John Cena recently spoke with Arash Markazi of ESPN. The full interview is at this link and below are highlights:

Now being the best time for him to step away from the ring and focus on acting with the recent influx of talent in the company:

“There are a lot of opportunities outside of the WWE when it comes time to choose what I want to do. This is a very fortunate time for me because there are so many opportunities for me, which is fantastic, but on the other side of the coin there are so many gifted superstars in the WWE and it’s the best it has ever been. I don’t feel at all as if I’m short-changing the WWE Universe. I don’t feel like they’re dependent on me in any way. I think the program is riveting as it stands and there are so many gifted young performers that deserve a chance and have earned a chance so there couldn’t be a better time for me to take a break.”

Having no plans to retire:

“I’m far from done with the WWE. The WWE will always be my home, but in this current state of affairs right now with all this extra cool stuff that’s going on, it’s fun to try. It’s a great time to be able to take a chance and I’m so eternally grateful to the WWE and its audience for bringing me to this point. I realize I’d be nowhere without them and I never forget them. I promise as soon as I have any sort of downtime, like I had when I was at the Greatest Royal Rumble and the string of shows I did before WrestleMania, anytime free time I get will not be free, it will be spent at my home in the WWE.”

The Rock choosing him as his replacement in The Janson Directive movie:

“Dwayne is the professional gold standard. He’s the hardest worker in the room and he’s inspiring to everyone and I don’t think he realizes the outreach that he has on people. From a personal standpoint, he’s a friend of mine and a really good one. We had what I would consider a bad year when as a selfish wrestling fan I went after him and his decision-making process to get him back in the wrestling ring. That was so wrong of me but it actually ended in one of the greatest moments in WWE history. So I was very fortunate that it worked out and it was only after that moment that we were both able to communicate with each other the amount of mutual respect we had for each other and from then on it has been a fantastic relationship.

“He doesn’t have to pay me the time of day, but he has always been there for me and he has always given me sound advice, not some sort of reverse psychological thing that will hamstring my career. He has always been very transparent and an ear if I need to ask him something. He always checks in on me as I do him. I really admire what he does, how he operates, who he is, and I couldn’t think of better partner for a project like this and I’m so excited and I know if I know I don’t do a good job, he’ll kick my ass.”