WWE Video – John Cena in weekly interview – turning down time off, WWE Schedule, goal for Smackdown Live, not being picked first in WWE Draft, Ambrose as champion

WWE top star John Cena joined Michael Cole for a delayed weekly interview on WWE’s website. The interview released Friday instead of Wednesday focused on Cena entering a new phase of his career.

Cena noted that he was recently approached with time off to handle his busy outside-of-WWE project schedule, but he turned it down.

Cena said he wants to stay involved in WWE as much as possible because he has an “enormous chip on his shoulder” to make Smackdown Live the money show. Cena said he has deep roots on the the Smackdown brand and he feels like they have the “right mix of chaos to create excellence” with the roster, especially with Dean Ambrose as WWE champion.

Cena went back in time to his WWE debut match against Kurt Angle. Cena said the folklore is that he shot to the moon right after that, but there was a low valley before the peak. Cena said he was “overwhelmed” when initially given that big spotlight match against Angle. He said he was confident in his skills and abilities, but it was overwhelming being dropped in that environment, which is why it was “a bit of a struggle for a while.”

Asked about being drafted #7 in the Draft last week, Cena played up the fiction of understanding why he wouldn’t be the first pick because of his schedule. Cena said Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan want to put out the best show week-in and week-out, so he is going to do the best he can to deliver when he is on Smackdown. He said he’s used to not being first, going back to 2002 when guys like Brock Lesnar, Dave Bautista, and Randy Orton were ahead of him in their training class.

Asked what he most wants to accomplish being part of Smackdown Live, Cena said, “I want to beat Raw.” Cena said it feels like 2002 when Smackdown was dealt a bad hand and they ended up going toe-to-toe with Raw. He played up the storyline of Raw and Smackdown feuding for talent by saying Smackdown will be successful if Raw starts taking from their bucket.