16-time World Champion John Cena recently spoke with the WWE on a number of topics including the reason he held the U.S. Championship open challenge on a weekly basis and how Kevin Owens brought out the best in him as a performer.
Cena said, “The theme of the US Open Challenge, for me, was for the performers to showcase what they could do. I wanted to make it a little commercial for the person challenging me because if you were to answer an open challenge, that’s kind of how I got my start. So I wanted to give the same opportunity back, and I think this was no different. Although Kevin had had great success in NXT, this was a chance for him to show what he could do as a performer, and on a high-level stage. He can do great things. He has such a library of athletic things that he can do. He very much brought the best out of me in that perspective, and I thought this was a really cool moment.”
Cena also talked about how he gave Owens the chance to showcase what he could do on the main roster.
“The audience was wanting something new. Even me with the United States Championship is still, ‘Oh, they’re still investing in this guy. Will someone new knock him off?’ Who’s attitudinal, who you kind of don’t know what to expect on your first impression. I think all of those things together, it was the right person to do it, and the right moment in time to do it. I just think it was a situation where Kevin, as a new performer, becomes a member of the roster and goes to the absolute limit and brings the best out of me, and in tune, I kind of gave him a chance to showcase what he could do, which is a whole lot, and I thought it was a very good start to the audience getting to know KO.”
You can check out Cena’s comments in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
