John Cena Discusses Character Shift, WWE's Move To Be More PG

John Cena recently made an appearance on the "Armchair Expert" podcast to speak about becoming an actor, as well as his time in WWE, specifically about the evolution of his onscreen character and how it developed while WWE was moving towards a more PG product. The 16-time World Champion was asked if changing his breakout character, the "Doctor of Thuganomics," was difficult, to which Cena explained it was more of an individual decision.

"WWE moved towards PG, they weren't quite PG yet but they wanted to move in that direction ... you see little kids wearing your stuff and your stuff is pushing the boundaries and then I was like, you know what? I want to stop doing this ... It was my choice." Cena also went into detail about how changing his character in 2006 allowed him to align his on-screen persona with his own personal values, which he felt the WWE audience was already familiar with.

"I had built a relationship with the audience enough where they kind of knew my value system too ... so my thing became like, take a bunch of punishment, never give up ... I wanted to put hustle, loyalty and respect, which really, hustle, loyalty and respect are right in my value lane. So as a young man I got to take my background, and it was a slow change." Cena's latest appearance in WWE was on "WWE Raw" after WrestleMania 40, where he teamed with the new "WWE Raw" Tag Team Champions Awesome Truth to defeat The Judgment Day.