Kevin Owens describes John Cena as a mentor.
Cena and Owens defeated Sami Zayn and Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns in tag team action on Friday’s WWE SmackDown on FOX to bring the year to a close. When Owens accepted Cena’s Open Challenge for the WWE United States Title on May 18, 2015, it marked Owens’ main roster debut and the beginning of their relationship. In the end, Owens beat Cena to the ground and stomped the title as a sign of disrespect, but on May 31 he won the championship by defeating Cena at WWE Elimination Chamber. More than 20 singles and multi-man matches between the two have since taken place at WWE TV events, pay-per-view productions, and live, unscripted events.
Owens recently discussed his relationship with Cena in an interview with Ryan Glasspiegel of The New York Post.
“John and I kind of mended fences a long time ago,” Owens said. “We haven’t been on opposite sides of the ring for awhile. He’s been an incredible valuable person to talk to about WWE and wrestling in general for so long. Even when we were rivals, if you want to call it that, he was a great sounding board for ideas and anything I could do to get better as a performer. He was at the very top of the business for so long, I couldn’t have imagined not using that resource.”
