- You see, the problem with this is your arms
are way too damn big.
Look at this here.
[applause]
- The way with Dwayne and how I know he is as a person,
he's going to try to find the ways to work through everything.
Once you go out there and you do business, you do business
Because once you get out there and you guys got to
make that magic, you'll make the magic.
- The fact that they had a great WrestleMania main event that
people were buzzing about, it's sort of like,
"Hey, we went to war together and we came out
whole on the other side."
- The Royal Rumble is a very important event
on the WWE calendar.
The winner of the Royal Rumble has the opportunity to take
on the champion of their choosing at WrestleMania.
- Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa.
- He's gone.
He's gone.
- John Cena wins the men's Royal Rumble.
The next match in the main event, The Rock is back
in a championship match with now-champion CM Punk.
- This is vintage Rock.
- Another People's Elbow, yes.
[crowd cheers]
- The Rock has done it.
The Rock has done it.
- At that moment, you as a fan know,
"Wow, we're getting Rock-Cena II."
- The stage is set at WrestleMania.
- John Cena will face The Rock for the WWE Championship.
It does not get any bigger than that.
- When you have something that is magic that people want
to see, you just keep doing it until they don't want to see it
anymore because those are moments.
- No one in that WWE locker room has what you got.
No one has your passion, your drive, your fire,
your will to win, your will to succeed, your will to be great.
No one has that, except The Rock.
[crowd cheers]
- Before, I had to punch up to be equal and that morphed
into our why about respect and it crafted a different narrative
for the match.
- In order to electrify, as I like to say,
in order to lay the smack down on candy asses,
things like that, you need a partner.
As much as we have had our differences in the past
that have been very real differences,
there is no one better of an opponent for me than John Cena.
No one even comes close.
- Now, we're in New York City.
We're in the mecca of fighting.
John Cena is coming back to win the war.
- Our second time around, it allows much more fun
because we could talk to each other.
Man, does it say a world about Dwayne Johnson to come back
to something he does not need to and give of himself
and give to the business?
It's just super special.
It says a lot about him as a human being.
- So here we go.
A big fight feel here tonight.
- There's a good reason it's a big fight feel.
This is a big fight.
They don't get any bigger than this.
The Rock looks primed.
He looks ready to defend that championship.
- Here we go.
[bell rings]
- Rock versus Cena, WWE title.
- It was a huge moment you didn't think you get
the first time, let alone the second time,
and now it's a different story.
It's two guys just wanting to assert.
- There's The Rock we know.
- Who is the number one alpha dog in WWE?
Is it still The Rock or is it John Cena?
- The Rock mocking Cena.
Cena caught him.
AA, cover.
- Redemption.
Redemption.
- Uh-oh, or maybe not.
-Wait, wait, wait.
- Last year when Cena did this, he got caught.
- He's really mocking The Rock now and this is not good.
- The Rock was waiting again.
- John Cena suckered The Rock in.
- Unbelievable.
- Cena suckered him in.
Rock countered.
- The Rock has him.
The Rock's got him.
- Cena.
Cena survives.
These guys are throwing everything at each other.
- These guys can't keep getting up.
- This is an incredible moment.
- John's got a feeling back there.
He's got to know it.
- Again, Cena counters.
AA, cover.
Cena does it.
- He got him.
- John Cena achieves redemption.
- I thanked him for what he's done for me,
for our company, for our business.
He's been an area of positive reinforcement in my life.
He made be better even when we were at each other's throats.
It was a moment for me to tell him what he meant to me
and I'm so glad we got to share it.
- Rock knew that this was going to be the last match at least as
far as this storyline was concerned.
Rock is old-school as they come.
On your way out, you do the honors.
Hogan did the same thing for Rock in 2002 at WrestleMania 18.
Even though Rock was an established star,
Rock wanted to do the same for John at the end of that match
at WrestleMania.
- What's so cool at the end of this rivalry,
The Rock takes Cena's hand and raises it up after this match.
It was almost like it's not my time anymore, it's his.
- The Rock is still The Rock.
Cena now is the ordained one from The Rock by going
through the fire with The Rock.
You leave it like this.
People cheer The Rock, people cheer John Cena,
and everybody goes home happy.
- I started my career in New York, Madison Square Garden
15 years ago, and it's a beautiful thing
when it could come full circle like this and end here
at MetLife Stadium.
Truly, it was an honor to do these honors.
It was an honor to have the match.
It was an honor to be out there in front of the crowd.
- You guys.
you should be very, very proud of yourselves.
Very proud.
Makes the business proud tonight, I tell you that.
Oh, my God, yes.
- Tonight was the greatest night of my career.
I'm very, very grateful for it.
John Cena, we have a lot of love and respect for each other
and for each other's families.
I couldn't have done it without him.
He couldn't have done it without me.
Some brotherly love going on there.
We've come a long way.
- What I know now is that's not the way to do things.
You don't jump somebody like that.
I should have found a way to contact him,
I should have found a way to talk it out,
and I should have found a way to make it happen.
And that's how you do business.
- If you listen to what John says now that he's gone on
and become a huge star in Hollywood, he acknowledges
that and holds himself accountable and says,
"I was wrong. I get it now."
- Please help, please.
- The only place you're going is home.
I'm going to get you out of here, okay?
- Rock, he's in his own universe running that hard,
managing everything.
Especially with me having a different perspective
of what that means now, my day is like his breakfast.
- Do you have kids?
- I'm sure I do.
I miss the business every day, but I just can't do both.
Quite frankly, at 45, I can't do it.
I have to do it much less.
- When you look back on The Rock and John Cena,
you got to realize that these are two of the greatest
superstars ever and maybe the two greatest
superstars ever in this business.
They were more than just WWE Superstars.
They were amazing entertainers.
They had a relationship with the fans that was unequaled.
- The Brahma Bull is back.
- For The Rock to come in, I think it put him on a whole
different platform because Rock was able to bring more eyes
from outside our world into our world.
I think it took John to even greater heights
after his feud with The Rock.
- The champ is here.
- It's a package with the bow tied very nicely at the end.
- I would say it's just a classic passing of the torch.
- I had to earn his respect and it was a long process.
I would've done it differently and, thankfully,
I got the chance to, but it was fun.
If anything else, it was fun.