Undertaker reflects on initial John Cena & The Rock impressions: ‘Ain’t gonna make it’
On the latest edition of the Six Feet Under podcast, The Undertaker reflected on his initial impressions of John Cena and The Rock. Recalling his thoughts about how neither of them was going to “make it” in WWE, the Hall of Famer shared more details about it.
“Early on, there was two people that I watched them work day one, and I was like ‘This guy ain’t gonna make it’. I was wrong; I can admit when I’m wrong. There’s some people in the business who can’t do that. I will tell you when I was wrong, and I missed with him. You know who the other one was? Dwayne [Johnson].”
Reflecting on The Rock’s debut in WWE, the 60-year-old shared his honest thoughts about it.
“You’ve got to go back, though, you’ve got to go back to day one when he had the things hanging off of him [his outfit], and he came out there, and he was ‘Rah rah’, and he debuted in the Garden. I was like ‘Oh, this poor kid.'”
“And to have the legacy, obviously, his grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, his dad Rocky Johnson, and then you have these expectations and you come out with that thing on. I was like ‘Oh man, this is not gonna be good.’ It took them [Cena & Rock] a minute to find their stride, and I guess they had ok careers.”
Despite a rocky start to their careers, both Cena and The Rock transitioned into two of the most popular stars in the pro-wrestling industry, as well as in Hollywood. While The Rock hardly wrestles, Cena has now completely retired from in-ring action.
Shounak Chakrabarti is an experienced sports journalist with a lifelong passion for athletics and storytelling. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Journalism from the University of Leeds and joined F4WOnline in 2025.
Shounak takes particular interest in soccer, closely following top clubs like Real Madrid and Arsenal. Beyond sports, he enjoys fiction writing, photography, gaming, and cinema.