John Cena is no stranger to life in the fast lane. An admitted automobile fanatic, the Raw Superstar got behind the wheel of a NASCAR racecar last summer during ABC’s Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race. Now, Cena’s showing a few of NASCAR Sprint Cup’s hottest drivers a thing or two about getting in the WWE ring in Gillette’s latest Young Guns commercial.
“The commercial is pretty interesting; it’s kind of me trying to reverse the roles of the NASCAR drivers,” Cena told WWE.com. “I don’t want to say that they took advantage of me on the track, but they had some fun with all of us. So to kind of get them back I got them all in the wrestling ring … and I’m going to show them how it’s done.”
Cena’s in for a little surprise when he gets in the ring with Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer. The Gillette Young Guns have been brushing up on their wrestling skills, much to Cena’s surprise.
“These guys go around the track at 200 miles per hour with the most adrenaline you could possibly have. They slid underneath the ropes and everyone got a smile on their face and everyone was trying on moves, like the dropkicks, and the back-breaker, and the camel clutch …” Cena explained. “These guys loved every single second of it. So you can see the intensity and the joy in the faces of drivers who have never really been that intimate with wrestling, it’s something really nice for them.”
Cena’s Celebrity Race partner, 2007 Busch Series Champion and driver of the No. 99 Office Depot Ford, Carl Edwards, was pumped to get in the ring with the Raw Superstar.
“The greatest part is I actually get to be in the ring with Cena. I got to do a back breaker on him, which I have to say with my size and stature, this is the only way I’ll get to do this, so I’ve had a blast,” Edwards told WWE.com.
Edwards and Cena became close friends while shooting Celebrity Race, and the Young Gun said he wants to get Cena some seat time in a dirt late model racecar.
“I’m trying to get him some laps on a dirt track because I think he’d love it. I mean, he’s a great guy. Man, he’s a racer at heart,” Edwards said.
“You know, he ended up wrestling, but he could’ve just as well been a race car driver. He’s got the fire. I mean he loves racing, you know, loud cars, chain saws … all around he’s just a wild man. It was fun hanging out with him,” Edwards said.
Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 9 Budweiser Dodge, told WWE.com he and the other Young Guns had a blast getting in the WWE ring.
“I basically took him down at the end of a Camel Clutch, so it was fun. He’s a lot bigger than I am so it felt good to kind of take him down pretty good,” Kahne smiled.
Kurt Busch, the driver of the No. 5 Miller Lite Dodge, said teaming a WWE Superstar with NASCAR’s Young Guns produces a winning advertising campaign for Gillette.
“It’s a perfect cross-promotion. I mean, it’s always great when we go to other sports and tie into that fan base, and so wrestlers are going to watch this and see what NASCAR is all about, and of course check out the Gillette Young Guns Web site,” Busch told WWE.com. “So hopefully it goes back and forth and you get a bunch of NASCAR people who go over and check out WWE.”
Michelle Potorski, associate marketing director for Gillette male blade razors for North America, described Cena as a champion both in and out of the ring.
“His personality is very much aligned with Gillette and the brand equity that we hold so precious. He really is larger than life and I think he just brings this dynamism to the experience that really is amazing,” she told WWE.com.
Potorski said she wouldn’t be surprised if race fans get to see more of Cena in the future.
“I do see a future relationship with John Cena and Gillette, and the affiliation with John, and then linking it back to NASCAR again. I just think it’s a very interesting dynamic that we would really like to bring to the next level,” she said.
One of the newest Young Guns, Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Toyota, said he’s confident Gillette’s latest commercial will be a hit among both NASCAR and WWE fans.
“I’ve already seen kind of how it’s going to turn out, it really looks like it’s going to be really, really funny,” Hamlin said. “You know, it kind of has that twist in it where it seems like John’s going to be teaching us, but we’re going to teach him a thing or two.”
To see the Young Guns get the last laugh on Cena, tune into Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup Daytona 500. Coverage begins Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on Fox. For more on the Gillette Young Guns or to watch the commercial now, visit the official Web site.
