John Cena Apologized To The Rock After WWE WrestleMania 28

John Cena has revealed that he apologized to both The Rock and The Great One’s mother following WrestleMania 28.

After a year of building the match, The Rock and John Cena finally met in the ring in the main event of WrestleMania 28 in a bout dubbed ‘Once in a Lifetime.’ The result of the bout shocked fans around the world as The People’s Champion celebrated in victory while a dejected Cena sat on the ramp in disbelief to close the show.

Looking back on the lead-up to the match in an interview with Vanity Fair, Cena recalled fans thinking he and The Rock really hated each other, and admitted that there were mixed feelings between the two.

“The two of us had mixed opinions of each other going into this. When you get to this moment, to plan what is really happening, what are we really trying to sell? Because you’re putting your life in somebody’s hands. This is the one thing we couldn’t wing it out there because it involves the physical wellbeing of others. When you get to this moment, after all this shit talking for a year, you get two abrasive and strong-minded professionals in the same room, we do what’s right for the business.

“That one moment between Dwayne and I melding our personalities, that’s when, at least from my perspective, I started to build a friendship with Dwayne Johnson. Dwayne had always been cordial to me and helped me out. I did something foolish and I started to go into business for myself and drum up rumors about things I knew nothing about, which were great for [the match], but it’s very much a professional faux pa.

“He finally shows up and he goes one way, I go another, we never talk and what you see play out on screen is very genuine. If we had only just talked about our shortcomings, if I had only said I’m sorry, I think we would’ve skipped all that but you would’ve missed out on great programming.”

John Cena Made His Apologies After His Match With The Rock

After the match finally happened, Cena says the first thing he did was apologize to The Rock’s mother for everything that happened during his feud with her son.

“After the show is over, the very first thing I do is apologize to Dwayne’s mother because she was the first person I saw. I apologized and said, ‘I hope you understand that I was just trying to do what was best for tonight.’ She having the wisdom and experience, she was extremely gracious and a class act like she always is. But it was importantly for me to get that weight off my backpack.

His next move was to apologise to The Rock himself, and he believes the fact that the match was well-received helped allow them to put any bad blood behind them.

Then, went right into Dwayne’s locker room and apologized to him. That was the first moment of me being like, ‘Man, this was great. If we had worked together, I don’t know how great it could have been, it could’ve been so much better.’ He was emphatic, he was gracious. I think he was riding high off of the moment because everybody loved it. You put all this equity into putting your heart out there and if they don’t get it, well, now your heart is out there and that’s the best you’ve got and they’re not into it. They were into this. That’s always kind of the healing power between two people in a WWE feud is when the audience is entertained. It kind of helps patch up whatever bad blood there is.”

John Cena is in his record-breaking 17th and final reign as the Undisputed WWE Champion as he continues his retirement tour with WWE.

H/T to Fightful for the above transcriptions.