John Felix Anthony Cena[7] (/ˈsiːnə/; born April 23, 1977) is an American professional wrestler, rapper, actor, and reality television show host. He is signed to WWE, where he is currently on hiatus as a free agent and not part of the Raw or SmackDown brand. Cena started his professional wrestling career in 1999 with Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW) and won the UPW Heavyweight Championship the following year.[8] Cena signed a developmental contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment, or simply WWE) in 2001, debuting on the WWE main roster in 2002.
From a generic character in 2002, Cena morphed into a rapper for the time period of 2002–2004, which earned him fame within the audience on SmackDown!.[9][10] Cena later transitioned to his current character, which he describes as a "goody-two shoes Superman".[11] However, Cena has been labeled as the "most polarizing professional wrestler ever" as his character has many supporters and many detractors, according to Jim Ross of Fox Sports, who also noted that Cena has been WWE's franchise player for a long-time.[12] In 2012, IGN described Cena as WWE's franchise player since 2005[13] and WWE credited Cena as being the "face of WWE" in 2015 since 2004.[14] Industry veterans John Layfield, Paul Heyman,[15] and Kurt Angle[16] have called Cena the greatest WWE star of all time.
Throughout his WWE career, Cena has won 25 championships, with 16 reigns as a world champion (13 times as WWE Champion[17] and three times as WWE's World Heavyweight Champion[18][19]), an accomplishment only previously achieved by WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair. He is also a five-time United States Champion, and four-time world tag team champion (two World Tag Team and two WWE Tag Team). Furthermore, he is a Money in the Bank ladder match winner (2012), a two-time Royal Rumble winner (2008, 2013), and a three-time Superstar of the Year Slammy Award winner (2009, 2010, 2012). Cena has the fourth-highest number of combined days as WWE Champion, behind Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, and Hulk Hogan. He has also headlined WWE's flagship event, WrestleMania, on five different occasions (WrestleManias 22, 23, XXVII, XXVIII, and 29) over the course of his career, as well as many others pay-per-view events. As of 2016, John Cena is WWE's highest-paid wrestler.[20]
Outside of wrestling, Cena has released the rap album You Can't See Me, which debuted at No. 15 on the US Billboard 200 chart, and starred in the feature films The Marine (2006), 12 Rounds (2009), Legendary (2010), The Reunion (2011), Trainwreck (2015), and Sisters (2015).[21] Cena has also made appearances on television shows including Manhunt, Deal or No Deal, MADtv, Saturday Night Live, Punk'd, Psych, and Parks and Recreation. He was also a contestant on Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, where he made it to the final round before being eliminated, placing third in the overall competition. Cena is also the host of American Grit on Fox.[22] Cena is involved in numerous philanthropic causes; most notably with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He has granted the most wishes in Make-A-Wish history
On October 10, 2000, while billed as The Prototype, Cena made his unofficial debut for the then World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on a SmackDown! taping in a dark match against Mikey Richardson, which he lost.[42] He received another tryout on January 9, 2001 at a SmackDown! taping in Oakland, California, this time defeating Aaron Aguilera. Cena wrestled again in a dark match at a SmackDown! taping on March 13.
In 2001, Cena signed a developmental contract with the WWF and was assigned to its developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW).[43] During his time there, Cena wrestled under the ring name The Prototype and held the OVW Heavyweight Championship for three months and the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (with Rico Constantino) for two months.[44][45][46] Throughout 2001, Cena would receive four tryouts for the WWF main roster, as he wrestled multiple enhancement talent wrestlers on both WWF house shows and in dark matches before WWF television events. Through the early months of 2002, Cena constantly found himself competing on house shows for the WWF, where he wrestled against the likes of Shelton Benjamin and Tommy Dreamer.
After his main roster call up in June 2002, Cena would continue to appear on OVW programming until the September 25 taping of OVW, where he lost to Kenny Brolin in a Loser Leaves OVW match. Cena would appear in a one off appearance for the developmental farm in November under the ring name Mr. P in a six-man tag team match, where he teamed with future WWE Hall of Famer Big Boss Man and Charlie Haas in a winning effort against Lance Cade, Trevor Murdoch and Sean O'Haire.
On the June 24 episode of Raw, Mr McMahon ordered the entire roster to the ring and declared that he needed them to all find some ruthless aggression from within themselves and that he was looking for one of them to stand out from the rest of the pack.[47] Cena made his WWE television debut on the June 27, 2002 episode of SmackDown! by answering an open challenge by Kurt Angle. After declaring that he possessed "ruthless aggression", Cena lost by a pinning combination.[48] After the match, Cena was congratulated by Billy Kidman, Faarooq, Rikishi, and The Undertaker.[49] Following the near-win, Cena became a fan favorite and started feuding with Chris Jericho, defeating Jericho at Vengeance.[48] Then, Cena feuded with Los Guerreros (Chavo and Eddie Guerrero) and Cena picked up a victory over Chavo Guerrero on the September 3, 2002 taping of Velocity.[citation needed] On the September 10 episode of SmackDown!, Cena teamed with Edge in a losing effort against Los Guerreros, thus ending the feud in the process.[citation needed] Cena went on to defeat the likes of Albert and D-Von Dudley as he was restricted to appearances on Velocity for the rest of September.[citation needed]
In October 2002, Cena and Billy Kidman took part in a tag team tournament to crown the first WWE Tag Team Champions of the SmackDown! brand, losing in the first round.[50] The next week on SmackDown!, Cena turned on and attacked Kidman, blaming him for their loss, becoming a villain for the first and only time in his career.[48] On the October 17 episode of SmackDown!, Cena defeated Kidman in a singles contest,[51] but was defeated by Kidman in a rematch on the October 24 episode of SmackDown!.[52] Shortly after the Kidman attack on a Halloween themed episode of SmackDown!, Cena dressed as Vanilla Ice performing a freestyle rap.[48] The following week on SmackDown!, Cena received a new character: a rapper who cut promos while rhyming.[48] As the gimmick grew, Cena began adopting a variant of the 1980s WWF logo – dropping the "F" – as his "signature symbol", along with the slogan "Word Life".[53] At Rebellion, Cena would team with Dawn Marie in a losing effort against Kidman and Torrie Wilson in a mixed tag team match.[
From a generic character in 2002, Cena morphed into a rapper for the time period of 2002–2004, which earned him fame within the audience on SmackDown!.[9][10] Cena later transitioned to his current character, which he describes as a "goody-two shoes Superman".[11] However, Cena has been labeled as the "most polarizing professional wrestler ever" as his character has many supporters and many detractors, according to Jim Ross of Fox Sports, who also noted that Cena has been WWE's franchise player for a long-time.[12] In 2012, IGN described Cena as WWE's franchise player since 2005[13] and WWE credited Cena as being the "face of WWE" in 2015 since 2004.[14] Industry veterans John Layfield, Paul Heyman,[15] and Kurt Angle[16] have called Cena the greatest WWE star of all time.
Throughout his WWE career, Cena has won 25 championships, with 16 reigns as a world champion (13 times as WWE Champion[17] and three times as WWE's World Heavyweight Champion[18][19]), an accomplishment only previously achieved by WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair. He is also a five-time United States Champion, and four-time world tag team champion (two World Tag Team and two WWE Tag Team). Furthermore, he is a Money in the Bank ladder match winner (2012), a two-time Royal Rumble winner (2008, 2013), and a three-time Superstar of the Year Slammy Award winner (2009, 2010, 2012). Cena has the fourth-highest number of combined days as WWE Champion, behind Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, and Hulk Hogan. He has also headlined WWE's flagship event, WrestleMania, on five different occasions (WrestleManias 22, 23, XXVII, XXVIII, and 29) over the course of his career, as well as many others pay-per-view events. As of 2016, John Cena is WWE's highest-paid wrestler.[20]
Outside of wrestling, Cena has released the rap album You Can't See Me, which debuted at No. 15 on the US Billboard 200 chart, and starred in the feature films The Marine (2006), 12 Rounds (2009), Legendary (2010), The Reunion (2011), Trainwreck (2015), and Sisters (2015).[21] Cena has also made appearances on television shows including Manhunt, Deal or No Deal, MADtv, Saturday Night Live, Punk'd, Psych, and Parks and Recreation. He was also a contestant on Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, where he made it to the final round before being eliminated, placing third in the overall competition. Cena is also the host of American Grit on Fox.[22] Cena is involved in numerous philanthropic causes; most notably with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He has granted the most wishes in Make-A-Wish history
On October 10, 2000, while billed as The Prototype, Cena made his unofficial debut for the then World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on a SmackDown! taping in a dark match against Mikey Richardson, which he lost.[42] He received another tryout on January 9, 2001 at a SmackDown! taping in Oakland, California, this time defeating Aaron Aguilera. Cena wrestled again in a dark match at a SmackDown! taping on March 13.
In 2001, Cena signed a developmental contract with the WWF and was assigned to its developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW).[43] During his time there, Cena wrestled under the ring name The Prototype and held the OVW Heavyweight Championship for three months and the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (with Rico Constantino) for two months.[44][45][46] Throughout 2001, Cena would receive four tryouts for the WWF main roster, as he wrestled multiple enhancement talent wrestlers on both WWF house shows and in dark matches before WWF television events. Through the early months of 2002, Cena constantly found himself competing on house shows for the WWF, where he wrestled against the likes of Shelton Benjamin and Tommy Dreamer.
After his main roster call up in June 2002, Cena would continue to appear on OVW programming until the September 25 taping of OVW, where he lost to Kenny Brolin in a Loser Leaves OVW match. Cena would appear in a one off appearance for the developmental farm in November under the ring name Mr. P in a six-man tag team match, where he teamed with future WWE Hall of Famer Big Boss Man and Charlie Haas in a winning effort against Lance Cade, Trevor Murdoch and Sean O'Haire.
On the June 24 episode of Raw, Mr McMahon ordered the entire roster to the ring and declared that he needed them to all find some ruthless aggression from within themselves and that he was looking for one of them to stand out from the rest of the pack.[47] Cena made his WWE television debut on the June 27, 2002 episode of SmackDown! by answering an open challenge by Kurt Angle. After declaring that he possessed "ruthless aggression", Cena lost by a pinning combination.[48] After the match, Cena was congratulated by Billy Kidman, Faarooq, Rikishi, and The Undertaker.[49] Following the near-win, Cena became a fan favorite and started feuding with Chris Jericho, defeating Jericho at Vengeance.[48] Then, Cena feuded with Los Guerreros (Chavo and Eddie Guerrero) and Cena picked up a victory over Chavo Guerrero on the September 3, 2002 taping of Velocity.[citation needed] On the September 10 episode of SmackDown!, Cena teamed with Edge in a losing effort against Los Guerreros, thus ending the feud in the process.[citation needed] Cena went on to defeat the likes of Albert and D-Von Dudley as he was restricted to appearances on Velocity for the rest of September.[citation needed]
In October 2002, Cena and Billy Kidman took part in a tag team tournament to crown the first WWE Tag Team Champions of the SmackDown! brand, losing in the first round.[50] The next week on SmackDown!, Cena turned on and attacked Kidman, blaming him for their loss, becoming a villain for the first and only time in his career.[48] On the October 17 episode of SmackDown!, Cena defeated Kidman in a singles contest,[51] but was defeated by Kidman in a rematch on the October 24 episode of SmackDown!.[52] Shortly after the Kidman attack on a Halloween themed episode of SmackDown!, Cena dressed as Vanilla Ice performing a freestyle rap.[48] The following week on SmackDown!, Cena received a new character: a rapper who cut promos while rhyming.[48] As the gimmick grew, Cena began adopting a variant of the 1980s WWF logo – dropping the "F" – as his "signature symbol", along with the slogan "Word Life".[53] At Rebellion, Cena would team with Dawn Marie in a losing effort against Kidman and Torrie Wilson in a mixed tag team match.[
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