Cena started out his career with an edgy gimmick that saw him take his opponents down with devastating moves and hardcore rhymes.
The Champ’s character turned more family-friendly in 2005 and he insists it should never change due to the fact that WWE’s audience is mostly consisted of kids and families.
The 16-time world champion told Screen Rant: “Coming in in 2002 you’re still riding the coattails of the Attitude era. It’s 18-35-year-old males, it’s very visceral, the entertainment is very extreme.
“Fast forward to 2004, 2005, 2006, more families are showing up. and I don’t feel comfortable saying the things I was saying on the microphone because I got to look at a little kid and at that point, I’m supposed to be the good guy? That’s not how a good guy is so I use the opportunity of the platform of The Marine – because the movie did reach a bunch of people – to genuinely, subtly, begin to change my character into more of a PG environment because those are the tools I’m dealt.
“I can do a butt-chug scene if you put an ‘R’ on the movie but when you put a TV-PG on the show and you’re out there doing stuff that makes your audience feel uncomfortable, your career longevity is going to be nothing.
“So a lot of these guys today also want to do all the things we’re not supposed to do. That’s not being a good mechanic. You take the tools that you have to fix the problems in front and everybody’s like, hey, would you bring back the rap guy? It would bomb right now. It would bomb.
“One, because all those punch lines are inappropriate. Especially, for now, they’re not PG so if I were to still come out in the outfit, I did, I managed to sneak one in against the Rock.
“Man, was it difficult to write those lines and I even had to say before I cut the promo, okay, sometimes you have to fight fire with fire so I’m sorry that I have to do this but it’s got to be done.
“I had to preface it with like earmuffs, kids, because it’s about to get pretty raw and even still meandering through all that I had a double entendre my way through something that I could possibly only do for one night, or it would not work right now. Neither would the Attitude Era.”
Cena’s WrestleMania challenge to The Undertaker was not answered on RAW and the dream match between those two legends seems to be off.
