John Cena
John Felix Anthony Cena, Jr. (born
April 23,
1977 in
West Newbury, Massachusetts), is an
American professional wrestler,
rap music artist and
actor who currently wrestles on the
RAW brand of
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
Early career
Cena first started training to become a wrestler in 2000 at the
California-based
Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW) where he created the character,
The Prototype. After UPW he was signed to a
World Wrestling Entertainment developmental contract and assigned to "farm territory"
Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). During his time in OVW he also appeared on the
UPN reality show Manhunt under the pseudonym "Big Tim Kingman". On the show he was the "lead hunter" in a team of hunters going after contestant with paint ball guns. The show was made in association with WWE, however it was later revealed that a lot of the scenes of the show were re-shot to enhance the drama, contests were rigged to get rid of contestants and other contestants read from scripts. As a result of the controversy the WWE has never referenced the show or Cena's relation to it.
World Wrestling Entertainment
2002-2003
Cena's first televised WWE match was in answer to an open challenge by
Kurt Angle on
June 27,
2002. Inspired by
Vince McMahon's (
kayfabe) speech to WWE's rising stars, exhorting them to show "ruthless aggression" to earn a place among the legends, Cena took advantage of the opportunity and almost beat Kurt Angle kicking out of the
Angle Slam and enduring the
Ankle Lock submission hold but ultimately lost to a hard amateur-style
pin.
Cena then played the role of a typical underdog
face in each match. After losing with
Billy Kidman in a tournament match for the
WWE Tag Team Championships, Cena
turned heel, blaming Kidman for the loss. Shortly after his heel turn, on a Halloween episode of
SmackDown!, he performed a
freestyle rap for
Stephanie McMahon while wearing a
Vanilla Ice costume and his
gimmick was changed to that of a white
rapper. At first, this gimmick got Cena heel
heat from the fans, but his frequent comical "freestyles" about other wrestlers helped to gain him a following. During his run as a heel, Cena
feuded with the
Undertaker and
Chris Benoit and got some backup from the
Full Blooded Italians. One of Cena's signature symbols during this time was the classic WWF logo (without the "F") along with the slogan "Word Life".
Cena then feuded with
Brock Lesnar for the
WWE Championship. During that feud, he unveiled his signature finishing maneuver, the
F-U, as a counterpart to Lesnar's similar
F-5 (the name being derived from a combination of "F-5" and the shorthand for "
Fuck Yo
u"). Later, when Lesnar turned heel, they briefly joined forces. He also feuded with
Kurt Angle and
Eddie Guerrero before Cena turned face by betraying Lesnar and feuding with him again. Cena established his signature "you can't see me"
catch phrase and hand gesture during this time. In the 2003
Survivor Series match, he was on a team led by Kurt Angle with Benoit,
Bradshaw and
Hardcore Holly against Lesnar,
Big Show,
Nathan Jones,
Matt Morgan and
A-Train. In the end, Cena hit the F-U on Big Show to get the final pin, leaving him and Benoit as the sole survivors. The two superstars ended their feud there, though they would later fight each other during Cena's run for the WWE United States Championship.
2004
During this year Cena's popularity increased. At the start of 2004, John Cena participated in the
2004 Royal Rumble, lasting up to the final 6 before being eliminated by
Big Show. Cena began to feud with
The Big Show, leading to a match at
WrestleMania XX in which Cena won the
United States Championship. Cena claimed the title, his first in WWE, by distracting the ref and using his brass knuckles on Big Slow then hitting him with the F-U. In July he was stripped of the title by
SmackDown! General Manager Kurt Angle, whom he had a contentious relationship with, for "attacking" him.
He won the title back at October's
No Mercy after winning the final match of a Best-of-5 series against
Booker T. His second reign was short-lived, however, as he lost the title to the debuting
Carlito in the very next weeks
SmackDown!.
During the feud with Carlito, it was said that Cena was attacked in a
Boston nightclub by Carlito's
bodyguard,
Jesús, which kept Cena from wrestling for about a month due to a
kidney puncture. In actuality, this event was set up to allow Cena time off to film
The Marine. Upon his return, Cena exacted revenge on Carlito in a
SmackDown! match and won the U.S. title for a third time. During this reign he debuted his custom made
spinner style title belt.
2005
At the
2005 Royal Rumble, Cena and
Batista went over the top rope at the same time to end the match, prompting Vince McMahon to demand the match go into "
sudden death", which Batista won after countering an F-U.
With Batista choosing to vie for the
World Heavyweight Championship at
WrestleMania 21,
SmackDown! held a tournament to determine #1 contendership for the
WWE Championship, which wrapped up with Cena pinning
Kurt Angle to win the
WrestleMania title shot.
In the following weeks, Cena
feuded with champion
John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) and his
Cabinet, including losing his United States Championship to Cabinet member
Orlando Jordan, who (with JBL) proceeded to "blow up" the custom "spinner-style" belt. It was during this feud that Cena first began referring to his fans as "Chain Gang Soldiers" (often shorted to just "Chain Gang").
On
April 3,
2005 at
WrestleMania 21 in
Los Angeles, Cena defeated JBL to win his first WWE Championship. As part of the
storyline, he then had a custom WWE Championship belt made similar to his custom U.S. title belt, featuring a spinner-type WWE logo plate. Meanwhile, JBL took the original belt and claimed he was still the WWE Champion.
Cena successfully defended his title against JBL in a bloody
"I Quit" Match at
Judgment Day in May when he forced JBL to quit by cornering him against a glass pane, and threatening to hit him with a
tractor trailer's exhaust pipe. In the process Cena was able to reclaim the original title belt, though he continued to carry his version.
On the June 6 episode of
WWE RAW, John Cena became the first wrestler drafted in the annual
WWE Draft Lottery, when Eric Bischoff drafted him from
SmackDown! to
RAW. This would begin a trend of fan backlash against Cena. Upon going to
RAW, Cena immediately entered a
program with
Chris Jericho and
Christian, two wrestlers with strong cult followings, which was established when Christian attacked Cena during Jericho's "Highlight Reel" interview segment and then when Jericho
turned on Cena in a tag-team match against Christian and
Tyson Tomko. He went on to defeat Christian and Jericho in a
Triple Threat match at
Vengeance by knocking Jericho out of the ring and pinning Christian.
During this feud Cena made enemies with
RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff with Bischoff vowing to make Cena's stint on
RAW difficult and choosing Chris Jericho to take Cena's title from him. On July 25th Cena and Jericho competed in the first ever
battle of the bands on
RAW with Cena's "Chain Gang" competing against Jericho's
Fozzy. Cena performed but Jericho refused, claiming the audience was biased against him and that Fozzy would not perform until the upcoming
SummerSlam pay-per-view, however the performance never took place as Jericho ended up losing their match. At SummerSlam, chants of both "Let's go, Cena!" and "Let's go, Jericho!" were clearly audible, a sign that the fans were becoming divided over Cena. After this boos began to emerge during Cena's matches and
promos.
Over time, the reactions towards Cena became more and more negative, especially during his feud with Kurt Angle. On August 22, Cena beat Jericho again, this time in a "
You're Fired" match for the WWE Championship - despite the General Manager giving Cena a low-blow and handing a pair of
brass knuckles to Jericho. After the match, Kurt Angle came to the ring and attacked Cena, with Bischoff revealing that Angle was the new number one contender for Cena's world title. Despite Angle's best attempts to attain
heel heat, the fans continued to cheer him and boo Cena.
After several weeks of feuding, both men faced off in the main event of
Unforgiven, where Cena lost to Angle by disqualification after hitting him with the WWE title belt, meaning Cena would still be champion. They met again at the
2005 Survivor Series, with Cena picking up the win this time.
When
Vince McMahon returned to
RAW to put Bischoff on trial in December Cena made his opinion of Bischoff known and eventually helped Vince McMahon remove Bischoff from the show by delivering the F-U to the former
RAW GM, effectively ending the hostilities he had with Bischoff.
2006
On January 8, 2006, at
New Years Revolution, Cena successfully defended his WWE Championship in an
Elimination Chamber match against
Kane, Kurt Angle, Carlito,
Chris Masters and Shawn Michaels, much to the displeasure of some of the fans in attendance. However, after the match, Vince McMahon announced that Cena was going to have to defend the WWE Championship again, this time against
Edge, who was cashing in his previously earned
Money in the Bank title shot. Edge delivered two spears to a tired Cena, pinning him in short order to win the WWE Championship. Cena's championship reign ended at
280 days, matching that of previous champion
JBL.
Three weeks, to the day, after losing the title Cena defeated Edge at the
Royal Rumble to regain the
WWE Championship. During this time WWE announcers, most notably
Jim Ross, were forced to acknowledge the
negative reactions Cena was getting and began to refer to him as a "controversial champion" (this title would also be applied to Edge by
Gene Okerlund at the
WrestleMania 23 Fan Rally) saying that he was alienating some fans with his "unorthodox style".
Jerry Lawler would often suggest that Cena was too young, edgy and original for the older audience to appreciate. Cena continued to polarize the crowd leading up to
WrestleMania 22, during which he was jeered during his main event match with
Triple H. Despite Triple H's best attempts to get heat, the crowd continued to favor him over Cena. Both Cena and
Vince McMahon were reported as being upset by fans' negativity, though Cena stated that the fans obviously had a choice in deciding whom they wanted to root for. Cena went on to retain the WWE title at
WrestleMania joining
Hulk Hogan, Triple H,
Diesel, Eddie Guerrero, and
Yokozuna as the only people to retain a WWE World Championship at a
WrestleMania. (Yokozuna retained against
Lex Luger at
WrestleMania X, but lost the title to
Bret Hart in the main event of the show.)
The crowd began to cheer Cena once again after
Backlash, most notably when he began to side with the popular
Shawn Michaels in matches against the
Spirit Squad. After Cena stopped taking part in this
angle and moved on to working against Rob Van Dam there was once again a notable mixture of cheers and boos in most every arena visited, with some being more pro-Cena and some against him.
On the May 22, 2006 edition of
RAW,
Rob Van Dam informed Cena that he intended to cash in the
Money in the Bank title match contract he won at
WrestleMania at the upcoming Extreme Championship Wrestling
One Night Stand pay-per-view event. The event saw Cena get his most negative reaction from the pro-ECW crowd, including profanity-laced chants and anti-Cena signs. Cena lost the title at the event when
Edge appeared from under the ring and
speared Cena through a table, setting him up for Van Dam's
Five Star Frog Splash. With two referees "knocked out" (the first by Cena, the second by Edge)
Paul Heyman ran down the entrance aisle and counted the
three count giving Van Dam the win and the title. On the next nights
RAW Paul Heyman announced that the title change was official, as the match was under "Extreme rules".
*
Finishing and signature moves:*
F-U (
Standing fireman's carry takeover or
fireman's carry powerslam):*
STF-U (
Stepover toehold sleeper)
Five Knuckle Shuffle (
Fist drop with theatrics)
Throwback (
Running necksnap)
Freestyle / Protoplex (
Swinging fisherman suplex)
Protobomb / Killswitch (
Spin-out powerbomb):*
Flying shoulder block:*
Repeating clotheslines:*
Fisherman suplex:*
Belly to belly side slam:*
Sitout hiptoss:*
Spinebuster*
Signature illegal weapons:*
Steel chain:*
Brass knuckles*
Signature taunts:*Waving his hand in front of his face, horizontally, to signalize to whoever he's doing it in front of that "You can't see me!":*Pumping up his
Reebok Pump sneakers.
*Putting his hands up while spreading them and putting his thumb sideways and his pinky up, meaning "Word Life".:*Occasionally "
freestyling" on his opponents before his matches. (more common when he was a heel):*Saluting the audience.
*
Manager(s):*
Kenny Bolin*
Five Questions:WWE.com & Cena film a streamed segment called "Five Questions" every week. Five questions sent in by fans via e-mail are picked at random and answered by Cena. During the segment, which is run by
The Brooklyn Brawler, Cena shows both his serious and humorous sides.
*
Ohio Valley Wrestling:*
OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (with
Rico Constantino)::Awarded title on
August 15,
2001 in
Jeffersonville, Indiana,
USA.::Lost to
Shelton Benjamin and
Brock Lesnar on
October 29, 2001 in
Jeffersonville, Indiana, USA.
*
OVW Heavyweight Championship::Defeated
Leviathan on
February 20,
2002 in
Jeffersonville, Indiana, USA.::Lost to
Nova on
May 15, 2002 in
Jeffersonville, Indiana, USA.
*
Ultimate Pro Wrestling:*
UPW Heavyweight Championship::Defeated
Smelly on
April 27,
2000 in
San Diego, California, USA.::Lost to Smelly on
May 24, 2000 in
Santa Ana, California, USA.
*
World Wrestling Entertainment:*
WWE United States Championship::Defeated
Big Show on
March 14,
2004 in
New York City, New York, USA.::Stripped of title on
July 6, 2004:*WWE United States Championship (2)::Defeated
Booker T on
October 3, 2004 in
East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA.::Lost to
Carlito on
October 5, 2004 in
Boston, Massachusetts, USA.:*WWE United States Championship (3)::Defeated Carlito on
November 16, 2004 in
Dayton, Ohio, USA.::Lost to
Orlando Jordan on
March 1,
2005 in
Albany, New York, USA.:*
WWE Championship::Defeated
John "Bradshaw" Layfield on
April 3, 2005 in
Los Angeles, California, USA.::Lost to
Edge on
January 8,
2006 in
Albany, New York, USA.:*WWE Championship (2)::Defeated
Edge on
January 29, 2006 in
Miami, Florida, USA.::Lost to
Rob Van Dam on
June 11, 2006 in
New York City, New York, USA.
*
Pro Wrestling Illustrated:*
2003 PWI Most Improved Wrestler of the YearMusic
In addition to his time in the ring, Cena is a rap music artist. He performed his fifth WWE entrance song, "Basic Thugonomics," which was featured on the WWE soundtrack album
WWE Originals. His track "Untouchables" was featured on
Theme Addict, another WWE soundtrack album. His debut album, which he recorded alongside his cousin
Tha Trademarc,
You Can't See Me features his current entrance theme "My Time is Now". The first single from the
You Can't See Me album was "Bad, Bad Man", a
music video of which featured a parody of 1980s culture and the television show
The A-Team. A second video was later made for the second single, "Right Now", and premiered on the August 8 edition of
RAW.
John Cena has worked with several personalities in the Hip-Hop industry, such as Freddie Foxx (Bumpy Knuckles), 7L, Esoteric, Murs (including a music video), E-40 and Chingo Bling. He and Method Man were also featured in
SmackDown! magazine and MTV.com. Most recently, Cena and Tha Trademarc are featured on a track by The Perceptionists, "Champion Scratch." Cena has also performed on
BBC Two's long running
Top of the Pops, becoming the first professional wrestler to do so.
Film
WWE Films, a division of World Wrestling Entertainment which produces and finances motion pictures, produced Cena's first movie -
The Marine. In
The Marine Cena plays John Triton, a discharged marine whose wife gets kidnapped, on a mission to retreive her.
The Marine was directed by
John Bonito, and stars Cena in the main role along with co-stars
Robert Patrick and
Kelly Carlson. WWE films has completed a deal with
20th Century Fox to distribute
The Marine theatrically on October 13, 2006.
Fashion
Cena's attire in and out of the ring reflects the old school
hip-hop culture that his
character represents. He previously wore
throwback jerseys, though now he generally wears WWE produced "Chain Gang" related merchandise. He has also worn a chain with a
lock on it to the ring which was at times utilized as a weapon. This chain has now been replaced by an enormous, chromed and diamond studded "Chain Gang" spinner medallion which is very reminiscent of the ones worn by members of
G-Unit.
When Cena was part of the
SmackDown! brand, his apparel bearing the suggestive
spoonerism "
Ruck
Fules" was censored when he wore it on camera. They were not censored by
UPN, but by WWE to sell more shirts under the premise that it was "too hot for TV."
Guest appearances
Prior to his WWE debut, Cena made a guest appearance on the
Internet stream show
Go Sick in 2001 as Bruebaker, an angry, cursing wrestler.
During his WWE career, Cena has appeared on
Jimmy Kimmel Live numerous times.
*He first appeared on the July 23, 2005 episode in order to promote his CD,
SummerSlam 2005, and WWE in general.
*He appeared again on March 14, 2006 to promote
Saturday Night's Main Event and
WrestleMania 22.
Other appearances have included
Late Night with Conan O'Brien,
Fuse's Daily Download,
Fox Sports Net's
Best Damn Sports Show Period and
G4's
Training Camp (with Shelton Benjamin) and a stint as a guest judge on
Nashville Star. He's also served as a co-presenter, with
Hulk Hogan, at the 2005
Teen Choice Awards. He also appeared on an episode of
Hogan Knows Best with Big Show.
Cena was inspired to get into professional wrestling by
Hulk Hogan,
Stone Cold &
The Rock[
1]. Cena's father, John Cena Sr., works in the pro wrestling business as
New England independent wrestling announcer and manager
Johnny Fabulous. He is second eldest of five brothers. His brothers are Dan, Matt, Steve and Sean. [
2].
Cena is known to be a fan of cartoons and has mentioned on
"5 Questions" that his favorite animated movie was
Fist of the North Star.
*
*
WWE Profile*
John Cena at Obsessed With Wrestling*
Cena on the Internet Movie Database*
Cena Unleashed (Fansite)
