John Cena 'sweet talking' doctors to get back in ring

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John Cena on 'American Grit' and getting back in the ring

Face2Face: John Cena says 'American Grit' is all about military mentors passing their knowledge to civilians

NEW YORK – John Cena wants to be ready to rumble.

“Getting back in the ring is my goal and with surgical timetables, surgeons are very careful of their work and they can only go off of the people who are injured before them," Cena tells FOX411. "I had a rotator cuff reattachment. I had an AC joint reconstruction and I had a giant arterial defect on the bone that goes into the ball in the socket in the shoulder. Basically, the round space was not round, it was cut in half. So all that had to regenerate and grow, but after over 400 hours of physical therapy, I feel pretty darn good."

Which means getting in the ring is a priority.

“The people who said conservatively nine months have now said well maybe I’ll reevaluate myself,” Cena said. “So I’m looking okay. I just got a little bit more sweet talking to do to the doctors so they can give me the green light.”

Luckily Cena didn’t need to be cleared to host his new FOX show “American Grit.” The show features elite level military leaders mentoring teams of civilians through a series of physical challenges. “The goal of the show is for everyone’s life to be changed in a way,” Cena said. “For everyone to see motivation in a new perspective and learn something from some very valuable people to our country’s DNA.”

Cena is no stranger to changing people’s lives. Last summer he granted his 500th wish for Make-a-Wish -- more than any other celebrity.

“That is what I do. If you listen to my boss talk about the mission statement of WWE, it’s to put smiles on people’s faces,” he said. “They file into these arenas. They look at these larger than life characters and they get themselves exhausted by cheering or booing or laughing or crying but they leave ‘wow that was great.’ To be able to do that on a global platform is awesome. To be able to reach a family and a lot of young people going through some interesting challenges and for them to just forget for a day about all the things that attach to those challenges and just hang out with a superstar and be a WWE superstar, it is the best. It is absolutely the best.”

“American Grit” premieres on FOX April 14.