John Cena – the way of the legendary wrestler

John Cena is one of the greatest wrestlers of our time who has won 16 WWE titles: the same number as Ric Flair, the famous wrestler of the 20th century. He has played thousands of matches and won dozens of awards. In addition, he is considered one of the most talked-about fighters in history. So it’s hard to remain indifferent to Cena: he is either adored or hated.

In recent years, the wrestler often starred in movies. In May, “Fast and the Furious 9” with Cena was released, and in August, he will appear in “Suicide Squad: Mission to Fly.” So now is a good time to talk about the famous fighter’s career and figure out why he has a controversial reputation. And if you are fond not only of wrestling news, but also online casino India, then follow this link.

The legend’s childhood

John Cena was born on April 23, 1977, in the small town of West Newbury, Massachusetts, where he spent all his childhood. He had a big family: the future WWE Champion grew up with four brothers. John Cena Sr. instilled in his son a love for sports from an early age – only not American soccer or hockey, but wrestling.

John did not always win in brotherly fights, but the number of victories did not matter. Even though the kids bragged about their championship belts made of cardboard, they understood that they were equal in front of each other. Their upbringing played a crucial role in their development as athletes.

Cena calls the place where he grew up a “fraternity house” and noted that not all parents would have appreciated his father’s parenting methods. But that bond with his family helped keep the wrestler from becoming an overachiever after he achieved success.

If you plot Cena’s “educational” route on a map, you can see that he moved farther and farther away from home each year. The future wrestler graduated from high school in Lawrence, located half an hour away from West Newbury, and college – in Springfield, the road to which already took about two hours. Shortly, the athlete would leave the state and rarely return to his native place: he had a lot of work.

At the beginning of his athletic journey

During his college years, he played American soccer as number 54 and had some success, becoming captain and the most valuable player on the school team. But he did not seek to build on that success.

John Cena graduated in 1999 and received a degree in sports physiology. He began to get into bodybuilding and participate in local competitions in those years. The young man had one goal – to get into WWE. Fortunately, his physical attributes allowed him to try and make his way into professional wrestling. That same year, Cena moved to California, where his chances of getting into show business were the best.

First Steps in Wrestling

He began training at Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW), where WWE was looking for new talent and where they sent their fighters for extra training. When the aspiring wrestler got his first matches: he took the pseudonym “The Prototype” and portrayed an emotionless wrestler.

In his first years in the ring, Cena was a heel, a negative character. But, already in April of 2000, he became the UPW champion: The wrestler held the title for 27 days – not long, but long enough to make a name for himself. Despite his success, the wrestler remembers those days with a smirk: the venues were small, and they didn’t always pay for shows.

He calls his debut two-minute match in November 1999 in a small concert hall in Santa Ana “awful. And the first $15 fee he received only a year after that fight – for a battle at a flea market in Anaheim, California. Not surprisingly, he had to work part-time as a limousine driver and participate in obscure reality wrestling shows.

Cena unofficially debuted in WWE matches, then still called WWF, in October 2000. Those bouts were warm-up matches and weren’t televised. He lost his first fight, but WWF noticed him and offered him a contract Cena signed without hesitation. In 2001 the wrestler began to appear more often in such disputes. He gained experience under the wing of Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW).

He fought there with Rico Constantino. The teammates played their clumsy villains convincingly, and they managed to become OVW champions: the duo held the team title for a couple of months. But their paths soon diverged. Rico was promoted to WWE, and Cena won the OVW Championship on his own in 2002.

WWE Champion

It looks like John Cena’s first few months in WWE were pretty good from the outside. There were wins, losses, fudges, and team matches, and the competition writers even tried to make the wrestler a heel again: after his debut in WWE, Cena was playing a positive character.

However, the athlete himself says that he was on the verge of being fired at the time, as he had no memorable image – only an impressive physique and aggression.

But that problem was resolved before the end of the year. Because Cena was into rap and could improvise easily, he reincarnated himself as Doctor of Thuganomics. The character’s name unmistakably hints that he has had more than one education in a street robbery.

The hero ruthlessly humiliated opponents before matches, wearing chains, brass knuckles, and sports uniforms. The Doctor’s freestyles were full of insults and foul language, and he went to the fight to his song Basic Thuganomics. In 2005 he changed the track to The Time is Now, the lead single from his solo album.

Even the women got it. Once Cena crossed paths in the ring with Hiroko Suzuki, who stuck to the geisha image. The wrestler offered to help her put another layer of white makeup on her face. I probably don’t need to explain what he was referring to.

So at times, in addition to wrestling, the audience also watched rap battles between the fighters. The public didn’t just like the Doctor: the fans adored the cocky hero, and Cena’s popularity increased.

Within the next two years, he became the WWE Champion of America, and in 2005 he earned his first WWE Title. In the deciding match, Cena faced John “Bradshaw” Layfield, beating him mercilessly for most of the game. However, at the decisive moment, John pulled himself together and snatched the victory.

Cena held the title for 280 days until he lost it to Edge, probably the most famous heel of the mid-2000s. However, three weeks later, the belt reverted to its former owner at the 2006 Royale Ramble. Their feud began from then on, which lasted for several years and quickly moved out of the ring.

The WWE writers came up with a lot of exciting situations for them. For example, Cena broke into his opponent’s room as he celebrated his second title and beat him up.

Wrestler’s views on life

John Cena can be loved or hated, but his contribution to the popularization of wrestling should hardly be diminished. Even now, he does not forget about WWE and occasionally appears in the ring, sometimes even in the iconic image of the Doctor.

According to him, he tries to find a balance in his life to combine movies and sports. He has no intention of giving up wrestling, as he feels indebted to the company for a successful career. However, Cena will not stand in the way of his young colleagues either: If necessary, he will gladly give way.