John Cena is the talk of the town after he captured a 17th championship at WWE’s WrestleMania 41 event on Sunday night, but he still took time to praise Logan Paul as one of his favorite up and coming stars on the roster.
On the same night that Cena defeated Cody Rhodes in the main event, Paul enjoyed victory himself after he knocked off veteran performer A.J. Styles in an exciting match from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. While Paul has received compliments for the way he’s so quickly adapted to the professional wrestling business, he’s also faced backlash for his rapid rise up the ranks without paying his dues like so many performers in the same industry.
None of that matters much to Cena, who says Paul is proving his worth every single time he sets foot in the ring and the social influencer turned WWE superstar probably doesn’t care what anybody thinks about him anyways.
“Logan Paul’s a stud,” Cena said on The Pat McAfee Show. “I texted him right away after his match and I’m like dude, you are innovative, from his entrance to holding a drone to thinking on another level like I’m going to swing big and try something different. I thought that was dope. Then his performance, he’s doing stuff that I couldn’t do at peak physical condition. So regardless of if you like him or hate him, he’s doing athletic moves that are as good or better as any of the ‘wrestlers’ out there, any of the trained wrestlers.
“Here’s what I like most about Logan Paul — he doesn’t give two shits if ya’ll like him or not. He does it as himself. This dude is a stud. There’s going to come a time when ya’ll wake up to Logan Paul. He got here late. That shouldn’t be a penalty for him. He is a WWE superstar, he belongs in that ring with everybody else. I know he’s always going to be himself and whether you boo him or not, you are going to pay to see that kid because he is unreal.”
As part of his entrance on Sunday night, Paul walked to the ring while holding onto an aerial drone that captured his every reaction before releasing it to go flying across the entire arena.
Cena was blown away by Paul’s ability to use his years of creativity building an audience through social media and YouTube to then transition that into making himself relevant in WWE.
Add to that, Cena knows that Paul has taken heat for his antics and behavior for many years and the ability to roll with the punches is only going to play into his favor as he continues his professional wrestling career.
“He’s been hated but he’s also been through the fire,” Cena said. “Like ‘oh man, you’ll never work in this town again.’ He’s had that phone call 10 or 12 times. He doesn’t care. There’s a dude who never gives up. He will just keep getting up.”
