-Our first guest tonight
is a world wrestling
entertainment superstar
and 16-time world champion.
He's also a talented actor you know from "Trainwreck,"
"Blockers," and the "Fast & Furious" franchise.
He stars in "Peacemaker,"
which is streaming on HBO Max January 13th.
Let's take a look.
-♪ I could've cried ♪
♪ I could've cried ♪
♪♪
♪ When she said ♪
♪ I don't love you anymore ♪
Hey, I got to thank you for tonight.
-Please welcome back to the show our friend John Cena.
How are you, John?
-The beliked Seth Meyers.
Beloved, in my book.
I'm very well. How are you, sir?
-I'm very well. Thanks for the upgrade.
I think that the difference between that clip
and the last clip we showed when you came on
is maybe the most massive switch of clips.
Last time, you were jumping through windows
and, now, we have you dancing in your tighty-whities.
Beautifully done. Is that choreographed,
or is that all John Cena?
-That's interpretive dance. -[ Laughs ]
-I didn't think anybody was rolling on that
and, now, it's for the world to see on HBO Max
this Thursday, yeah. So that's out there.
It's a brave show. -It's very authentic,
very personal, very beautiful.
-It's a whole lot. It's a whole lot of Peace.
No, I mean, you know,
depending on what you see, depending on what you see.
-Now, you're wearing the costume, John,
but we do not see the helmet, the iconic helmet,
because you lost it last evening.
-That son of a bitch Fallon.
-Yep. -I lost it in a sucker's bet.
We play games all the time
and I always win and there's no stakes,
so I go in pretty much undefeated
and I bet that he had to frost his tips
and I bet him the Peacemaker helmet
and, yeah, I lost the Peacemaker helmet,
that I don't own, to Jimmy Fallon in a sucker bet.
That son of a bitch.
-I mean, you think the stakes were high for you.
Here I am, watching it last night, thinking, "I can't wait.
I get to have the helmet guy on my show."
Nothing. [ Laughter ]
-Yeah, and, now, you just got a guy with blue gloves, yeah.
Such a letdown. So sorry.
-This is so fun.
Peacemaker was such a fun character to play for you,
for me to watch, in "Suicide Squad"
and, now, right after, we get to see it in its own show.
A different kind of superhero, sort of damaged,
sort of raunchy, sort of crass and arrogant
and all things that, I think, if we actually had superheroes,
we would probably see a lot more
than maybe the superheroes we've been fed over the years.
-So, hero is virtue.
Superhero is super virtue.
Peacemaker is a guy who kills for peace
and he's really good at what he does
and he's really, really flawed.
And I think that's when you say like,
"If we could see all those things in superheroes,
it would probably be more authentic."
That's because we're all human.
Superheroes are all super virtuous.
Peacemaker is jealous of all these superheroes.
There was an Aquaman clip that went viral,
that Peacemaker released,
Peacemaker's thoughts on Aquaman,
and it just goes to show that he's like,
jealous of real superheroes.
And I think that makes for an awesome, funny journey.
We have a wonderful cast to surround Peacemaker
and it kind of explores the fact that this guy,
with this set of skills, thinks he's a superhero,
but his perspective on life may be a little bit upside-down.
-Is there something --
It must feel similar, at times,
the performative nature of what you're doing with Peacemaker,
compared to your, you know,
long and illustrious career in WWE.
I mean, there is a cinematic universe to the WWE.
There is the building of heroes and villains.
I mean, did you feel that parallel
when you entered the superhero world?
-Kind of, but it was the opposite.
So, in WWE, the John Cena character is one of virtue,
one of hard work, loyalty, respect,
never giving up, persistence,
always, even when your back is against the wall,
trying to do the morally right thing.
So this one was easy.
I would just have to say like,
"Okay, what I do in WWE?"
Do the opposite of that and add some profanity
and that's Peacemaker.
-You know, obviously, now, we've come to
not be surprised by the comedic chops you've shown
in things like "Trainwreck" and things like "Blockers."
Were you happy when you first got that chance to do it?
Were you pleased with how easy it came to you?
-So, man, thank you very much for the flattery.
You have to remember, in those films,
in any forum I do comedy in,
I want to be able to surround myself with really funny people
and funny people know how to draw the funny out of others,
even if it's at their expense, which I also don't mind,
which makes me a nice target for comedy.
But I think, in all those circumstances,
especially starting with "Trainwreck,"
you know, Judd casts amazingly and Amy was so giving
and provided such a great environment.
I think it's just, for me,
it's been great to surround myself with funny people
and allow them to just tee off
and then just kind of be present to see what's going on.
-One of your costars is one of our favorite on this show,
Danielle Brooks.
-Oh, dude, that's great. -I need to ask --
have you seen Danielle make balloon animals yet?
-I haven't. What is that process all about?
-I would just say ask Danielle to make you a balloon animal
and just know that you haven't lived yet.
You haven't lived yet.
-Ah!
With someone with an incredible lust for life,
I can't wait to see these balloon animals.
-I learned -- I heard, I should say --
that you had to learn some sword skills for the show.
Did you take to the sword?
-It took a while to take to the sword.
You see a lot of sword in the "Suicide Squad."
You pretty much see me dancing with my sword in "Peacemaker."
-[ Laughs ] -There's a lot of weaponry.
There's a lot of weaponry mixed with vulgarity in "Peacemaker"
and you'll probably see my sword more than a sword.
I think we have a chain saw in there, somewhere.
Yeah, there's a lot of stuff.
There's a lot of stuff.
-A lot of sharp edges.
Now, this is something that I was surprised to hear,
but maybe shame on me for being surprised.
You're a man who contains multitudes.
-[ Laughs ] -Is it true that you are also,
John Cena is a man who's happy to walk into an antique shop?
-Oh, yeah, I love antiques.
Like, man, I really do.
I love going antiquing.
I love trying to find out the story behind all these objects.
I don't necessarily --
Although I love finding value and look for bargains,
it's more the story and the object
that I find really exciting.
And I just, I don't know, there's something about
an object with pedigree, an object with a story.
I don't know. Maybe it's the imagination,
but, yes, I do absolutely love antiquing.
You can tell that this struck a nerve.
I got the spirit fingers.
[ Laughter ]
Antiquing! Ooh!
-I've never seen you like this, John.
[ Laughter ]
Now, I'm not surprised to hear that,
in your younger days, you were a bouncer.
I think anyone would be able to track that
as maybe a good first job for a young John Cena.
But will you please tell
the story about being next to a pizza shop
and a terrible mistake they made,
not known John Cena was working next door.
-So I was also, like Swayze in "Roadhouse,"
I was the bouncer that didn't drink.
-Okay. -It's much more of a cooler will, yeah.
I was more Sam Elliott than Swayze, though.
The pizza pizza place offered
free pizza, if you could eat a full pizza,
and it was Chicago deep dish-style.
But I was broke and sober at 2:00 am
and I literally just kept eating pizza and eating pizza
and it was like an achievement for them
and they would put a pizza dish on the wall
with your name on it.
And, by the time I had multiple pans on the wall,
the guy realized he was getting killed on product
and on process because he's losing a pizza pan
every time I eat one. -[ Laughs ]
-Finally, he was just like, "Dude,
you don't have to eat the pie.
Come over after work for a few slices and we got you."
That place was Zeppe's pizza, that eventually closed.
I'm not saying I had anything to do with it,
but I probably didn't help their bottom line
or their profit-loss statement.
-That's true. But, at least, I think they would --
In the way that antiques have a great story,
at least, they have one to share about a young John Cena
putting them out of business. -Somewhere, there's two or three
Zeppe's pizza trays
with "John Cena," the date, my weight, and "I did it."
Yeah, so those are floating around.
Maybe, one of these days, at one of these flea markets.
-Thanks for being here. You know what I'm going
to actually look for at an antique shop
is that helmet you lost to Fallon
because you know Fallon sold it, first thing.
-Dude, he couldn't --
He thought I took it with him
when I left the show
and I totally gave it to him
and he wanted to use it as a prop for his next skit
and he's like, "If Cena took it, I'm going to be so pissed,"
and the lady's like, "No, here it is.
It's really yours."
-Yeah, I would've loved to have seen what happened
when Jimmy Fallon was so pissed with John Cena.
[ Laughs ] -I would've loved to have seen how that turned out.
[ Laughing ] -Wow, man, yeah.
-Hey, congrats on the show.
I've watched the first one. It's so much fun.
You were so right about how great the cast is
and I can't wait to see more.
Thanks for being here, John.
-As always, thank you.
-John Cena, everybody.
"Peacemaker" is streaming on HBO Max January 13th.
We'll be right back.