"The biggest promoter of the armed forces" - 30-year-old superstar claims that John Cena inspired him to join the army (Exclusive)
Flip Gordon has claimed that John Cena motivated him to join the army. Speaking on Sportskeeda Wrestling's latest edition of UnSKripted, he briefly discussed his story.
According to Gordon, he took note of John Cena's popular movie, The Marine. He also mentioned how the multi-time WWE Champion was the biggest promoter of the armed forces at the time.
Gordon also mentioned how his mother thought he wouldn't be recruited into the army.
"So, funny thing, back to John Cena. Watching WWE, they always did Tribute to the Troops and they would always promote the National Guard, and John Cena, when he went and did The Marine, he was like the biggest promoter of the armed forces. So I used to always see the commercials of the National Guard and I always used to think, 'Man, that'd be cool.' But my mom was always like, 'Oh you could never be in the Army, you have ADHD, you have bipolar, they'd never take you.' And I was like, 'Oh, that stinks, okay,'" said Flip Gordon.
Gordon continued his story by stating how his best friend motivated him to join the army and not give up on it.
"And then few years later, I'm in college and my best friend, we have wrestled through high school together and went to college. He wrestled in college, I went on to become the mascot but we lived together. We came home together one day and he's like, 'So I enlisted in the National Guard.' I was like, 'Wait, what?' He was like, 'Yeah bro, you should do it too.' And I talked to the recruiter, her name at the time was Sgt. Swanson. And she since retired, she's an awesome recruiter by the way, very truthful, answered all my questions," said Flip Gordon. [27:50-29:07]
Watch the latest edition of Sportskeeda Wrestling's UnSKripted:
Flip Gordon described his enlistment after being inspired by John Cena
Flip Gordon further continued his story of getting into the army after being inspired by John Cena.
He mentioned how he started to think more deeply about getting into the army after getting cold feet.
"I started thinking about it more and I was like, 'Man, if I don't do this, this is something I'm going to regret for the rest of my life.' And with the National Guard, I don't know if you know this, they let you do two weeks during the summer and then every one weekend a month. So I can still come back to college after basic training and AIT. I can still be the mascot, I can still do this, I can still do that, and I was like, 'All right, whatever.'"
He continued:
"So I enlisted, ended up getting the same MOS, the same ship date. Me and my friend went to the same basic training together, went to AIT together, and got stationed at our first unit," added Gordon. [29:23-30:08]
In recent years, Gordon has made a name for himself courtesy of his work with NWA and AAA. He has also previously competed in Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling.
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