On Saturday, April 1, John Cena and Austin Theory kicked off WrestleMania 39 in a match for the WWE United States Championship. And while the two didn’t have much time to work together, largely due to the former’s hectic Hollywood schedule, the “Peacemaker” star had positive things to say about his experience. Making a recent appearance on the “Notsam Wrestling” podcast, Cena expanded on that before turning his focus back to Theory.

“Austin is great and easy to work with,” he told Sam Roberts. “We wrote that together. He was in every step of the process.”

Part of that process included Cena’s return to “WWE Raw” on March 6, where he torched Theory during his only promo leading to the match. During it, he cited fake crowd noise WWE piped in to make it seem like people cared. However, the 16-time World Champion didn’t say those things just to prove a point or make things difficult for Theory. He said them in an effort to make people care. “I respect everyone’s process,” Cena continued. “But I do know from all my experience if you do not have something they care about, you do not have something.”

Later on, Cena turned his attention back to his WrestleMania 39 opponent as well as the WWE audience. That’s what made his words to Theory on “Raw” so important. He believed them, and he needed his opponent to believe them as well. “Fans can see through the BS if you don’t believe in your character,” he added. “It’s what I said to Austin Theory…I don’t believe what you do when you’re out there. I don’t. I said it to him personally before I said it publicly.”

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Notsam Wrestling” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.