As seen above, John Cena spoke with Mike Rome after his blue brand return on last night’s New Year’s edition of WWE SmackDown. Cena did an in-ring promo with Becky Lynch, and then teamed with her to defeat Andrade “Cien” Almas and Zelina Vega in mixed tag team action.

“I tried to express my sentiment out there,” Cena said when asked how it feels to be back in WWE. “It always feels wonderful to be back in WWE because it is always such an environment where anything can happen.”

Rome asked Cena about his pre-match comments on Lynch and if the good things he had to say about The Man still stand after what happened during the match. As noted, Becky tossed Cena out of the ring as he was finishing Almas, then made Vega submit to get the win.

“Yeah, I said this to another journalist when I was promoting Bumblebee, had asked me how do I feel about Becky Lynch’s character. And man, I just… it’s not… she believes she’s The Man. Especially being in there with her tonight, it’s not a character, it’s Becky Lynch, and that’s something I can relate to,” Cena said. “When I stand tall in a WWE ring, people know they get that best of me. And Becky Lynch came out there, and not only staked her claim but said listen, if I gotta go trough you to get it, I’ll get it done. I looked into her eyes and I know she meant it. And that’s very rare.”

Cena continued, “I hope the other WWE Superstars, regardless of gender, are paying attention to the attitude of Becky Lynch because sometime you gotta announce your presence with authority. That’s not the way I do things sometimes but that’s the way a young John Cena would’ve done it, for sure. And that’s kind of why, even with all the stuff that happened out there. I thought I was doing good and then I was thrown out of the ring by Becky, and she ended up getting the win. I would’ve done the same thing. I know how tough it is to be overlooked, how tough it is to try to do your best every night, and not get noticed, and finally for something to happen inside you where you feel comfortable, and not only that but you feel confident. And when you get that confidence, you want to say you feel like Superman. And that’s why when I go out there, I tell everybody this is the Superman outfit, and I feel like Superman. So it’s good to see someone step up and come eyeball to eyeball with me, and be like, ‘Hey, if this is what we gotta do, then we gotta do it.’ And I really was honored to be on her team tonight because that’s not an attitude I’ve seen in the ring in a long, long time.”

Rome asked Cena if Lynch had “ruthless aggression” in a reference to the era that ran from 2002 – 2008, which Cena debuted in. Cena dismissed that idea.

“No, no, because that’s way out of date guys. It’s 2019,” Cena responded. “No, no. I will say this – she has all the attributes. She certainly has the ability, as do many WWE Superstars. She has all the attributes to succeed. I was able to get one word into her, and that was, ‘It’s yours to lose.’ So, time is a great thing as we reflect on 18 and look forward to 19. I would like to look forward to seeing what is the future of The Man. She certainly has caught lightning in the bottle for the present, but the hard work starts now.”

Regarding his big 2018 and now going into 2019, Rome asked Cena what we can expect. Cena said he’s learning to balance his time.

“I’m literally in the search for balance, I am. I’ve told everyone in the WWE that I will not abandon ship,” Cena said. “This is my home, this is my family, and I’m realizing how tough it is to balance everything but I’m here, and the best I can do is manage my time the best I can, and really just never leave my family out to dry. I have some wonderful opportunities coming up that I’m going to take advantage of, and a lot of that involves me being way from the WWE. But there are things that I want to pursue in life, and as a 41-going-on-42 year old man, I’m not afraid of taking those chances, even if some people are soured with my chances. But every second I have to myself, I wish there was a way to describe how busy I’ve been. And the opportunity I was given to stay home, the opportunity I was given from authority figures of the WWE to be like, ‘Hey, you need to take some rest for you.’ And my immediate answer was, ‘No, put my on every show, not just SmackDown Live or just the televised shows.’ I have a certain amount of time and I’m doing every single show because this is where I feel like I belong, and this is where I feel like my family is.”

Cena is scheduled to make his red brand return on next Monday’s RAW from Orlando.