The network that redefined the musical talent challenge with American Idol will now redefine an athletic challenge tonight with the premiere of a new military-based competition series called American Grit. Hosting American Grit is WWE superstar John Cena, who we spoke to late last year in the Washington State forests where the show was put together.
Cena recalls that putting American Grit together was an end product of a long process of hard work, and the final product will be different than a lot of reality TV that is currently on the air.
“A lot of reality TV is dirty play, cut-throat play, underhanded tactics to get to the finish line, where the finish line is the main adjective. Don’t get me wrong; these competitors are competing to win, but we also put an emphasis on working together as a team, and that’s not just a ‘hey, you guys have gotta be a good team.’ They’re faced with a series of challenges where if they don’t work together, they’ll fail, and they’ll be gone. So even if you have that mentality of ‘I’m gonna stab everybody in the back to get to the top, you get cut short real quick, because you have to function as a group,” John Cena explains. “I think it’s a breath of fresh air for television – instead of seeing a group of people back-talk each other and cut throats on their way to the top with one winner, you’ll hopefully get a nice dynamic where you’ll get to see a group of people evolve and learn a little bit about each other on the way, and do good things for each other.”
“The mentors are awesome,” Cena says of the ‘cadre’ which includes Noah Galloway, Rorke Denver, Tawanda “Tee” Hanible, and Nick “The Reaper” Irving. “I can’t believe we got such a group of military heroes on one set at the same time. I’ve never felt so inferior in my entire life,” he admits. “It’s special, because I get to sit back and watch while they do what they do. They’re all motivators in their own right; they’re all extremely accomplished in their own right, and I’m honored to be on the set with them.”
Why was now a good time for Cena to take a break from the WWE and to do a series like this? John Cena sites “a myriad of reasons. ”
“I’ve been a cornerstone of WWE programming since 2002,” he explains. “That’s a long time; that’s more than ten years, so much so that a portion of our audience has directed a complacency with me. Like, ‘man, Cena holds everybody down! He doesn’t give the new guys a chance!’ So, from a company perspective – as you know, I hold [WWE] very near and dear to my heart — dance floor’s open, boys. I’m gone. Let’s see who steps up. And I like that, because as much as I try to distance myself, or as much as someone will view me as distancing me from the WWE, I’m never going to go.”
“I watch Raw. It kills me to be healthy and watch Raw,” he admits. “But at the same time, if we don’t have a future I don’t have any accomplishments. It’s cool to see the guys stepping up, it really is.”
“Personally – and this gives me a better perspective on Dwayne Johnson’s path – you get to a certain point and you cannot attract any more fans. Essentially, my productivity from a company standpoint, I’ve done as much as I can – 15 world championships and a myriad of other accomplishments,” he explains. There’s not a lot left I can do, but I still want to be able to put people in the building, so if I can get to a whole new audience, which is why opportunities like Trainwreck, Sisters, [I’ve] even been able to experience some time on Total Divas, and American Grit, [we] are just getting us out to new eyes. Hopefully those new eyes will be like ‘okay, I’ll check him out WWE,’ which means I can swoop back in, back into my full-time gig… so if a few weeks in the woods can get everybody watching American Grit and can get folks watching the WWE, then we made the right choice.”
Also key to John Cena’s brand is knowing how to handle everything that is thrown at him, including perceptions and even some fun fans and radio DJ’s have had with things like the famous John Cena prank call.
“First of all, you don’t take anything personal,” he says.
“I loved the prank call thing, the whole tidal wave of memes that came across… I love that stuff. Seeing weird signs on College Game Day and stuff like that, you never take it personal, and it’s all part of what we do, and what we do is entertain. And if I’m trying to entertain you in one way, but you’re entertained in another way, I can either roll with the punches and keep the tidal wave going, or I can pitch a fit and that’s pretty much where it stops. It takes perspective, and this is why I’m very happy — a bittersweet happy — that I’m away from WWE, because I’ve had a 13-year head start on these guys. I don’t look from the same glass as they do. I see out of a different window. A lot of times, not to be cliche, I don’t even see myself when I look at the perspective. I look at it from a company standpoint, so I’m getting a better knowledge of myself, a knowledge of when to hold back, when to push forward… it is all just a giant guessing game at the end of the day, but the more you know, the better educated your guess could be,” he continues.
As for his role on American Grit? “My role here is to orchestrate story and help these people on this journey. We’ve got a lot of young thoroughbreds that would run circles around me. If they want to step into a WWE ring, I’ll show them a thing or two, but out here, it is a different animal, and I realize I’m out of my element, especially around the unbelievable set of military members that we have. This is a nice change of perspective for me. I just get to sit back and watch it all develop. It’s pretty cool,” Cena says.
You can see John Cena on American Grit tonight at 9PM (ET/PT) on FOX. Take a look at the show’s “Circus” elimination challenge below; you can find more coverage of the show including interviews with members of the cadre here.
