John Cena Claims He Regrets His Feud With Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson: “I Violated His Trust”

During his appearance at a WWE Fastlane press conference on Saturday (Oct. 7), John Cena was forced to wrestle with his former feud with fellow WWE star and actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

According to his Instagram, Johnson retired from the WWE in 2004 at the age of 32 after his contract expired. He then pursued a full-time acting career, but returned to the WWE in 2012, much to Cena’s dismay, as Cena had come to consider Johnson a traitor to the wrestling franchise.

Now having followed in Johnson’s footsteps as an actor, Cena admitted that he “100% see[s] and understand[s] that perspective” that some have formed of him: that he hypocritically did the same thing.

“If you’ve been following what I’ve tried to do, especially as of late, publicly and personally to Dwayne Johnson, I’ve stated that although I thought I was trying to do what’s best for business,” he said. “I went about it the wrong way. I violated his trust and I made allegations about his perspective that I knew nothing about.”

According to Variety, Cena claimed on Josh Horowitz’s Happy, Sad, Confused podcast in May that he “got selfish” and “really messed up” by feuding with The Rock.

Nontheless, Cena reiterated his apologies at Saturday’s event, and acknowledged that “deep down, [he] was a fan” of Johnson’s.

“I wanted The Rock back [in WWE],” he continued. “I wanted to do anything to get The Rock back, but I did it the wrong way.”

Cena, who returned to WWE with his acting career on hold during the SAG-AFTRA strike, confirmed that he plans to return to Hollywood once the strike is resolved.

“And I made it perfectly clear you can’t do both because of the liability insurance,” he added. “If I were to try to juggle both, that’s very selfish because that would put a whole lot of people in the movie business out of work if something happened to me.”

Johnson also recently made a return to the WWE on WWE Smackdown last month, where he and Cena hugged it out as Cena “welcome[d him] home.”

As for Cena’s wrestling career, he said that although it’s not the end just yet, his last WWE appearance is “on the horizon.”

Watch the full press conference above.