John Cena on meeting MJF: 'I was floored by his professionalism'

John Cena was impressed by MJF during their meeting last December.

At the premiere for A24's Iron Claw film, Cena and MJF met up on the red carpet and posed for a picture together. Cena then acknowledged MJF by posting a photo of MJF's signature Burberry scarf pattern on his Instagram account.

Cena discussed the meeting while appearing as a guest on the latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet. Cena said that associating with a top star from another promotion is something he probably wouldn't have done in the past. But while Cena is still loyal to WWE, he understands that there's room for competition and competition is great.

Cena said he didn't know what to expect from MJF. He could have tried to make a moment at Cena's expense, but Cena was instead floored by MJF's professionalism. Cena called MJF a class act.

During their meeting, Cena suggested that maybe they can get MJF to play for the right team [WWE] one day.

Cena said:

So the whole totality of the thing is I knew he was going to be there. And I don't think the old me would have associated with him just because of how maybe WWE I was. I still am WWE, but there is room for competition and competition is great. And just because you don't wear the company brand I have doesn't mean you're a bad performer.

Sports entertainment's a finicky business. And again, there's a lot of chance to make moments. So this is one of their top performers for AEW and I don't know if I'm going to be the target of a moment. I'm just going to support my friend [Zac Efron] in a movie. [MJF] couldn't have been nicer. He couldn't have been more cordial. And we meet each other and I got pulled away to take some pictures. And then we were about to go do everything else before I even got to you. And I was like, hold on, give me two minutes. I shook his hand. I said, 'Man, I'm so sorry. Excuse my ignorance, I didn't know what to expect from you today. You are a class act, I can't believe you're as professional as you are. That's just my ignorance. I'm sorry I had that judgment, I want to thank you for being so special, thanks for making my night.'

And then we got back and I was able to talk to him more. And I kind of [said] maybe we can get you to play for the right team one day and all that. There's no denying the fact that he's doing good work. And I don't think that I should ignore that. Honestly, I was floored by his professionalism, where it would have been an easy target at a wrestling movie premiere to have yourself a moment. And we did have a moment. And it was one that the internet paid attention to. And it was one where I was hoping that this person that I met, I could once bet on like, 'Man, I hope we just get you over here. That'd be awesome.' But it was great. It was great to meet a professional, classy, driven young man.

MJF had an executive producer credit on The Iron Claw. He also briefly appeared as Lance Von Erich in the movie. MJF originally filmed a longer scene for The Iron Claw, but the Lance Von Erich character was mostly removed from the final cut because of time constraints and because it didn't fit into the larger puzzle of the movie.

At AEW's Worlds End pay-per-view last December, MJF lost the AEW World Championship to Samoa Joe. MJF hasn't appeared for AEW since then. He had been dealing with a torn labrum prior to Worlds End.