As his final match draws ever closer, John Cena’s Hall of Fame accolades continue to be showcased on WWE programming, as well as in the many media appearances he continues to make along the way. With a record 17 World Championships to his credit, “The Greatest of All Time” could probably rest on that alone as the ultimate highlight of his legendary career. But intangibles are also worth noting, and Cena recently made it known that he’s been able to avoid something many of his contemporaries and predecessors fell victim to over the years, given the slew of injuries that wrestlers often endure.

Appearing on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Cena was asked if he’d ever had a problem with pain medication and his response couldn’t have been more to the contrary. “No,” Cena said. “As a matter of fact, I’ve had fusion in my neck, right pec completely detached [and] reattached, both triceps reattached, both triceps scoped, nose relocated. [I’ve had] ten physical surgeries where they gotta go and correct something. Never taken one pain pill.” Adding that he still has “all the prescriptions” buried in a drawer at his house, filled, Cena noted the prevalence with which medical professionals prescribe pain meds simply seems to be common practice across the board.

“At every facility,” Cena explained, “the first hill they climb is pain management. ‘Do you want something for the pain? Here, you gotta make sure you take this with you cause you’re not in any pain.’ [When] you leave, if you’re feeling okay, maybe you’re high on adrenaline, I don’t know, and then the operation sets in. ‘Holy f***, this is a 10 out of 10, I [need something].’ I get that but I guess from falling down and hurting my body a lot, like, I know my pain threshold.” Passing that along to WWE medical staff, Cena said, they simply couldn’t believe he went the natural route. “They’re like, ‘You don’t want anything?'” he recalled, and pointing to a cup of coffee in his hand, added, “‘No because I know how I am with this.’ I’d be high on opioids all the time.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “The Joe Rogan Experience” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.