Jonathan Coachman gives a legendary John Cena story.
John Cena is touted as the GOAT by WWE given his title reigns and overall importance to the history of the company. Cena is a 16-time WWE/World Heavyweight Champion, and Jonathan Coachman had a front row seat for the majority of Cena's career.
Appearing on The Angle podcast, Coachman was asked about Cena winding down his career.
"I don’t want this to come off as disrespectful, because at some point I’m going to run into Ric Flair again and he takes this stuff very personally. At the end of the day, I could be a seventeen-time world champion if they so chose to give it to me. So to me, that record means nothing. The kind of person he is, the way he went about it, the way he trained every single day in the gym. We had a trip overseas, it was ten shows in ten days. Ric Flair talked him into drinking alcohol, because that world champs have got to do. He literally drank every single night, closed the bar down, paid the bar tab. I asked him on day nine how much he spent, he said $35,000. I said, ‘Dollars?’ He said, ‘Pounds.’ It’s two to one, so it was $70,000 he spent on alcohol just because he’s the world champion. Now, don’t feel sorry for him, he was making 50 to 100 grand every night in the main event. But the last night, Dean Malkeno walks up to him, beer in hand, whispers something in his ear. He puts the beer down, heads straight for the elevator, says nothing to nobody and disappears. Dean Malkeno had just told him, ‘Tomorrow night, you’re going sixty minutes with Shawn Michaels on Monday Night Raw.’ Out of respect for the effort of what he was doing, I stood at the gorilla position for him to walk back down. He walked towards me, you could smell the alcohol coming out his pours, but he gave sixty minutes absolute banger. So, I really don’t care if he gets to 17. If it means something to him, then I do care. If that’s a record or number he wants, awesome," said Coachman.
Michaels and Cena went nearly an hour on the April 23, 2007 episode of WWE Raw.
Coachman continued:
“He’s doing what everyone should do. I was ringside for Ric Flair’s retirement against Shawn Michaels. One of the great lines of all time, I’m sorry, I love you. That should’ve been the end, but then he had another one and another one. It’s very hard for people to leave the business. I’ll go back two or three times, but I’m not Ric Flair or John Cena. I think John Cena realizes that his body is beat up and that you can only look that good for so long and you don’t wanna go out there and have wrinkles on the muscles when you were in that kind of shape for twenty years. So, I think his movie career is good enough, his voiceover career is good enough, I think he’s in a new relationship or fairly new. I just think he’s ready to move on.”
Asked if WWE would give Cena a 17th title reign, Coachman replied:
"Will they give it to him? I doubt it because it just wouldn’t make a lot of sense to me with all of these other top talents that are vying for that position right now"
Cena has said that he hopes to return to WWE for one last run after Christmas.
Outside of story, it's an indicator that the booker trusts in you deeply and believes you're the best person to be the face of the company for at least that moment in time. Outside of that not really, wrestling is as you said, scripted.
That is quite literally how pro wrestling has worked since the old carnival days with any company in the world, so yes lol. Doesn't always work however (i.e. WWE trying to push Roman Reigns as a much bigger deal than he was for years, and the audience not having any of it and refusing to cheer for the man.) If the fan's don't care about ya, ya can't force em to.