John Cena on Rumors of Him Requesting His Opponent for WrestleMania, Retirement Rumors, Mixed Crowd Reactions, Fastlane

16-time WWE World Champion John Cena recently spoke to Sports Illustrated and addressed the rumors of his specifically requesting his possible opponents for this year's WrestleMania:

“I have never asked for a WrestleMania opponent,” said Cena. “If you look at what I’ve done in my WrestleMania entirety, from coming out at Safeco Field in a sweat suit rapping to two cardboard cutouts, to working with established superstars to working with rookies, to being fortunate enough to use the platform to ask a beautiful young lady to marry me.

“A lot of our performers get frustrated and ask, ‘What can you do for me?’ I just ask, ‘What can I do for you?’ They tell me, and I do it to the best of my ability. Even if it’s no one.”

On the possibility of him not even having a match at WrestleMania 34:

“What a great story it would be for me to miss and have to buy a ticket,” said Cena. “The year doesn’t stop at WrestleMania, we do Raw the next night. Now imagine if this stalwart, this statue of the WWE now has to look inside himself and ask, ‘Do I still have it?’ after being left out of the biggest show of the year.”

On rumors of Cena retiring from WWE:

“I’ve got a ton of outside stuff going on,” reminded Cena. “And I am proudly waving the banner of the WWE. Everybody always asks, on movie sets and even at the Kids’ Choice Awards, ‘When are you leaving?’ I’m not. As long as my body holds up, I am WWE-proud all the time. With my schedule, it does mean I have to take breaks, because they don’t allow you to do both.

“I’m fortunate enough to be in this spot right now, but it’s not like, ‘Thanks, WWE, for what you’ve done for me but deuces, I’m out and I’m never speaking to you again.’ All things considered, with everything coming out, I wouldn’t mind my contribution to WrestleMania this year being an absence. If that’s my role in the story, I’ll play it.”

On receiving mixed reactions from the crowd:

“You’ll see me out there every once in a while poke the bear and have fun with those people in the crowd who hate my character,” explained Cena. “They know who I am and what I represent, and they don’t like it. And that’s OK. It would be ignorant for me not to acknowledge that.

“You want to talk about using your platform to send a great message? Hey kids out there, not everyone is going to like you. As a matter of fact, through this crazy journey we call life, more people aren’t going to like you than are going to like you. And, by the way, that’s OK.

“But never, ever sacrifice being yourself. If you become a carbon copy of what the people who don’t like you want you to be, they’ll just find another reason not to like you. Then you’re not yourself. That’s a life lesson I wish I learned a long time ago.”

On challenging for the WWE Championship at Fastlane:

“Fastlane will be a special day if all goes well,” said Cena. “I know I’m not supposed to speak about this, but going from two names to one name would be a pretty cool piece of conversation.  I have all the respect in the world for Ric. We have a great rapport with each other, he was the first one to congratulate me when I won against AJ at the Rumble. It’s looming, but this is the time where it may indeed happen.”