Joe Hendry admits not facing John Cena in retirement tour ‘lit a fire’ under him
Joe Hendry competed in his first WrestleMania match last year against Randy Orton. He hoped to be one of John Cena’s opponents on his retirement tour but that did not materialize.
In an interview with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, Hendry discussed being a participant at SNME in December which was a final tribute to John Cena. He was grateful for the opportunity to contribute to Cena’s farewell show.
“What I will say, I was super grateful to be a part of the last show. That was a really incredible experience. I got to talk to John there and I was there for when he did his last speech to the locker room. So to be there for that was pretty incredible, as well as appear on the show, to walk out at the end of the show as well to watch John’s last moments as an active WWE competitor, that was very special. So I was very grateful to be a part of it. It’s one of those things that I have to say that I think everything happens for a reason. There’s part of me that wonders, maybe it had to happen that way. Maybe the match had to not happen for me to [appreciate that] you can’t expect every surprise moment to go your way.”
Hendry admits that not facing Cena in his retirement tour motivated him even further in his NXT run.
“I think lit a fire under me actually, because it made me realize that, I guess, my goal was to face John Cena and because it didn’t happen, I was like, ‘Right, well, I need to take this to the next level now.’ I think it motivated me even more. I think the approach I took with going to NXT is I was in the Performance Center every day. I was doing the classes. It was not something that I had to do; it was something that I wanted to do. I really just tried to immerse myself in NXT as much as possible. I think going in with that, [I embraced] NXT to learn how WWE works. I feel I got like extra motivation because sometimes I think if everything just comes to you easily, maybe someone might take it for granted. So I just took it as extra motivation to go, ‘Alright, you know what? I need to dig even deeper to get these big moments to continue to happen.’”
Hendry did have a segment at SNME with R-Truth and The Miz. He joined Truth in a comedic tribute to Cena while attacking Miz.
In February this year, Hendry won the NXT Championship, marking his first WWE title win. He lost the title at NXT Stand & Deliver in a fatal four-way match to Tony D’Angelo.
Hendry and Cena met backstage after his WrestleMania 41 match where he praised his Royal Rumble performance. Additionally, Cena later applauded Hendry’s work ethic and saw him as a ‘major player’ in the industry.
Rosanne Raphael is a wrestling writer with over three and a half years of experience covering all things related to the industry. From a kindergarten teacher to PR Associate to turning her lifelong passion for the industry into a career, Rosanne is currently writing for F4W Online where she focuses on wrestling news, analysis, and storytelling.
Rosanne previously contributed to Sportskeeda as an Assistant Content Manager.
When not consumed by wrestling, Rosanne is a musician and an aspiring artist.