John Cena reveals broken promise he made early on in his WWE career

John Cena finally turned heel for his last year as an active WWE Superstar. The actor-wrestler will retire at the end of this year, but the fans continue to debate whether Cena should leave as a heel or a babyface. Despite the full-fledged villain run The Cenation Leader is on, the veteran good guy continues to open up to the wrestling world, as he did with personal revelations this weekend.

Big Match John became a 17-time World Champion as a heel at WrestleMania 41, dethroning Cody Rhodes one year after he finished his story. The current version of Cena is the latest on a list of memorable gimmicks, including Ruthless Aggression, The Doctor of Thuganomics, The Marine, and Super Cena, among others. The man behind the gimmicks took fan questions on Saturday at The Philadelphia Fan Expo's "John Cena: Live & Unfiltered" stage show, and revealed several personal tidbits, including a broken promise he made to himself.

Omar from Chicago spoke from the Philly crowd and held up a copy of Cena's "You Can't See Me" album from 2005. The Cena superfan praised the Undisputed WWE Champion for how good the tracks are, adding that it's been too long since we heard anything about Cena's Chain Gang gimmick. The fan, who was wearing The Last Real Champion merchandise, mentioned how he's been looking for the Chain Gang. The veteran responded with thoughts on the gimmick and a few surprising admissions.

"I appreciate you looking for that. It is right next to my official doctorate in Thuganomics, which is stashed in Parts Unknown. What a great... we got 90 seconds, I'll bump the time up to make sure we get a question over here to end it. What a great statement, though, and this is a great piece of philosophy that I'd love to lean into. Something I did was etched in your memory, and it's obvious by the way that you dress, and the album that you hold, it puts you in a period of... reminiscence, but I believe we should never be the person you were yesterday," Cena said. [From 26:36 to 27:10]

John Cena continued:

"You should always be curious, always seek growth. The 48-year-old me would've got my a*s kicked by the 26-year-old me. I promised myself I would never wear a suit, all I do nowadays is wear suits. I didn't know what love was, now I have love, joy, peace in my life. I'm not the person I was at 26, and I'm fine with that. I'm so grateful for that CD you hold, so grateful for people that repped The Chain Gang [motions to chest], I think that's dope. I've just moved forward in my life. I look back on that fondly, I don't regret it, just in a different place. So, you won't see any of that stuff from me going forward. I think." [From 27:11 to 27:45]

WWE Vault recently released a rare John Cena music video that had disappeared from the public archives some time ago. The HD music video for the hip-hop single, which spoofs the 1980s, was released 20 years after the original.

John Cena will compete at WWE Saturday Night's Main Event

John Cena will pass the one-month mark of his Undisputed WWE Championship reign this week. His first title defense came at Backlash last week, where he defeated Randy Orton in his hometown.

Cena's next in-ring match will be at Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIX on May 24 in a place he's very familiar with: Tampa, FL. Cena will lock up with R-Truth. As of writing there is no word on his he will defend his Undisputed WWE Title against Truth.

John Cena is scheduled to appear at the post-SNME edition of SmackDown. The episode will air live on May 30 from Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN, with Randy Orton, LA Knight, Cody Rhodes, Nia Jax, Bianca Belair, and Tiffany Stratton also advertised locally.