John Cena and Roman Reigns comment on The Undertaker’ comments about WWE becoming a ‘little soft’.
Sanjhi Soch buero :WWE legend The Undertaker in a recent interview said that the current ‘product is a little soft’, referring to the style of wrestling in the ring and presentation.
“I try, it’s tough right now for me. The product has changed so much and it’s kind of off. I’ll probably piss a lot of people off but they need to hear it. It is what it is. To the young guys [who think] he’s a bitter old guy, I’m not bitter. I did my time, I walked away when I wanted to walk away. I just think the product is a little soft. There’s guys here and there that have an edge to them but there’s too much pretty and not enough substance I think right now,” The Undertaker said on The Joe Rogan Experience.
WWE and Hollywood superstar John Cena, though disagreed with The Undertaker’s assessment.
“I guess I’ve viewed the WWE as a product outside of myself for a long time. I guess that’s why I was so interested in the business side of it from very early on in my career. In that, I’ve seen it evolve, but I’ve also been called ‘everything that’s ruined sports entertainment.’ I could look at the economics of it and make an argument that between myself—and the large amount of folks that carried on the roster beyond the Attitude Era into the Ruthless Aggression Era and the Reality Era—the fans of the Attitude Era certainly looked at our product as not what they’re used to, and it wasn’t. So I may have a bit of disagreement with Undertaker’s word choice because I don’t think it’s soft, I think it’s different,” Cena told Forbes.
Cena reasoned that performers like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, who made adjustments from his style in the Attitude Era to when he appeared in WWE’s PG Era.
“I don’t know how you do this!” but also gave credit to the Rattlesnake,” Cena said Steve Austin told him.
“But if he had enough time, he’s a great performer, he could get used to it,” Cena added.
Current WWE poster boy Roman Reigns also weighed in, saying that today’s matches are more physical than in the past.
“We do the same job. It’s not like the bumps got any worse or any better. You’re always hearing ‘a dropkick was a finish back in my time.’ A dropkick is like the second move you see in a wrestling match nowadays. We’re doing a lot more. And sometimes I think we’re a lot more physical. And because the audience has seen so much more, we have to do a little more in order to pique their interest, in order to show them something different,” Reigns told the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast.
“What we call a false finish, a pin that people believe will be the final move of a match, we go through those like Steamboat-Savage. You’ll see that on a SmackDown. You’ll see 15 false finishes on a SmackDown,” he added.
“Because Mark [Calaway] is a really good guy. He’s very knowledgable. Obviously, he has a ton of respect for the business,” Reigns said.
