WWE's John Cena Assesses The Future Of Pro Wrestling Ahead Of Retirement

John Cena has been adamant throughout his retirement tour that he wants to leave the business better than he found it, and in his final days as an in-ring competitor, he's trying to do just that with bringing in "WWE NXT" stars to Saturday Night's Main Event to compete on his colossal final show. Cena, who has been in the professional wrestling business since 2002, stopped by "The Pat McAfee Show" ahead of his final match against GUNTHER, and spoke about the future of the business he's been in since the age of 25. Cena said he believes that live entertainment has a strong future.

"We don't know what the advent of new technologies will bring, but man, I think humans want to see humans do stuff," he said. "I think WWE and sport entertainment's in a real good spot. People like getting together in groups and the more we do this all day, the more maybe we want to get together in an arena or a stadium and just emote and lighten our backpacks a little bit. I think WWE is in a great spot to do that. The talent roster is deep."

Cena said that when WWE used to "look to the bullpen," there would only be a few guys on the bench, but now, people are gunning for spots in WWE. He said there has never been a better time to be a WWE star, as they get paid the most he's ever seen, numbers that he said he "couldn't even think about."

"You can make a vocation out of it in a short period of time," he explained. "It's approaching that athlete's window where if you do your five year deal, you do a small three year deal, and then an extra one, gosh, you will never know want and it used to be more incentivized."

Cena also told McAfee he wasn't the biggest fan of "WWE Unreal" on Netflix, and he told the producers the same, but also admitted he's seen every episode and is excited for season two. He said he realized that WWE is providing what the consumer wants, which is more, and that the current era is going through sustained, "incredible growth" through all platforms. "The Never Seen 17" admitted he doesn't understand when others admit they are "old school" about the business.

"I was always taught in the business, especially when I started gaining traction: 'Swing big. Do not be afraid to swing big,'" he said. "Just because I personally don't get a lot of the swings, when I hear a comment like, 'I'm old school,' what I hear is, 'I don't want to adapt.' That's all I hear. 'I like the way it was and I don't want to adapt.' If you want to look deeper into that, 'Okay, really, what I'm saying is like, I like discipline and I like coaching this way,' or 'I'm not accustomed to this way of how we're doing it.'"

He said despite there never being a better time to be in the business, the biggest challenge now is on the business itself and the men and women performing in WWE. He said they have some big shoes to fill and the industry has to keep growing and prospering. Cena noted that the talents today are lucky, as many of them haven't seen hard times, like a house only being 12 percent full.

"It's their lottery ticket," he said. "Their lottery ticket is like, 'Best time ever! Work hard and keep it up!' I'm interested to see where it goes. I mean, consumer chatter is at an all time high, engagement's at an all time high. I'm excited for the future."