John Cena Gives A Clue About His Whereabouts In ‘Clash Of Clans’

John Cena on Cody Rhodes, Clues For The “Search For Cena”

Alfred Konuwa

What was your favorite part about the Search for Cena campaign?

John Cena

Man, this thing has got multi-levels of meta in it. I actually love the thoroughness of the campaign. So far, the Search for Cena, that one’s obvious. Nobody can see me, so that’s great. The fact that they’re having Cody [Rhodes] spearhead the search literally ties into not only our Clash of Clans storyline—as me starting out—everyone’s enthusiasm towards Clash of Clans, and him very strongly surpassing me in skill. And now this is kind of his last test of “student becomes the master” if he can find and raid my base to get the trophy and the Cody skin, especially recruit players to do so in this month-long challenge. But this also mimics our on-television storyline of student-becoming-master that he had a pretty bad run of it in WrestleMania. But culminated with that torch being passed at SummerSlam.

Alfred Konuwa

That’s something that I really do enjoy as both a wrestling fan and a gaming fan. Blending of your WWE storyline with Cody Rhodes into this game. Are there any other storylines from across your career that you would like to see implemented into a Clash of Clans campaign?

John Cena

Gosh, I always thought they could do some pretty mythical stuff with Bray’s character, and I’m very fond of the Firefly Funhouse match. I know they are listening, but if they ever want to make an alternate dimension of Clash of Clans, I don’t know, the Firefly Funhouse might not be a bad idea. In that match I had to face my demons and fight them off. And that was a pretty fun narrative to tell. And maybe that might be an idea. I’m not sure. I’m grateful for the one we got though.

Alfred Konuwa

I think that’s got massive potential. It just got my mind thinking into all the directions your career has taken and how it can be implemented. And I think that’s a perfect example because I fondly remember that. There’s tens of millions of people who play this game, John, and I know you’re not going to answer this question outright, but can you can give a clue as to where your village is? Maybe with a simple phrase or obscure term, no different than how you run your Instagram account where it’s open to interpretation?

John Cena

The clue is it’s going to take effort. There’s two billion people that downloaded the app. There are players who are dedicated and there are players who are casual. It’s like finding Wonka’s golden ticket. There might be a casual player that stumbles across the base in a one-and-two-billion shot. And if they do, they’re going to get trounced because it is my last stand. I know it is. So I got that thing trumped tight. It is well defended, but it is loaded with loot if somebody’s brave enough. But I mean, I guess that’s also what’s great about Clash is anything can happen very much like the WWE. I would suggest never giving up. Those are the words I’ll leave you with.

Alfred Konuwa

There are characters based on the WWE superstars, of course the Archer Queen based on Alexa Bliss and the Grand Warden based on Undertaker. Which one of these characters do you feel is most likely to find John Cena?

John Cena

So honestly, I think Cody’s got a chance at finding me. I really do, because I know how almost obsessive he is. He’s just going to need troops to have him take a lot of punishment. So some next-level Gollums maybe or something like that. He’s going to need some help with some troops that can take a lot of punishment because I got a solid defense. But I honestly think the obsessive nature of Cody is its biggest strength and at times its biggest hubris. I think he might be able to just find me. I kind of hope he does because that’s half the battle.

Alfred Konuwa

So what’s going to happen if and when he does find you?

John Cena

So this is what I love about the journey. Cody Rhodes asks for his release. He goes and becomes the American Nightmare on his own, gains world popularity, is hired back, and then has me in his crosshairs like, “Hey man, I have to face you because I have to fold this chapter to complete my story.” Well, it ended up being one of his worst nightmares. And he had a really down moment in WrestleMania and it really ended up, he kind of bit off a little bit more than he could chew. So I see a story panning out the same way here in Clash of Clans.

Alfred Konuwa

You mentioned how meta this is. How much creative input did you have? Because I see your fingerprints all over this.

John Cena

Honestly, this is just good storytelling by Supercell. And I think that stems from—there’s sponsorship and then there’s partnership. And I’ve been lucky enough through my life to have so many great partners. I want to list them all off, but if you watch a commercial or look at me do whatever, you know who my partners are. And Supercell, this is the second year they’ve been in with WWE. That’s a sign of a partnership. That’s a sign of trust and growth to say that, “Hey, your audience loves the game, your participants, your talent loves the game. There are ways we can authentically integrate WWE into Clash of Clans and our customers buy into it.” That’s a partnership, man. That’s the biggest litmus test for long-term success. So I’d love to take credit for it, but this is all the good storytelling of Supercell, and I think that has to do with their understanding of what we do and how it fits into what they do.

They’re great partners.

John Cena Wants A Documentary About All 36 Dates Of His Retirement Tour

Alfred Konuwa

You have a lot of great partners, Netflix being one through its partnership with WWE. What was your experience like in that process of filming WWE Unreal and narrating the end of your career? What was that like to reflect from a standpoint of speaking with Netflix in a documentary?

John Cena

I was pretty apprehensive, as were a lot of performers to the start of the show. I also try to live my life in a philosophy that I don’t know everything and I try to be as coachable as I can. And when Season 1 was a success and a success enough to get them Season 2 and Season 2 was successful enough to get them Season 3. Whatever I think is good about business or good for business or whatever I’ve been taught, I have to be coachable at some point and understand that things aren’t the way they used to be. That being said, to be able to sit down and tell my point of view, I’m really grateful because I know my retirement tour had a lot of moments where there was a bunch of different perspectives.

Still are. I mean, still people talk about [my retirement match] because I still stand by my convictions. My goal is to not be remembered. But when people talk about these certain moments, it incites conversation. “Oh, the heel turn didn’t work. I hated to finish the last match. Why did they squash him with Brock? “Just to get my perspective of what I was thinking, maybe elicits a different conversation. So that was really fun to be able to sit down with Netflix. My dream would be one day to go through the tour, even the lead up from me announcing my retirement.

The whole thing, if you watch it without just in its entirety from segment to segment to segment, the whole thing weaves in itself and each chapter is a chapter forward. There’s really no standalone chapters. So after doing that, it kind of ignited a passion to hopefully maybe one day do a project of 36 dates where I sit down and explain what I was thinking and if you agree with my perspective. But at least you hear, it’s like walking around an art gallery with the artist holding your hand saying,” I was thinking about this, “and you can see the picture and be like,” I get that, man, but this is what I feel when I look at it. “I think that that would be a fun project to do. And the idea from that came from me sitting down with Unreal, so it was a great experience.

Alfred Konuwa

Amazing. Jay-Z’s doing Jay-Z in 8 with Rick Rubin. And as a Jay-Z fan, I cannot wait to watch that. I think more wrestlers should do this style of deep, reflective career perspectives, so I very much encourage you to do that.

Final question: How excited are you about the wrestling business as a whole all across the world and why?

John Cena

I’m always excited. I’m always excited. And I’m one of those guys that in 23 years, I’ve been through some great moments and I’ve been through some tough ones. Man, a lot of my career, that stock sat down at seven and six bucks. I remember doing a lot of houses to not a lot of folks. So I really was excited about the business then. I was excited for how passionate the performers were to get even one more person into a seat. I’m excited to see it now when it’s got its most vast reach that I’ve ever seen. From a business standpoint, the metrics are incredible. From a talent standpoint, there’s never been more safety and security to be a talent. The pay is incredible. The entry level pay is incredible. There is no ceiling on your cap. If you draw money, man, you can have an incredible life.

They’re approaching athletes sort of pay. It’s surreal for me to even say. And from a fan standpoint, gosh, is there stuff out there? If you like wrestling, you can fall into any niche you want. I’m WWE through and through, and even with that, gosh, there’s a lot of stuff out there. And with the connectedness of social media, it’s a very active fan base.

It also gives the chance for reporters like you. There used to be only two sources you could go to to get real news. Now content creators at home can do stuff. You guys can. Man, you’re writing for Forbes. This is dope. I’m talking Forbes! This is incredible that Forbes covers wrestling, that WWE is on ESPN and Netflix. You can hear the passion in my voice. It’s a really good time. And I will say, should hardships come, I’ll be just as excited because through tough times, pressure creates diamonds. And I just know that it’s a matter of time, if times do get tough, that we’re looking at the precipice of a new megastar, and I can’t wait to see who that’ll be.