“Stone Cold” Steve Austin has distinguished himself through his Steve Austin Show podcast as being one of the best minds in the wrestling business.

After spending several years at the top and continuing to hold the title of being the most successful WWE superstar of all time, his opinion is respected even when it’s not particularly popular.

And on yesterday’s podcast, he said something that is sure to get the Internet wrestling community up in arms.

Basically, don’t blame John Cena for being at the top of the company and for “holding back” other stars.

“He [Seth Rollins] got a hell of a rub working with John Cena, who has been a top guy for 10 years. Coming from a guy who has been on top in the business, what John Cena is doing is having a hellacious career. You’ve got the people who just hate him but you’ve got to understand… Everybody is more than entitled to their opinions but until you’ve at least been in some of those shoes your opinion is what it is, probably an unqualified opinion, but it’s heartfelt so it’s your opinion.”

“Stone Cold” did find that the one drawback to Cena’s career is that he hasn’t had another major superstar to feed off, the way Steve Austin did with The Rock.

“Now, I’m a little dismayed that he hasn’t had a serious threat to come out there and try to knock him off. But again, that’s not on John, that’s on the fact that no one has come close to knocking him off his perch yet.”

While Austin undoubtedly respects and likes John Cena, that may not be an opinion shared by other top performers on the WWE roster. Recently, backstage reports indicated that Cena tried to hold a talent-only meeting to boost morale and squash a brewing silent protest over the creative direction of the company.

Some — the report didn’t name names — feel that Vince McMahon’s days are done and that Triple H needs to be in control of creative, given his stellar work on NXT.

Cena’s meeting urged stars not to follow through on any kind of protest but to continue working hard and showing up every night. Of course, that premise indicates that the company’s top performers aren’t doing enough as it is and absolves creative from responsibility, which may be why Cena is so maligned in the IWC. He’s status quo.