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John Cena shares thoughts on Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan’s complicated relationships with wrestling

Posted: Oct 9th 2026 By: Shounak Chakribarti

Despite their status as pro wrestling legends, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair lost a ton of their popularity due to various reasons.

Recently appeared on What Now? with Trevor Noah, WWE legend John Cena helped break down Hogan and Flair’s relationship with wrestling.

Asked whether the wrestlers changed or the public misunderstood them, Cena shared a very detailed and complex answer. “I think it’s more complex than that. I think as performers in a day and age where they sold it as a shoot, or as real, these are real fights, the personalities had less time away from the personality.

“And keep in mind, in the globalization of wrestling, when Vince McMahon took over in the early ’80s, the schedule was arduous. I’m talking 30 days on, seven days off. 30 days on, seven days off or less.

“And you’re doing your own promotion. So you spend more time as the IP than you do as a human. This is why when you talk to Ric Flair, whom I love and respect, even on his doc, ‘Richard Fliehr is dead. I’m Ric Flair.’ Hogan, Terry [Bollea], he went away a while ago. Like, ‘I’m Hulk,'” Cena said.

The 17-time World Champion added that wrestlers can’t help it because the environment demands it. “So when it’s supposed to be real, you got these guys who are trying to convince fans to come in the building and see them, and they assume the role, and it’s really tough to shut the switch off.”

Cena further added that it was a steep hill to climb for wrestling, but they were honest and admitted that it was entertainment. Cena believed that calling it pure sport was dishonest.

“But the audience has always been rabid, whether they thought it was real or they know that they’re coming to a show. Wrestling has always been filmed, shot, consumed as the audience is just as important as the performer, whether you know it or not,” he shared. Cena also compared the crowd shots and crowd chants in wrestling to those of European football crowds.

“We want them to keep being as rowdy as you can because if we perform to apathetic silence, it’s really just kind of two guys in their underwear doing stunts,” he finished.