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John Cena’s entrance theme pronounces that “my time is now.” However his time is fleeting.
Cena, 48, introduced final summer season that 2025 could be the tip of his time as an lively WWE wrestler. Every match brings him nearer to hanging up the jorts on Dec. 13 — together with on the WWE’s inaugural Wrestlepalooza in Indianapolis on Sept. 20 (7 p.m. ET on ESPN Limitless).
For these becoming a member of the farewell tour late and people trying to take a journey again by a outstanding profession inside and out of doors the ring, we now current the John Cena Eras Tour.
The Prototype
In 2001, the WWE signed John Cena — a former NCAA Division III All-American soccer participant at Springfield School, aspiring bodybuilder and son of an impartial wrestling supervisor “Johnny Fabulous” — to a growth deal in Ohio Valley Wrestling.
There have been no jorts. No chains. No “you’ll be able to’t see me.” There was a crew lower, besides it was bleached a piercing blonde. There have been biceps. Massive biceps. Cena was billed as “The Prototype,” proclaiming that he was “50% man and 50% machine” throughout deliberately robotic promos. At finest, he seemed like a video-game character from a “Road Fighter” knockoff. At worst, he seemed like Ludvig Borga.
The Prototype would win the OVW championship in February 2002 and earn his call-up to the WWE essential roster, the place he fortunately ditched the dye job and instantly turned … ruthless.
Ruthless Aggression
On a June 2002 version of “SmackDown,” Kurt Angle walked to the ring whereas followers chanted “you suck” throughout his entrance theme — years earlier than they’d hijack Cena’s theme to do the identical.
Former WWE proprietor Vince McMahon had not too long ago commenced an period of “Ruthless Aggression” for the roster, encouraging wrestlers to overcome all adversaries. In that spirit, Angle issued an open problem to the locker room — however just for an opponent he hadn’t wrestled earlier than.
Sporting crimson and black trunks and matching boots, Cena strode to the ring, oozing confidence with eyes locked on Angle.
Angle smirked. “Who within the hell are you?” he requested into the microphone.
“I am John Cena.”
“John Cena, huh?” Angle responded. “Properly, you inform me: What’s the one high quality that you simply possess that makes you assume which you could stroll out right here and are available into the ring and face the perfect within the enterprise?”
Cena sneered and spoke with a guttural growl not in contrast to McMahon’s cadence: “Ruthless aggression!” Cena then sucker-punched Angle and jumped him.
The gang rallied behind Cena in his impromptu match with Angle and jeered when Angle pulled out a desperation pin. However the consequence did not matter. A star was born.
The Physician of Thuganomics
Over the following a number of months, Cena wrestled steadily in singles and tag staff matches however hadn’t fulfilled the promise of that iconic “Ruthless Aggression” second. In reality, Cena stated on an episode of WWE Community’s 2020 sequence “WWE Ruthless Aggression” that he was instructed he believed that the WWE was going to be lower from the roster in late 2002.
Cena was having fun with what he believed could be his remaining European tour when one night time, a gaggle of wrestlers that included Rikishi and Rey Mysterio had been freestyle rapping at the back of the tour bus. Cena, who had a hidden expertise for rhyming, joined in. Unbeknownst to him, there was another person listening to his bars from the entrance of the bus: Stephanie McMahon, the long run WWE CEO who was on the artistic staff on the time, requested Cena so as to add freestyling to his character. Steadily, the following iteration of Cena developed: a Boston-born white rapper who followers instantly mocked with indicators referencing Vanilla Ice, whom Cena dressed as on a Halloween episode of SmackDown. He wore outsized sports activities jerseys, saggy jorts and a series with a lock on it.
His catchphrase? “Phrase Life.” His entrance theme? “Fundamental Thuganomics,” which Cena wrote and carried out. (Pattern prose: “By no means survive this, get forgot like Alzheimer’s/Two-faced rappers stroll away with 4 shiners.”)
Maybe much more stunning: Cena was a heel! He was a repugnant antagonist for fan favorites starting from Rikishi to Brock Lesnar, whom Cena would wrestle in his first WWE championship match.
However as we would see a long time later, the issue with turning John Cena heel is that he is John Cena. It is like making an attempt to show free pizza heel. Regardless of his chaotic alignment, the freestyle dissing of opponents and his simple charisma ultimately received the group behind him.
At Survivor Sequence 2003, Cena had the group in his hand whereas chopping down Lesnar and his staff, with followers waving indicators bearing a brand new Cena catchphrase: “You may’t see me.”
It is a story as outdated as time for the WWE: Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, The Rock. It does not matter the place the storylines are attempting to go take them. If followers fall in love with a celebrity, they may demand a rewrite.
A couple of months later, Cena would fasten a WWE championship belt round his jorts for the primary time.
The “Spinner Belt” reign (first world title run)
Enjoyable reality: WWE Studios has produced practically 60 films, starting from “The Scorpion King” to “Leprechaun: Origins,” which in some way did not earn Hornswoggle an Oscar nod. Six of these had been from “The Marine” sequence, the primary of which starred Cena in 2006. It marked the nascent begin to Cena’s appearing profession, which might find yourself fairly profitable. The Hollywood Reporter ranked him because the third-best wrestler-turned-thespian behind Dave Bautista and Dwayne Johnson.
Cena defeated The Huge Present to open WrestleMania XX at Madison Sq. Backyard in 2004, his first main title within the WWE. He’d win the U.S. title twice extra earlier than WrestleMania 21 in Los Angeles in 2005, when Cena wrestled for the SmackDown championship towards John Bradshaw Layfield, who was in his “Million Greenback Man, besides cowboy hat” period.
Cena hit JBL with this finisher — then referred to as the “F-U” in response to Brock Lesnar’s “F-5” — to turn into a world champion for the primary time.
The subsequent step: Making that title spin, child.
The third time Cena received the U.S. title, he personalized the belt to his personal aesthetic: Making a “spinner” on the entrance plate like the edges on a tricked-out Chevy Impala. Traditionalists gasped. In reality, when Cena misplaced that belt to JBL stablemate Orlando Jordan, JBL actually positioned the belt in a trash can and blew it up.
Nevertheless it’s not because it that was going to discourage Cena from remodeling his world title right into a spinner. It turned a vital a part of the Cena iconography and a best-selling duplicate belt for followers.
Face of PG period
Cena was fairly common at this level. He had The Rock’s magnetism and Steve Austin’s antagonism. He had prolonged title reigns and interesting feuds towards Chris Jericho and Edge. You is likely to be questioning how a charismatic rascal dropping diss tracks on opponents and defeating foes with a transfer referred to as the “F-U” may ultimately have half the group chanting that he sucked.
Which brings us to July 22, 2008.
That is when WWE programming went from its TV-14 perspective to the household (and sponsor) pleasant TV-PG ranking. In-ring violence was muted, from chair pictures to blood. Profanity and sexuality had been all however faraway from the discourse, and Cena’s “F-U” was rechristened the “Perspective Adjustment.”
Cena was positioned because the babyface who runs the place. His edges had been sanded off till he was a kid-friendly goofball in colourful merch-stand-ready T-shirts and hats. Twenty years after Hulk Hogan powered the then-WWF by telling followers to take their nutritional vitamins and say their prayers, Cena was the “PG Period” superhero preaching “Hustle, Loyalty and Respect.”
The backlash from cynical followers ultimately arrived. They mocked Cena’s in-ring skill, calling his skillset “The 5 Strikes of Doom.” They rolled their eyes on the inevitability of his victories, ultimately spawning the “Cena Wins LOL” meme. However their loathing wasn’t common. Cena had very vocal supporters, a lot of them youthful followers. This led to a routine chant that echoes by arenas as we speak: Cena followers chanting “Let’s Go Cena!” and haters responding with “Cena sucks!”
The Nexus
In 2010, the WWE created a brand new present referred to as “NXT.” The premise had veteran superstars mentoring younger wrestlers of their developmental territory, with the purpose to safe a WWE contract, which Wade Barrett received within the first season.
On June 7, 2010, Barrett walked down the doorway ramp as Cena wrestled CM Punk. Abruptly, six runners-up from NXT carrying matching armbands with the letter “N” stormed the barricades across the ring and assaulted everybody in sight, from wrestlers to announcers, whose absence lent the scene an eerie silence. They ripped the canvas from the ring and tore down the ropes. All of them hit their finishers on Cena, who left on a stretcher.
The arrival of the Nexus in WWE was the only coolest debut by a steady for the reason that heyday of the New World Order. They had been disrupters focusing on the institution, and that institution’s identify was John Cena. They focused him with assaults, placing the WWE’s white-meat babyface in critical peril, for a number of months at the least.
Essentially the most memorable factor about this period for Cena was how far more memorable it may have been. Two months after their debut, the Nexus confronted “Staff WWE” at SummerSlam in an elimination match that noticed Cena overcome a 2-vs.-1 deficit to make Barrett faucet out to his “STF” submission maintain.
Everybody, from the followers to the wrestling media to the contributors in that match, claimed that Cena’s win suffocated any momentum for the Nexus invasion angle. Their feud continued with the requisite melodrama — Cena was at one level each pressured to hitch the Nexus and fired from the WWE by the Nexus — however the sense of hazard created by their memorable debut was misplaced.
Whether or not or not Cena was the driving drive behind that reserving, the Nexus angle helped gas a rising criticism that Cena would “bury” opponents and torpedo careers to maintain himself trying sturdy.
There could be an fascinating second chapter to the Nexus rivalry as CM Punk took over the group. Punk would feud with Cena for a number of years, together with some championship matches. However not at WrestleMania. That was reserved for going one-on-one with the Nice One.
Twice in a Lifetime vs. The Rock
The Rock returned to the WWE in 2011 after seven years away and was introduced because the host of WrestleMania XXVII. He and Cena started verbally sparring remotely, and once they received within the ring collectively on an episode of “Monday Night time Uncooked” in March, Cena hit The Rock with an Perspective Adjustment.
Quick-forward to WrestleMania, the place Cena wrestled The Miz for the WWE championship. That match led to a double-count out till The Rock used his authority as host to restart the match, hitting a Rock Backside on Cena at hand the win to Miz.
The subsequent night time on Uncooked, Cena challenged The Rock to a match. He accepted after which stated it could happen a yr later at WrestleMania XXVIII — simply the longest construct for a match in WWE historical past.
Whereas biding their time, Cena made The Rock his shock tag staff companion at Survivor Sequence to get revenge on Superior Reality (The Miz and R-Reality), who had interfered in a Cena title match. The Rock helped Cena to a win, then promptly gave him a Rock Backside.
Their match at WrestleMania XXVIII in Miami in April 2012 was billed as “As soon as in a Lifetime,” because the face of the Perspective Period battled the face of every little thing that got here after it. Cena had been getting a break up crowd response main as much as ‘Mania, however The Rock, who performed school soccer close by on the College of Miami, was cheered closely with the home-field benefit. Cena was profitable this match earlier than dropping in a moderately poetic approach. After a profession of mocking his opponents, an exasperated Cena tried to complete off The Rock with a satirical “Individuals’s Elbow” earlier than the Brahma Bull got here off the mat, delivered a Rock Backside and pinned Cena.
The subsequent yr was a licensed funk for Cena. He hadn’t held a title since October 2011. He misplaced high-profile matches to Punk, Dolph Ziggler, and most embarrassingly, Uncooked normal supervisor John Laurinaitis. His fortunes modified when he received the 2013 Royal Rumble, giving him the correct to problem for a WWE title at WrestleMania. As The Rock held the WWE Championship, Cena selected to wrestle him, blaming the loss to The Rock at WrestleMania in Miami for his personal profession spiral.
So, twice in a lifetime, then.
The rematch was good, not nice, and as anticipated, Cena received his revenge — and the WWE title for the thirteenth time.
The John Cena U.S. Open Problem
Cena would drop the world title at SummerSlam in 2013 to Daniel Bryan and in 2014 to Brock Lesnar. With the championship image now centered on wrestlers like Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, Cena wrestled down the cardboard at WrestleMania XXXI, profitable the U.S. championship towards Rusev. Within the course of, he started a brand new period, with a callback to his WWE debut when he answered an open problem from Kurt Angle.
He started issuing “The John Cena U.S. Open Problem,” inviting all opponents to problem for the title by declaring, “You need some? Come get some.”
This led to some enjoyable weekly theater, as followers anticipated which entrance themes would hit. Among the many eclectic challengers had been: Cody Rhodes in his “Stardust” part, Jon Moxley in his “Dean Ambrose” part and Sami Zayn in his “fan favourite nonetheless chasing his first WWE world title” part, which is now in its twelfth yr.
This period was notable for one in every of Cena’s U.S. title losses at SummerSlam in 2015. He confronted WWE world champion Rollins in an exciting title vs. title match that ended after Cena took a chair to the abdomen from [checks notes] “The Every day Present” host Jon Stewart, as one does.
Tying the file
The feelings tied to history-making file chases have a humorous approach of superseding how followers usually really feel about sure athletes.
Living proof: Not everybody across the NHL was an Alex Ovechkin fan throughout his profession, however you could not discover a hockey fan who did not wish to see him shatter Wayne Gretzky’s all-time objectives file final season. Even Gretzky stated he wished to see it.
Inside WWE kayfabe, Ric Aptitude held one of the vital “unbreakable” data in wrestling, having received the world championship 16 instances. (Identical to Gretzky’s objectives within the World Hockey Affiliation had been ignored, the precise complete variety of world titles for Aptitude was immaterial.) Cena’s alternative to doubtlessly break that file not solely has outlined his latter years in wrestling however helped curry favor with followers. These “Let’s Go Cena!” chants received a little bit louder than the “Cena Sucks!” chants when historical past was on the road.
Look no additional than the 2017 Royal Rumble, when Cena confronted SmackDown World Champion AJ Types in San Antonio. That they had feuded for months, and this kiss-off was a terrific back-and-forth affair that ended with Cena delivering a number of AA’s to win and tie Aptitude’s file.
The gang loudly celebrated the achievement, which Cena bought by embracing referee Charles Robinson. Cena soaked within the adulation after which went into the group, the place he situated a younger fan carrying a Make-A-Want Basis shirt. Cena draped the belt across the fan’s shoulder and posed with him.
The Make-A-Want Basis is an indelible a part of Cena’s legacy. In 2022, he entered the Guinness E book of World Information for granting probably the most needs within the group’s historical past, with 650 and counting. It was the unstated counterbalance to each criticism levied towards Cena in his profession. There is a level at which even probably the most jaded and cynical fan has to present it up for the man who helped a whole bunch of sick children.
Cena goes Hollywood
After tying Aptitude’s file, the following seven years noticed Cena go from a wrestling celebrity to a capital “S” Famous person.
Like 2017’s WrestleMania 33, for instance, when he celebrated a combined tag staff win over The Miz and Maryse by proposing to his tag companion, Nikki Bella. Their relationship was chronicled on her actuality present “Complete Bellas” as was their breakup one yr later, which thrust Cena into the world of superstar tabloid fodder.
On the similar time, his appearing profession was blowing up. In 2018, he starred within the comedy “Blockers” after which had a significant position within the “Transformers” spinoff “Bumblebee.” However issues actually took off in 2021 when Cena joined the Dominic Toretto-verse within the ninth film within the “The Quick and the Livid” franchise, “F9,” and when he donned a steel helmet to play obscure DC Comics anti-hero Peacemaker in “The Suicide Squad.” The foul-mouthed, hyperviolent character was then spun off into his personal HBO sequence.
Peacemaker was a job 15 years within the making for Cena. It subverted the muscular bluster he’d perfected in WWE by not solely changing into the butt of the jokes, however by having a streak of tension and melancholy that director James Gunn introduced out within the spinoff sequence. Wrestlers had been all the time underrated actors — in a simply world, Paul Heyman would have at the least one supporting actor Emmy by now — however Cena revealed layers that had by no means been glimpsed earlier than.
Maybe that is why Cena’s in-ring work throughout this period additionally received a bit extra surreal and introspective.
In 2020, he took on the late Bray Wyatt’s “The Fiend” character in a “Firefly Enjoyable Home” match, a trippy cinematic battle that spanned a number of eras of WWE historical past and served as a deconstruction of the Cena persona. That included one iconic, mind-blowing picture: Cena dressed as a member of the nWo enjoying a spray-painted belt like a guitar as “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan as soon as did.
As a result of John Cena had gone Hollywood, even when he hadn’t turned heel. But.
The retirement tour
After aiding Cody Rhodes in his WrestleMania XL essential occasion towards Roman Reigns in April of final yr — and getting one other Rock Backside from The Rock for his efforts — Cena made a shock look at Cash within the Financial institution in July. He had an announcement to make: On the finish of 2025, he would retire from being an in-ring performer.
Cena’s final reign as WWE world champion led to 2017 so he was nonetheless tied with Aptitude at 16 title wins and the clock was now ticking. May Cena break the file earlier than saying farewell? Did he nonetheless have what it took to turn into a champion once more at 47 years outdated?
Cena declared he would compete within the 2025 Royal Rumble to win a title shot. He entered at No. 23. Many assumed he’d win as soon as he and Jey Uso had been the ultimate two rivals. However Cena was the final wrestler eradicated. In his post-event information convention, Cena declared he’d search one other title shot within the males’s Elimination Chamber match with an ominous justification: That profitable the title is what’s “finest for enterprise,” which is as heel-coded a phrase as you may discover in wrestling.
Cena was once more within the remaining two within the Elimination Chamber, dealing with his outdated rival CM Punk, who had returned to WWE a number of months earlier. Cena received the match when Rollins, beforehand eradicated by Punk, returned to intrude with a stomp. As Jey Uso had already declared he would face Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 41, that means Cena would tackle Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship.
The heel flip
On the finish of Elimination Chamber, Rhodes got here out to the ring to fulfill face-to-face together with his WrestleMania challenger and to handle whether or not he would give his everlasting soul to The Rock.
OK, let’s clarify. The Rock had been a tangential a part of Rhodes’ feud with Reigns and the Bloodline, billing himself as “The Closing Boss.” In a approach, The Rock was the boss. Dwayne Johnson had joined the board of administrators of TKO Group Holdings, holding appreciable sway inside the corporate that owns WWE and UFC. In February, The Rock made a shock look on SmackDown with a vaguely outlined supply to make Rhodes his company champion in change for an much more vaguely outlined cost. He stated he wished Cody’s “soul.”
With Rhodes and Cena within the ring after Elimination Chamber, The Rock appeared with rapper Travis Scott (positive) to demand a solution on that entire “give me your soul” factor. Rhodes instructed The Rock to do one thing to himself that actually illustrated the WWE shouldn’t be within the “PG Period” anymore.
Rhodes and Cena hugged. Cena seemed over Cody’s shoulder at The Rock, who made a throat-slashing gesture. Cena’s face went stoic. He hit Rhodes with a low blow then led an assault on the champion with The Rock and Travis Scott (OK).
The seemingly unimaginable had occurred: John Cena had turned heel once more after 20 years as a babyface.
The weeks main as much as WrestleMania had Cena chopping promos on the followers, utilizing these a long time of divisive crowd reactions to accuse them of taking him with no consideration. On March 17 at Uncooked in Brussels, Belgium, Cena uncorked an all-time promo, blasting the followers for what he referred to as “an abusive relationship” for many of his profession. “All you ever do is steal from me,” he stated. “You steal my private moments. You steal my time. You have made me your freaking toy. I am an object to you. You have got made me the butt of a silly, invisible joke for 15 years, and you continue to assume it is humorous. It isn’t humorous. It is pathetic.”
Whereas there was some scathing catharsis there, Cena would solely take the heel act to date. He did not dramatically change his look or presentation.
As soon as once more, crowd response shifted when historical past was on the road at WrestleMania. Cena entered because the villain however ended up with extra crowd help than Rhodes. Due to interference from Travis Scott (by no means to be seen once more within the WWE up to now), Cena defeated Rhodes and broke Aptitude’s file together with his seventeenth world championship.
The logic of this heel flip was fraught. The mechanics of it did not actually work, together with The Rock having no position in it after being its catalyst. The timing of it was bizarre, as Cena turned on the identical followers that he praised throughout his retirement announcement. We’re nonetheless undecided about the entire soul-selling factor. However with all that established, Cena’s heel flip ranks among the many most transcendently stunning moments in wrestling historical past.
Quick-lived because it was.
The face flip
Cena defended his title towards Randy Orton, a basic rival from earlier in his profession, and Punk earlier than being confronted by Rhodes for a rematch at SummerSlam. And by “confronted” we imply “bullied into signing a contract that included a clause that it could be a avenue combat.”
On the SmackDown earlier than SummerSlam, Cena went face-to-face with Rhodes … to thank him for lastly knocking some sense into him.
“For 25 years, day in and time out, I’ve cast a fame of laborious work, honesty and respect. And I now notice that, 5 months in the past, I flushed all of it down the bathroom chasing false glory after I purchased into someone’s loopy concept to make stunning TV,” Cena stated.
“And we did. We shocked the world. We made nice TV,” he continued. “However then the mud settles, and everyone goes again to their regular lives. And the people who had been speculated to be on my staff? They left. They usually left me alone, making an attempt to fake that I am one thing I am not.”
Cena then declared that was the night time when “John Cena got here again to the WWE.”
He was proper: The dearth of involvement from The Rock, who was the catalyst for this storyline, left Cena having to do issues like calling out the youngsters shopping for his T-shirts and threatening to “smash” the game that he loves. It had turn into pretty apparent that the heel persona was like Cena wrestling in denims as a substitute of jorts: ill-fitting.
Rhodes pinned Cena for the title at SummerSlam after a match that earned raves. Cena handed him the belt and hugged him — this time with no nefarious chicanery. After that, Cena lingered within the ring to say goodbye at his remaining SummerSlam … till Lesnar’s music hit to the shock of the group. One F-5 later, and Cena had a villainous beast to play the underdog towards at Wrestlepalooza.
With the retirement tour nearing its finish, a return to being the face that runs to the place was the plain transfer. He was The Prototype. He was the Physician of Thuganomics. He was a champion when the WWE was for mature audiences and when it cleaned up for the youngsters. He was a heel and he was a face throughout what’s going to sooner or later turn into a Corridor of Fame profession. Now, within the remaining matches of his remaining period, John Cena will retire with the one persona that actually issues: As John Cena.
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