John Cena

Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend

Conan O'Brien welcomes John Cena on his podcast, where they dive into a mix of humor, personal reflections, and bizarre Pasadena lore. The conversation begins with a playful discussion about

Key takeaways

John Cena reflects on how his identity extends beyond being a professional wrestler, emphasizing personal growth over lasting fame.

Main topics

John Cena's personal identity beyond wrestling
The sale of the original Wayne Manor from the 1960s Batman TV show

Notable quotes

I'm more than that. And when it gets taken away, it doesn't take all of me with it.

Conclusion

The episode ends with Conan expressing deep admiration for John Cena's authenticity, humility, and

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:03) My name is John Cena, and I am curiously Speaker 2 (0:08) enthusiastic about Speaker 1 (0:09) being Colonel Brian's Speaker 4 (0:10) friend. Speaker 3 (0:12) That sounds like there's an out there. Speaker 4 (0:14) John Cena's one of those guys that's always thinking, like, nine moves ahead. Speaker 4 (0:40) Hey there, welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. Sonam Ovsessian. Hello. My co-pilot. And this is a plane that has two co-pilots. Or are you a navigator? Not really quite sure. I'm Speaker 3 (0:51) that Speaker 4 (0:51) guy Speaker 3 (0:51) that Speaker 4 (0:51) sits backwards and, you know, takes a nap while you fly. Yeah, me too. I do that too. I feel like you're just Speaker 2 (0:57) one pilot. There's two of those. Matt Speaker 4 (1:00) Gourley, good to see you. What's happening, Matt? You've got, it looks like you have a bee in your bun and you've got something to talk about. I Speaker 3 (1:05) think there might be something you're interested in happening. Not far from actually from where I live, the original Wayne Manor from the 60s Batman show is for sale. I heard about this. And Speaker 4 (1:16) basically it's just the house, the mansion that was used in the exterior shot. So the 60s Batman TV show for people my generation was the formative comedy experience. Yeah. And it's up for sale. For Speaker 3 (1:29) only $32 million. That's couch cushion money. You also might know it from the Charles Bronson film St. Ives. Oh, Speaker 2 (1:37) that's where I know it from. Oh, good. Oh, OK. Speaker 3 (1:40) 32 million. Where is it? It's Speaker 4 (1:42) in Pasadena. That is extremely that is such a lot of money. How much land is it? Speaker 3 (1:47) It's big. I mean, look at this, though. It's you know, it's not unlike what it looks like inside. The TV show Batman. Oh, really? Speaker 4 (1:54) They actually made an attempt to. I mean, it's just a stately Speaker 3 (1:57) manor. Speaker 4 (1:58) A stately, yes. Speaker 3 (1:59) It looks like a Speaker 2 (2:00) building on the USC campus. I Speaker 3 (2:02) know there's a lot more pictures. Yeah, look at these. So like it has a resort pool surrounded by boulders and stuff like that. Speaker 2 (2:09) Can you buy this for me, Conan? Speaker 4 (2:11) You know, it's so funny when people, it looks like something that would be in the English countryside, but it's in LA, you know, kind of not far from the Mexican Speaker 2 (2:19) border. Speaker 4 (2:20) I know. Speaker 3 (2:20) Can Speaker 2 (2:20) you buy this for me, Conan? Speaker 4 (2:22) What's that? Speaker 2 (2:22) Can you buy it for me? Speaker 3 (2:24) Sure. But just think of the crazy shit that probably went down here because this is right in front of the Arroyo, the Pasadena Arroyo, which is famous for being the place where Jack Parsons, Alistair Crowley, and L. Ron Hubbard used to go and jerk off into the dirt for their sex magic rituals. Speaker 2 (2:42) What are you talking about? What? What Speaker 3 (2:46) are Speaker 2 (2:46) you talking about? I Speaker 3 (2:48) said what I said, and that's what happened. How Speaker 2 (2:50) do you know that? How does anybody know that? It's famous, famous lore. Did someone see them? Famous Speaker 3 (2:55) Pasadena lore. We have festivals celebrating. You know what I love? Speaker 4 (2:57) You know what I love? There's a lot of trust involved when you say, hey, Conan, I've got the intro. And I think like, okay, Gorley says he's got it. Gorley, what's up? And you say, well, first of all, I want to use a podcast to show photos of some real estate. Nothing famous happened in this house. It was in one exterior shop that was used again and again and again for Batman. Then you start showing interior photos, which has nothing to do with Batman. And then you use that as a segue into a couple of guys orgasming into the dirt. So, no, I gave you... This mighty craft. I was the pilot and the guy who sleeps and sits facing the other way said, can I take over? And I said, yes. And now we've slammed into the Himalayas. Speaker 2 (3:42) Was it a circle jerk or were they jerking themselves? But they Speaker 3 (3:47) were jerking into a circle in the dirt. Is the dirt? You know, Aleister Crowley was the Satanist. Yeah, maybe explain who people are. Speaker 4 (3:54) Because you also toss these names. I mean, I know who Aleister Crowley is, but a lot of people don't. I Speaker 2 (3:59) don't know. I know who L. Ron Hubbard is. When you say like, and I'll tell you Speaker 4 (4:01) something, Baz Scalper. Calloway, Jib Mumford, and Stavis McNulty used to get together. Who cares? So was Alistair McCrally, who else? Who was a, not a Satanist, but a... Well, Speaker 3 (4:15) he was, he had like, didn't he have the Satan Bible and all that stuff? Like he believed, well, he had a ritual called sex magic. Satan Speaker 4 (4:22) had a Bible? He just, Satan just went through it and wrote not in front of everything. Speaker 2 (4:28) It would be better if it was after everything. Yeah. Not joke. Yeah. Speaker 4 (4:33) Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thou shalt not kill in my pants. Thou shalt honor thy neighbors. If thou shalt not cover thy neighbors in my pants. So Alistair Crowley, who else? Speaker 3 (4:46) L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. Of course. Jack Parsons. They all lived at the same time, I thought. JPL. Speaker 4 (4:53) I thought Alistair Crowley lived before Speaker 3 (4:55) those guys. He might have been older. I think Speaker 4 (4:56) he was around. And he's still able to get it up and into the dirt? That's pretty impressive. I don't Speaker 3 (5:01) know Speaker 4 (5:01) if it Speaker 3 (5:01) was three for three. I don't know how it worked. He founded, Speaker 2 (5:03) was it Jack Parsons Laboratory? Yes. Speaker 3 (5:06) And Speaker 2 (5:06) then they changed it to Jet Propulsion Laboratory? Speaker 3 (5:09) Oh, good question. Isn't that funny? You just know Speaker 2 (5:11) they jerked off in dirt, but you don't know about the name stuff? Speaker 4 (5:16) Yeah. What's that? Go ahead, Eduardo. It seems like someone is right. Well. Speaker 2 (5:20) Did you just go on Speaker 4 (5:21) dirtjerkoff Speaker 2 (5:22) .net? No, Speaker 4 (5:23) I didn't look up any of that. Yeah, it says Jack Parsons, co-founder Speaker 1 (5:27) of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It's Speaker 2 (5:29) hilarious that JPL Speaker 4 (5:32) stands for Jack Parsons and not Jet Propulsion. But it's called Jet Propulsion. That's really funny. I'm sorry. It just is. It's not that funny. You know what? It's not funny at all. I Speaker 2 (5:43) think it's funny that these three men were just like all realized they had the same kink and then did it together. That's friendship. Can Speaker 4 (5:50) I say Speaker 2 (5:50) something? Speaker 4 (5:50) If you're aroused by dirt and you live in an agrarian area, you're hard all the time. They weren't aroused Speaker 3 (5:59) by dirt. They went in to do this ritual, apparently. It was called sex magic. It was some kind of like. conjuring of their energy. Look, I'm not condoning this and that's as far as I know about it. Have you tried it? That's as far as you know about it. That's as Speaker 4 (6:12) far as he knows about it. Oh, please. This whole Speaker 3 (6:16) area, the Arroyo, you know, there's this big green and green beautiful craftsman mansion that's featured in season two of True Detective and there's a huge sex orgy there. Speaker 4 (6:27) I'm sorry. Wait, what? What other Speaker 2 (6:29) kind of orgies are there? I'm confused Speaker 4 (6:31) because I'm trying to figure out, are you primarily interested in real estate and it leads to sex or are you interested in kinky sex? Why can't Speaker 3 (6:41) it Speaker 4 (6:41) be both? And then it's attached to real estate because I would love it if you were, I would love it if you were my realtor. And I was like, you know, Liza and I, we sold our house. We're kind of looking for something new. And I want to show you a place. It's beautiful. It's sort of a modernist design. It's got a little of a Bauhaus influence. And hobos used to live in the basement Speaker 2 (7:02) and shove corn Speaker 4 (7:05) cobs up each other's asses. You know what I'm talking about. That's Speaker 2 (7:09) the kind of real estate agent I want, though. And then my questions Speaker 4 (7:11) would all be things like, now, is it permitted? Could we take that? Is that a load-bearing wall? Because we might have a much bigger kitchen. And how big were the corn cobs? Yes. Speaker 2 (7:22) That's the stuff I want to know. I didn't know about this piece of Pasadena lore. Yeah. So Speaker 4 (7:27) do you know a lot of creepy things about Pasadena? You should give a creepo tour. Yes! Speaker 2 (7:32) I'd love to. Where you get Speaker 4 (7:33) a bus and you saw off the roof and you drive around. Yeah. Speaker 3 (7:36) Well, there's also that famous lamb family mortuary where they were... So stop saying famous Speaker 4 (7:42) when it's stuff nobody knows. Speaker 3 (7:43) There's a Netflix documentary Speaker 4 (7:45) that just came out about it. Well, don't do a documentary on anything. Anyway, what is the lamb family mortuary? Well, Speaker 3 (7:50) they were... Speaker 4 (7:50) Oh, they Speaker 3 (7:51) were scamming people. Over-cremating people and just throwing their ashes around and like... Stuff like that. But what Speaker 2 (7:57) were they doing? What were they doing? They were Speaker 3 (8:00) combining people Speaker 4 (8:01) in the Speaker 3 (8:02) in Speaker 4 (8:02) the crematorium and then not really giving people the like their real the real ashes and taking their Speaker 3 (8:08) valuables Speaker 4 (8:09) and stuff like that. Speaker 3 (8:09) And their house is right on Orange Grove, which is also where another house was where Jack Parsons blew up his garage doing a rocket test and everything. But there's this green and green mansion from. Season two of True Detective. So Speaker 4 (8:21) should I watch season two of True Detective and wait and see the mansion at some point? Speaker 3 (8:25) Well, it's this gorgeous, gorgeous house. I want it. And so when Amanda and I were getting married, we were curious if we could rent this place. Yeah. And then I wanted the invitation to say, Mr. And Mrs. Amanda Lund cordially invite you to the wedding of their daughter, Amanda, to Matthew Gorley at the Pasadena fuck mansion from season two of True Detective. Speaker 4 (8:46) That, you know what? I was very dubious about where you were going when you took control of this podcast. And you did. The wings came off. We lost a lot of passengers. I'm horribly burned now. But then you made a nice landing. I sullied it. Yeah, you sullied it. I will be able to look Speaker 2 (9:03) at like the Mars rover the same way again. Because like. Jack Speaker 3 (9:07) Parsons was a nutball. He was a genius nutball. I didn't Speaker 2 (9:10) know that about him. Let's just make sure Speaker 4 (9:11) that we're educating people properly. You're talking about, say the name again. Jack Parsons. Jack Parsons who invented JPL, the big jet propulsion lab. Is Speaker 2 (9:19) that Speaker 4 (9:19) also Speaker 2 (9:19) what the building is named after? Speaker 4 (9:21) Yeah. Yeah. And so you're saying that he had some, he was a crazy guy, an eccentric guy, and he was into erotic adventures. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. And Speaker 2 (9:30) he was bros with like L. Ron and. What the fuck? Crowley? Fucking Crowley? Alistair Crowley. Alistair Crowley. Alistair. No one names their kids Alistair anymore, but it's a cool name. You'd Speaker 3 (9:40) give me Speaker 2 (9:40) half a chance Speaker 4 (9:40) if I would have had a boy. Speaker 2 (9:42) It's a cool name. I believe Speaker 4 (9:43) Alistair Crowley was a big influence on Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin. Yeah, and he's on Speaker 3 (9:47) Sergeant Pepper's Speaker 4 (9:49) cover, too. Speaker 3 (9:49) One of the heads is Alistair Crowley, I believe. Speaker 4 (9:52) Wow. Okay. Speaker 2 (9:53) Turning off into the dirt. Are you guys going to try it? Speaker 4 (9:56) What's that? Speaker 2 (9:56) Are you going to try it? Are we going to Speaker 4 (9:58) try it? Are Speaker 3 (9:58) we going to Speaker 4 (9:58) try it? You mean, what are you talking about? Yeah. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? There's not a square inch of my yard. Speaker 2 (10:07) Oh, God. Oh, God. Ew. Speaker 4 (10:09) Well, I'm sorry, but you know what? It's good for the grass. Speaker 2 (10:13) Is it? People Speaker 4 (10:15) come, and Mike Gardner is always like, how do you do it, Mr. O'Brien? And I said, now what I didn't realize, Speaker 2 (10:22) what Speaker 4 (10:24) I didn't realize is we have a security camera back there. Speaker 2 (10:26) Ew. Do you have a crew? Speaker 4 (10:28) What's that? Do Speaker 2 (10:29) you have like a... Couple pals that come with you? Yeah, who's... What's your... What, my whack pack? My crew? Speaker 4 (10:35) What's your dirt jerk crew? No, no. No, no. Sometimes they rent me out of golf courses to put new holes in. Oh. Okay, Speaker 2 (10:44) we're going to take a Speaker 4 (10:45) break. Oh, God. You Speaker 3 (10:47) mean end the show. And I mean Speaker 4 (10:49) fully and completely. When I say take a break, I mean let's just stop talking. This is awful, and you did this. Adam, did he do this? He did, yeah. Speaker 2 (11:00) Yeah, I didn't do this. For the first time, I didn't do this. What did I Speaker 3 (11:03) do? I think what I brought enriched. It changed the tenor. Speaker 4 (11:07) You Speaker 2 (11:07) brought up a cool house and we started talking about him jizzing in his yard. The Speaker 4 (11:11) idea when you have a big podcast like this is to cast a wide net and let everyone in. You pretty much said if you're into kinky sex and you love Pasadena lore. And you want to hear some names you've never heard before and some fun facts about someone behind the jet propulsion laboratory. You narrowed Speaker 3 (11:30) it Speaker 4 (11:30) down. So I think the only person who's going to happily listen to this is you. Speaker 3 (11:34) Well, I do edit it. So I got to put something in there for me. If you make yourself Speaker 4 (11:38) happy. I guess today is the most decorated wrestler in WWE history. He has every award you can win and outside of wrestling as well. He's got a Nobel Peace Prize. Yeah, he's got it all. He's also has an impressive acting resume. You can see him in such films and TV series as Peacemaker, Barbie and the Suicide Squad. Now you can see him in the new movie Coyote versus Acme. I've been waiting for this. I Speaker 3 (12:01) saw Speaker 4 (12:01) it. It's Speaker 3 (12:02) so fun. Speaker 4 (12:02) Yeah. OK, I'm thrilled to talk to him today. John Cena, welcome. Speaker 4 (12:14) You've Speaker 1 (12:15) done the show before, but this is a new experience for us. One-on-one. I'm Speaker 4 (12:18) just Speaker 1 (12:18) trying to be here. Normally, it's like, hey, you have four minutes of break and three minutes and a live audience to entertain. So it's a different conversation. Speaker 4 (12:27) Yes. I was in that world, as you know, for a long time. I like this world because I really get to plumb the depths of someone's soul. And that's what we're going to do right now. Speaker 1 (12:37) Fair play. John, I'm going to start with... Quick Rorschach test? My dad, Speaker 4 (12:45) my dad, my dad. Speaker 1 (12:47) Every blot is your dad? Speaker 4 (12:50) I'm just showing you photographs of your dad. Speaker 1 (12:53) John, Speaker 4 (12:54) I'm Speaker 2 (12:55) going Speaker 4 (12:55) to tell you something. You and I, I think, are very similar in one way. We both came to... Listen to me. Listen to me. We Speaker 1 (13:02) both be Speaker 4 (13:02) there. Listen to me. Not just physique. Not just physique. We both came to a fork in the road and we took very different paths. I've done some research on you. I'm a fan. I know a lot about you. When you were 13 years old, you were bullied. And your response was to go and build up your body by lifting weights. Yes. When I was 13, I was bullied. My response was to comb my hair up into a pompadour. Speaker 1 (13:29) Essentially, we kind of did the same thing. Speaker 1 (13:33) We both appeared larger. Speaker 4 (13:36) Yes. To stave off harassment. It's so crazy. We both, yes. And you actually physically made yourself more imposing and stronger. So did you. No, what I did was, you know those animals that are really scrawny and wild, but they can go, and Speaker 3 (13:52) they Speaker 4 (13:53) fill themselves up with air. A peacock. And people get like, oh my God, I'm going to back away from this. But it turns out they're just still this little piece of shit animal. Speaker 1 (14:03) That's me. There's a piece of shit inside me. It's waiting to come out. I'm going to give it another eight hours. There's one inside me too. Speaker 4 (14:14) We also are both from Massachusetts. Speaker 1 (14:17) Where are you from? I'm Speaker 4 (14:18) from Brookline, Massachusetts, outside Boston. And you're from? West Newberry. Where is West Speaker 1 (14:23) Newberry? Speaker 4 (14:23) So Speaker 1 (14:24) as you follow the coastline north of Boston, it is literally. One town in from Newburyport, which is like a border town. Yeah. And then you can just walk into New Hampshire. Speaker 4 (14:33) Now, it's funny because I'm from Massachusetts, but I don't know that I seem like a guy from Massachusetts. You don't seem like a guy. We don't have, did you ever have a strong Boston accent? Of course I did. Yeah, I did. When I look at old footage of me, I have a Boston accent and I didn't even try to make it go away. Did you try? Speaker 1 (14:52) That's how people talk. You don't know that there's any difference. Right. I'm from a small town. When I was there, the town population was 1,200 maybe. Speaker 4 (15:00) Wow. Speaker 1 (15:00) Three towns or the municipality to go to high school and still the graduating class is 200 kids. Like, it was small. No stoplights. And everyone just talked like that. Yeah. And then you get put in a pool of people who have varying accents and you realize, oh, my God, I sound a certain way. And that might get misunderstood. Later on in life. Yeah, yeah. So I went to dormitory school as a 15, 16-year-old, and they kind of nudged me in the right direction of like, hey, you can also learn to speak a different way if you'd like. Speaker 4 (15:33) So that's when we kind of Speaker 1 (15:34) lost it. You'd like to get the cod out of your mouth. Speaker 4 (15:36) Yeah. Speaker 1 (15:37) Yeah. Speaker 4 (15:38) I remember it not even being a conscious choice. I think it was just erosion. Oddly enough, though, when I Speaker 1 (15:44) go back to Massachusetts. And, you know, my brothers and I hang out. I got four brothers. We're all still very close. We open a few beers and honestly get me around them. And like six beers deep, it comes back instantaneously. Yeah. And I can't shut it off.