Rusev on working with John Cena: ‘I love that man, he taught me so much’
Getting to travel the world and work matches against John Cena helped Rusev become a much better wrestler.
On Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Rusev reflected on working with veterans like Cena, Mark Henry, and Big Show as he was starting out in WWE. Rusev and Cena were frequent TV opponents and even faced each other at WrestleMania 31, but most of their bouts took place at untelevised house shows.
“I love that man, he taught me so much,” Rusev said about Cena. “You know, people seen us probably wrestle like 10, 15 times on TV, but we wrestled probably 1500 times on live events. We traveled all over the world just to wrestle. And even in European tours, we used to do Red, then Blue, then Raw, then SmackDown, then maybe SmackDown, then again Raw. Like, we would just jump everywhere to do this match.
“And just learning from him, just listening, paying attention to what he does, why he does it, keeping my ears open, my mouth shut. And I’ve learned so much, man. If it wasn’t for him, but even him, of course, but even leading up to that with Mark Henry, with the Big Show, with all these veterans that I got to work with. Big Show would say, ‘Hey, I’ll see you in the ring.’ Like, that’s it? You’re just going to see me in the ring? Like, you’re 7-foot-2 and 500 pounds. But okay. I was so nervous. But all these veterans prepared me for that moment. And I’m very thankful for every single one of them.”
Rusev returned to WWE in 2025 but, despite hoping it would happen, did not have the opportunity to face Cena one more time before retirement. Cena is now an ambassador for WWE following the end of his in-ring career.
Van Vliet asked Rusev what the biggest lesson he learned from Cena was.
“Just timing, timing. Take my time,” he responded. “There’s no such thing as a TV match and a live event match. Like, there’s no such thing as a bad crowd. If they’re not reacting, it’s because you’re not giving them what they want to see. Him listening, ‘Okay, is it high pitch? Is it low pitch? Who’s out there tonight? What’s the vibe?’ He’s always there watching and learning the crowd as much as everything else…
“[You’ve] got to take your time and listen to the crowd. I think that’s the most important thing. Just listen to the crowd. They’ll tell you what to do.”
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.