John Cena’s familiar WWE look is back, but he wants to make one thing very clear — that doesn’t mean he’s quietly dressing for another match. After trying something completely different in retirement, Cena realized the new wardrobe was creating more problems than it solved.
Speaking with The Takedown on SI, Cena explained that he originally started wearing suits because he wanted fans to immediately understand that the wrestler they knew was retired. The idea was simple: if he showed up looking nothing like the John Cena who wrestled for decades, maybe people would stop expecting another match.
“I don’t wanna confuse the consumer. If I show up in dress shoes in a suit with a pocket watch, hopefully the consumer isn’t gonna think one more match. John’s not really done. That didn’t work. They still chanted one more match. And I love wearing suits. Also, Cody Rhodes gets beat up in suits. So, the one thing I was trying to accomplish was really murky.”
There was another problem Cena hadn’t exactly accounted for — wrestling rings and fitted suits aren’t the greatest combination. Cena still likes running to the ring, feeding off the crowd and bouncing around the ropes, but doing that in dress shoes while worrying about splitting his pants wasn’t exactly comfortable.
“How do I feel most at home here? I love running to the ring. I love when the energy of the audience is there, and I can bounce around the ropes. If you look at WrestleMania, and those events that I show up in Tampa in a suit, I’m walking [very] carefully to the ring. The bottom of those shoes are slick, and I like a fitted suit, so I’m also worried about busting my pants.”
That eventually convinced Cena to change his mind. Instead of worrying about whether his clothes screamed “retired,” he decided to wear what actually feels natural whenever he shows up at WWE events.
“I’m gonna bear the burden if people have the opinion [that I] went back on [my] word… but I changed my mind. I think the cargoes, the sneaks, the T-shirt, and the ball cap—that’s what I would wear to the event anyway, as a fan. So why don’t I wear that?”
There is one pretty important distinction, though. Cena may once again be rocking shorts, sneakers, a T-shirt and his trademark ball cap, but he says the actual wrestling gear is staying in the closet.
“Those weren’t jorts in Brooklyn, and they weren’t jorts on NXT. I’m wearing cargo shorts. I’m not wearing any wristbands, I don’t have a towel and I don’t have any knee pads. So, when I said the jorts are retired, the f—-ing jorts are retired.”
So Cena might look a lot more like the guy fans watched for years, but apparently everyone needs to stop confusing cargo shorts with jorts. The suits may not have survived retirement, but Cena sounds pretty damn serious about keeping that particular promise.
Do you prefer John Cena showing up in his familiar WWE look or the suits he wore after retirement? Let us know what you think in the comments.
