Joe Hendry vows to earn John Cena match after viral Royal Rumble debut: 'It's on my shoulders'

TNA World Heavyweight Champion Joe Hendry received one of the loudest ovations of the night with his surprise entry at No. 15 in the 2025 WWE Royal Rumble this past Saturday in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The Royal Rumble match was just the first of many big forthcoming stepping stones in Hendry's career. Still relatively new as the TNA World Champion, Hendry wasted no time manifesting what he wants to accomplish next. Considering the new partnership between TNA and WWE, the 36-year-old social media sensation is fully confident he'll land a match in 2025 with all-time WWE great John Cena.

"When you get that information [about being in the Rumble], what you then need to think about is, you're going, 'OK, how can I maximize this opportunity?'" Hendry said Monday during an in-studio appearance on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show." "When you're the champion of a company, you're not just thinking about yourself. You're thinking about, 'How can I elevate the company? How can I elevate the championship?' You have those considerations. 'How can I make the biggest impact? How can I do something that will open up doors for future business?' And actually, I just couldn't help myself. As soon as I won this championship, I did an interview the next day and just started calling out John Cena.

"The same way that I believed that I would be in the Rumble, I'm happy to say it — I, hand on heart, believe that I will wrestle John Cena this year; 100%, there's not any doubt. I had the opportunity to tell John Cena that as well. We had a long conversation. It was awesome. He's the greatest."

The legendary Cena is completing his retirement tour in 2025. Cena's first match of 2025 was the iconic "Royal Rumble," in which he entered at No. 23.

Unfortunately for Hendry, he and Cena didn't see their time in the match overlap as Roman Reigns eliminated Hendry just before Cena entered — a big moment for the TNA star in its own right. Cena went on to make it down to the final two before he was eliminated by the surprise match winner, Jey Uso.

Despite that, the Scot had plenty to take away from their conversation backstage.

"What he did say was that fortune favors the bold," Hendry said of his Cena chat. "What he made clear is that if I want that match to happen, it's on my shoulders. I gotta make it happen. I gotta generate the interest to make it happen. It was almost like a challenge, you know?

"Aside from that, he gave me some great advice. And with all the chaos of the Rumble going on, John Cena sat down with me, and we had a long, meaningful conversation where he could have used that time to think about what he was doing. He instead invested the time to talk to me. So I think he sees something in me, but I have to prove myself now. I have to put myself in a position where me versus John Cena is one of the most compelling matchups in professional wrestling."

Hendry has done a phenomenal job generating buzz and gaining popularity with his given platforms. As the doors between TNA and WWE nudge more open than ever, Hendry knows the opportunity to turn his Cena goal into a reality is sitting out there for him, just waiting for him to take advantage.

"I have to be bold. Specifically with John Cena, this is his last year," Hendry said. "If I'm not bold, I'm not getting anywhere near that match. So I have to be bold, and maybe I will make mistakes, but I have to do what I have to do to get that match.

"To me, he's the greatest of all time because he led the business for such a long period of time. He did such tremendous things leading the business. I hope that he is successful, but I don't know what John's path is going to be [in 2025]. Could you imagine if he was to challenge for the TNA World Championship in TNA? We have a huge show in July here in New York for Slammiversary. Could you imagine? It would be just like when he went into ECW to face Rob Van Dam."

Previous fellow TNA wrestlers laid the foundation for Hendry's Royal Rumble debut. In 2024's Women's Royal Rumble, then-TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace essentially occupied the same role as Hendry did on Saturday. Grace also appeared in 2025's match and is now part of the WWE roster.

Hendry recalled manifesting his moment after watching Grace do her thing in 2024.

"Mark my words," he told himself, "I'll be in the 2025 match."

Ultimately, his wish came true — and he played his cards right enough to ensure that.

"I was amazed that it didn't leak, because weeks ago I made the decision that I was just going to put myself in Indianapolis, like to make it easy," Hendry said. "I remember Chris Jericho asked me, 'Do you want to do the cruise [event]?' And originally I was like, 'Chris, I'm sorry. This is going to sound crazy, but I need to keep that Royal Rumble date free. I know this is crazy, but I think it's going to happen.' And he was like, 'Alright, man.' Then he said, 'Look, maybe you could join the cruise later,' but we booked a bunch of stuff in Indianapolis, so I was there.

"I got to the back [of the arena for the Rumble] and there was a moment where I just remember having a conversation with CM Punk and Cody Rhodes, and I was just saying, 'If you guys were me, how would you approach this?' And just getting great advice. And I have to tell you, I don't know if they'd want me to say this, but The Miz — he is awesome. And these guys, they go out of their way to help you succeed. And as many people have at TNA, I've been very fortunate in the business that there's been a lot of people who have helped me get to where I'm getting to and have had a lot of great advice [for me].

"I really do believe it takes an army of people to help someone like myself get better and get to this point," he continued. "But yeah, it was an awesome experience. I got great advice and I just felt welcome. I also felt this confidence that, this is a great opportunity for me to show that I can get a top-level reaction in an arena with 70,000 people. So it was very reassuring when that did happen, because you do have that thing where you wonder, 'Well, how many people do know who I am?' You just don't know."

The Royal Rumble is always one of wrestling's most fun events of the year. Aside from Hendry's entrance, he made the most of his time in the ring, creating one of the more viral moments from Saturday night.

As Hendry went to work on his fellow wrestlers, Ireland's Sheamus stood in the corner watching the TNA champ. Sheamus soon started to smile and applaud Hendry as a nod to the Scot's gimmick.

Hendry revealed that it was an organic moment and one he wasn't even sure how to handle.

Obviously, considering the reception the clip has gotten, he made the right call and now believes a seed could be planted for some matches with Sheamus or others he got to wrestle with on Saturday.

"I'm getting ready to do my thing, and there's Sheamus standing in the corner, and this is something that people have really kind of gravitated toward," Hendry said. "Genuinely, in that moment, I was like, 'I don't know what to do.' Because I want to do all this stuff, but Sheamus is looking at me, so do I attack him? Then, if I attack him, I'm going to have to keep going over at him. So I thought maybe he just wants to see what's happening, so I'll just let him observe. And the fans really kind of latched onto it. So I think, actually, to be honest, I think the fans would also be interested in maybe even seeing Sheamus come over to TNA and maybe challenging me for the TNA World Championship, or The Miz, for that matter.

"I think that me and The Miz would have a fantastic program. Obviously, the partnership being with NXT, maybe Ethan Page comes over to TNA wrestling and challenges me. There's so many possibilities, and here's the cool thing about it — I know nothing. I knew nothing until I found out about the Rumble. I'm just throwing some interesting things out there in the hope that they might happen."