"If I could meet anybody" - AEW star grew up idolizing The Rock and John Cena
The Rock and John Cena are two of the biggest wrestling superstars of their respective generations. In a recent interview, AEW star Griff Garrison recalled idolizing Cena and Dwayne Johnson.
Griff Garrison is currently in a tag team with Brian Pillman Jr., and the duo are known as The Varsity Blonds. They have been involved in a heated feud with Malakai Black's faction, The House of Black.
Garrison recently appeared in an interview with Chris Van Vliet, where the star recalled seeing Cena's first match. He noted that the memory stuck with him moving forward.
"I was the average kid that loved John Cena, I was like 8-years-old and I was like ‘I want to be that guy!’ My first ever match that I remember watching on TV was his debut against Kurt Angle. That’s the first-ever match that I remember, and he stuck with me," the star noted. (29:25)
🏻17 years ago @JohnCena made his WWE debut.
He’ll be talking about in our My First Match feature very soon! 👊🏻
https://t.co/CoerEWBEZl
Garrison continued to note that he'd love to meet both John Cena and The Rock at some point.
"I remember watching him and I was like ‘Yep, that’s who I want to be!’ If I could meet anybody, it would be him [Cena] and Dwayne Johnson. [The Rock] is so big, dude." (29:39)
While it's unlikely that the two wrestler-turned-Hollywood stars will ever make their way into AEW, the current generation of wrestlers are undoubtedly their fans.
Need to catch up on AEW Dynamite results? Check them out via this link.
AEW's Jim Ross recently recalled how Vince McMahon became a fan of The Rock
Before he was an AEW commentator, Jim Ross was better known as the voice of WWE's Attitude Era, as he announced matches alongside Jerry Lawler. In a recent episode of his podcast, Grillin' with JR, the legend recalled how Vince McMahon became a fan of The Rock.
"In time Vince became a huge Rock supporter. If you're around him you can feel his enthusiasm and he also had a background being in the family business that he understood things that a lot of guys took time to assimilate. So it didn't take long for Vince to become a Rock fan," JR noted. (H/T: Sportskeeda)
#OnThisDayInWWE 20 years ago, @TheRock returned to the WWF - and had a decision: help Vince McMahon or join the Alliance?
The crowd was electric when he answered!
@bfg728 @StephMcMahon @shanemcmahon https://t.co/WfuLr9qiHo
The Rock wrestled his final match at WrestleMania 32, where he defeated Eric Rowan in six seconds. It will be interesting to see if The Great One makes his return to the squared circle anytime soon.
Please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet or Grillin' with JR and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.