Max Caster recently received quite the compliment when John Cena praised him for his work on the mic and as a performer.
Of course, Cena came to prominence in WWE initially as a character who would come out and freestyle rap about his opponents, much like Caster does today with AEW. That act catapulted Cena up WWE’s card and eventually to the world championship (and even a rap album).
Taking part in a signing with Golden Ring Collectibles, Caster responded to Cena’s comments.
Caster noted Cena was one of his biggest influences to get into wrestling and acknowledge he is paying homage to Cena in part with his character. While Cena said that he didn’t think he could defeat Caster in a rap battle, Caster had a cagey response.
“John has been very, very nice to me and when he didn’t need to,” Caster said. “He reached out and he made that public so I’m allowed to say it now so he reached out and then he said things publicly about me in Forbes and that means a lot to me. So, it’s never been about beating him in a rap battle. It’s about trying to get past the point of people saying I’m a Thuganomics rip-off. Am I to an extent? Maybe. He’s a huge influence on me, one of my favorite wrestlers.
“The guy, I will say in 2004 that got me back into watching wrestling. So, I take that energy and propel it forward and say, maybe there’s people now in 2022, even last year, who fell out of wrestling that they hear there’s this rapping guy on wrestling now and he does these disses and they are hilarious and you watch it and you say, ‘Oh, this is my guy.’ You listen to the mixtapes, songs or diss tracks that I put out, the music videos, you say, ‘Wow, this guy actually has some skill.’”
Caster finished by saying, “So, to me it’s not about beating John at anything. It’s about paying homage, paying respect and elevating what he did and I think, by his own admission, that I’m there, I’m doing it and I hope to continue doing that.”
Caster and his partner, Anthony Bowens, are currently one of the most popular tag team acts in AEW. It’s not hard to envision a tag team championship run for the duo in the not too distant future.
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H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcript.
