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John Cena
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[/url]
John Cena
![[Image: 220px-John_Cena_2012.jpg]](https://wsrv.nl/?url=upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/John_Cena_2012.jpg/220px-John_Cena_2012.jpg&w=1920&h=1080&fit=inside&n=-1&we)
John Cena in 2012
Born
Jonathan Felix Anthony Cena Jr.
April 23, 1977 (age 39)
West Newbury, Massachusetts, United States
Residence
Tampa, Florida, United States[1]
Alma mater
Springfield College
Occupation
Professional wrestler, actor, hip hop artist
Years active
1999–present (wrestler)
2000–present (actor)
2004–2005, 2014 (rapper)
2016–present (reality TV show host)
Spouse(s)
Elizabeth Huberdeau (m. 2009; div. 2012)
Partner(s)
Nikki Bella (2012–present)
Family
Tony Lupien (grandfather)
Tha Trademarc (cousin)
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)
John Cena[2]
Juan Cena
The Prototype[3]
Billed height
6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[4]
Billed weight
251 lb (114 kg)[4]
Billed from
"Classified" (UPW)[5]
West Newbury, Massachusetts (WWE)[4]
Trained by
Dave Finlay
Ohio Valley Wrestling[6]
Ultimate Pro Wrestling[5]
Debut
November 5, 1999[7]
John Felix Anthony Cena Jr. (/ˈsiːnə/; born April 23, 1977) is an American professional wrestler, rapper, actor, and reality television show host signed to WWE, where he is assigned to the 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 WWE) in 2001, debuting on the WWE main roster in 2002. From a generic character in 2002, Cena morphed into an arrogant and edgy rapper for the time period of 2002–2004, which earned him a huge stardom 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 pro wrestler ever" as his character has many supporters and many detractors.[12] In 2015, WWE credited Cena as being the "face of WWE",[13] while in 2012, IGN described Cena as WWE's franchise playersince 2005.[14]
So far in his career, Cena has won 24 championships, with 15 reigns as a world champion (12 times as WWE Champion – with his last reign being as WWE World Heavyweight Champion[15] – and three times as WWE's World Heavyweight Champion),[16][17] five reigns as United States Champion, and four reigns as 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. Cena also has the most pay-per-view main event matches in WWE history at sixty-eight.
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).[18] 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.[19]
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.[20]
Early life
Cena was born on April 23, 1977 in West Newbury, Massachusetts,[21] the son of Carol (née Lupien) and John Cena, Sr.[22] He is the second oldest of five brothers: Dan, Matt, Steve, and Sean.[23] His maternal grandfather was baseball player Tony Lupien.[24] His father is of Italian and Albanian descent and his mother is of French-Canadian and English ancestry.[25] Cena originally attended Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts, before transferring to Cushing Academy, a private prep boarding school. After graduating from Cushing Academy, Cena attended Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts.[26]
In college he was a NCAA Division III All-American center on the college football team,[27] wearing the number 54,[26] which is still used on some of his WWE merchandise.[28][29] He graduated from Springfield in 1998 with a degree in exercise physiology,[30] after which he pursued a career in bodybuilding[31][32] and worked as a driver for a limousine company.[33]
Professional wrestling career
Ultimate Pro Wrestling (1999–2001)
Cena started training to become a professional wrestler in 1999 at Ultimate Pro Wrestling's (UPW) California-based "Ultimate University" operated by Rick Bassman. Once he was placed into an in-ring role, Cena began using a semi-robotic character known as "The Prototype".[3][34] Some of this period of his career was documented in the Discovery Channel program Inside Pro Wrestling School.[35] He held the UPW Heavyweight Championship for 27 days in April 2000.[36] Cena wrestled for the UPW until March 2001.[37]
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
Early appearances (2000–2001)
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.[38] 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.
Ohio Valley Wrestling (2001–2002)
In 2001, Cena signed a developmental contract with the WWF. He was assigned to its developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW).[39] During his time there, Cena wrestled under the ring name The Prototype. He held the OVW Heavyweight Championship for three months and the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (with Rico Constantino) for two months.[40][41][42]
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.
Rise to superstardom (2002–2004)
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 gave Angle a hard fight and only lost by a pinning combination. After the match, Cena was congratulated by The Undertaker, Rikishi, Faarooq and Billy Kidman.[43][44]Following the near-win, Cena became a fan favorite and started feuding with Chris Jericho, defeating Jericho at Vengeance.[43] On that weeks episode of SmackDown! Cena continued his winning ways defeating Test in a singles match. In September, Cena feuded with Eddie and Chavo Guerrero and Cena picked up a victory over Chavo Guerrero on the September 3, 2002 taping of Velocity. 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, 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.[45] 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.[43] At Rebellion, Cena teamed with Dawn Marieto take on the team of Billy Kidman and Torrie Wilson in a mixed tag team match in a losing effort. On the October 17 episode of SmackDown!, Cena defeated Kidman in a singles contest,[46] but was defeated by Kidman in a rematch on the October 24 episode of SmackDown!.[47]
Shortly after the Kidman attack, on a Halloween themed episode of SmackDown!, Cena dressed as Vanilla Ice performing a freestyle rap.[43] The next week on SmackDown!, Cena received a new character: a rapper who cut promos while rhyming.[43] 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".[48] Moreover, he was joined by an enforcer, Bull Buchanan, who was rechristened B-2 (also written B² and pronounced "B-Squared").[43] Cena and B-2 failed to capture the WWE Tag Team Championship from Los Guerreros (Eddie and Chavo Guerrero), resulting in Cena replacing B-2 with Red Dogg,[43] until he was sent to the Raw brand in February.
For the first half of 2003, Cena sought the WWE Championship and chased the reigning champion Brock Lesnar after WrestleMania XIX, first having to go through Chris Benoit, who mocked him by wearing a "Toothless Aggression" shirt.[49][50][51] Cena won a number one contender's tournament against Lesnar at Backlash. However, Cena was defeated by Lesnar.[52] At Vengeance, Cena lost a singles match against The Undertaker.[43][53] Cena pursued the United States Championship, but lost to then champion Eddie Guerrero in a Latino Street Fight for the title.
At the end of the year, Cena became a fan favorite again when he joined Kurt Angle as a member of his team at Survivor Series.[54][55] Team Angle would go on to defeat Team Lesnar at the event with John Cena being left the sole survivor. Cena would go on to defeat Team Lesnar members, The Big Show & A-Train in consecutive weeks on SmackDown. At Tribute to the Troops 2003, Cena would defeat Big Show via pinfall.
In early 2004, Cena participated in the Royal Rumble match at the 2004 Royal Rumble,[56] making it to the final six before being eliminated by Big Show.[57] The Royal Rumble elimination led to a feud with Big Show,[58][59] which Cena won the United States Championship from Big Show at WrestleMania XX.[60] The reign ended almost four months later, when he was stripped of the title on July 8 by Angle after he accidentally knocked him over, thus attacking an official.[61] Cena won the championship back defeating Booker T in a best of five series that culminated at No Mercy,[62]only to lose it to the débuting Carlito Caribbean Cool the next week.[63] After the loss to Carlito, the duo began a feud, which resulted in Cena allegedly being stabbed in the kidney while at a Boston-area nightclub by Carlito's bodyguard, Jesús.[64][65] This worked injury was used to keep Cena out of action for a month while Cena was filming The Marine.[41] Immediately on his return in November, Cena won the United States Championship back from Carlito.[66][67]
WWE Champion and championship feuds (2005–2007)
Cena took part in the 2005 Royal Rumble match, making it to the final two. Cena and Batista went over the top rope at the same time, ostensibly ending the match. The match was restarted in which Batista eliminated Cena to win.[68] The next month, Cena defeated Kurt Angle to earn a spot in the SmackDown brand's WrestleMania 21 main event match,[69] beginning a feud with then WWE Champion John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) and his Cabinet in the process. In the early stages of the feud, Cena lost his United States Championship to Cabinet member Orlando Jordan,[70]Cena defeated JBL at WrestleMania winning the WWE Championship, giving Cena his first world championship.[71] Cena then had a spinner WWE Championship belt made,[72] while JBL took the original belt and claimed to still be WWE Champion,[72] until Cena reclaimed the original belt in an "I Quit" match at Judgment Day.[73]
Cena was drafted to the Raw brand on June 6, 2005, becoming the first wrestler selected in the annual draft lottery.[74] Cena immediately entered a feud with Eric Bischoff, after refusing to participate in the "war" against the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) roster at One Night Stand.[75] With Bischoff vowing to make Cena's stint on Raw difficult, he hand picked Jericho to take Cena's championship from him.[76] During their feud, even though Cena was portrayed as the "face" and Jericho as the "heel", a vocal section of live crowds, nonetheless, were cheering Jericho during their matches.[77] Crowds started to heavily boo Cena during his next feud with Kurt Angle,[78] who took over as Bischoff's hand-picked number-one contender after Cena defeated Jericho in a You're Fired match on the August 22 Raw.[79] Cena held on to his championship through his feud with Angle, losing to him by disqualification[80] at Unforgiven and pinning him at Survivor Series.[81] The feud with Angle also saw Cena add a secondary, submission based, finishing maneuver – the STFU (a stepover toehold sleeper, though named for a stepover toehold facelock) – when he was put into a triple threat Submissions Only match on the November 28 Raw.[82]
At New Year's Revolution, Cena participated in the main event Elimination Chamber match where he retained the WWE Championship when he pinned Carlito. Immediately after a bloodied Cena won, Edge made his way to the ring to cash in his Money in the Bank contract – a "guaranteed title match for the WWE Champion at a time and place of the owner's choosing." Two quick spears allowed Edge to pin Cena, winning him the championship.[83] Three weeks later, Cena won the championship back at the Royal Rumble.[83] After winning the championship, Cena began feuding with Triple H, in which the crowd again started booing Cena and cheering the intended villain, Triple H, after being mostly cheered the last few months.[84][85] Cena beat Triple H at WrestleMania 22 to retain his WWE Championship.[6] The negative reaction towards Cena intensified when facing Rob Van Dam at One Night Stand. Taking place in front of a boisterous crowd of mostly original ECW fans at the Hammerstein Ballroom, Cena was met with raucous jeering and chants of "Fuck you, Cena", "You can't wrestle", and "Same old shit". When he began performing different moves into the match, the fans began chanting "You still suck". Cena lost the WWE Championship at One Night Stand, with Van Dam pinning Cena after interference from Edge.[86]
In July, Edge won the championship from Van Dam in a triple threat match that also involved Cena,[87] re-igniting the feud between him and Cena from earlier in the year. After Edge went about retaining the title by dubious means – getting himself disqualified[88] (for which championships do not change hands) and using brass knuckles[86] – he introduced his own version of Cena's "custom" belt, this one with his logo placed on the spinner.[89] Cena eventually won the championship back in a match and arena of Edge's choice: a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match at Unforgiven at the Air Canada Centre in Edge's hometown of Toronto, Ontario, Canada after FU'ing Edge through two tables off a ladder. The match had a stipulation that, had Cena lost, he would have left the Raw brand for SmackDown.[90][91] Cena returned his version of the spinner belt on the next night's Raw.[92]
On the heels of his feud with Edge, Cena was placed in an inter-brand angle to determine the "Champion of Champions" – or which was the most dominant champion in WWE's three brands. Cena, the World Heavyweight Champion King Booker, and the ECW World Champion Big Show engaged in a mini-feud leading to a triple threat match at Cyber Sunday, with the viewers voting on which of the three championships would be placed on the line.[93] At the same time, Cena became involved in a storyline with non-wrestler Kevin Federline, when he began appearing on Raw with Johnny Nitro and Melina. After getting into a worked physical altercation with Federline on Raw,[93] Federline appeared at Cyber Sunday to hit Cena with the World Heavyweight Championship during the match, helping King Booker retain his championship.[86] 2006 ended with Cena beginning a feud with the undefeated Umaga over the WWE Championship,[94] while 2007 began with the end of his storyline with Kevin Federline. On the first Raw of the new year, Cena was pinned by Federline with an assist from Umaga, although later in the night he was able to get his hands on Federline performing an FU on him.[95]
One night after the Royal Rumble, an impromptu team of Cena and Shawn Michaels defeated Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton) for the World Tag Team Championship, making Cena a double champion.[96] On the April 2 episode of Raw, after losing a WWE Championship match to Cena at WrestleMania 23,[97] Michaels turned on Cena, costing them the championship in the second of two 10 team battles royals, by throwing Cena over the top rope and eliminating the team. The Hardys (Matt and Jeff) eventually won the match and the championship.[98] For the rest of the month, Cena feuded with Michaels, Orton, and Edge until The Great Khali declared his intentions to challenge for Cena's championship attacking and "laying out" all three of the top contenders[99] before assaulting Cena himself and stealing the physical belt.[100] For the next two months, Cena feuded with Khali over the championship, eventually becoming the first person in WWE to defeat him by submission at Judgment Day[101][102] and then by pinfall at One Night Stand.[103][104] Later that summer, Randy Orton was named the number one contender for the WWE Championship,[105] starting a feud between the two. Leading up to SummerSlam, Orton delivered a number of sneak-attacks, performing three RKOs to Cena, but in the actual match, Cena retained the championship.[106] A rematch between the two occurred at Unforgiven, with Orton winning by disqualification after Cena ignored the referee's instructions and continued to beat on him in the corner.[107]
During a match with Mr. Kennedy on the October 1, 2007 episode of Raw, Cena suffered a legitimate torn pectoral muscle while executing a hip toss.[108] Though finishing the match and taking part in the scripted attack by Randy Orton after the match, surgery the following day found that his pectoralis major muscle was torn completely from the bone, estimating at the time to require seven months to a year of rehabilitation.[109][110] As a result, Cena was stripped of the title by Mr. McMahon on the next night's episode of ECW,[111] ending what was the longest WWE Championship reign in over 19 years.[112] Cena's surgery was performed by orthopedic surgeon James Andrews at St. Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama.[108] Two weeks later, in a video update on WWE.com, Dr. Andrews and Cena's physical trainer both said that he was several weeks ahead of where he was expected to be in his rehabilitation at that time.[113] Despite his injury, Cena attended the annual WWE's Tribute to the Troops show filmed at Camp Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq on December 7, and aired on December 24.[114]
World Heavyweight Champion and various feuds (2008–2010)
![[Image: 170px-John_Cena_August_2008.jpg]](https://wsrv.nl/?url=upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/John_Cena_August_2008.jpg/170px-John_Cena_August_2008.jpg&w=1920&h=1080&fit=inside&n=-1&we)
Cena made a surprise return as the final participant of the [color=#0b0080]Royal Rumble match, winning the match, and the traditional WrestleMania title shot, by last eliminating Triple H.[115] Instead of waiting until WrestleMania, the title shot was cashed in against then WWE Champion Randy Orton at February's No Way Out pay-per-view[116] in a match where Cena won by disqualification, resulting in him not getting the championship.[117] The night after No Way Out, Cena was placed back into WrestleMania XXIV's WWE Championship match, making it a triple threat match also involving Triple H,[118] during which he was pinned by Orton.[119] At Backlash, Cena failed to regain the title in a fatal four-way elimination match, in which he was pinned by Orton.[120] Triple H won the title during that match. During the match, Cena eliminated JBL,[120] renewing their feud from 2005. Cena defeated JBL at Judgment Day and then at One Night Stand in a First Blood match.[121][122] JBL, however, defeated him in a New York City
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[/url]
John Cena
![[Image: 220px-John_Cena_2012.jpg]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Cena_2012.jpg)
John Cena in 2012
Born
Jonathan Felix Anthony Cena Jr.
April 23, 1977 (age 39)
West Newbury, Massachusetts, United States
Residence
Tampa, Florida, United States[1]
Alma mater
Springfield College
Occupation
Professional wrestler, actor, hip hop artist
Years active
1999–present (wrestler)
2000–present (actor)
2004–2005, 2014 (rapper)
2016–present (reality TV show host)
Spouse(s)
Elizabeth Huberdeau (m. 2009; div. 2012)
Partner(s)
Nikki Bella (2012–present)
Family
Tony Lupien (grandfather)
Tha Trademarc (cousin)
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)
John Cena[2]
Juan Cena
The Prototype[3]
Billed height
6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[4]
Billed weight
251 lb (114 kg)[4]
Billed from
"Classified" (UPW)[5]
West Newbury, Massachusetts (WWE)[4]
Trained by
Dave Finlay
Ohio Valley Wrestling[6]
Ultimate Pro Wrestling[5]
Debut
November 5, 1999[7]
John Felix Anthony Cena Jr. (/ˈsiːnə/; born April 23, 1977) is an American professional wrestler, rapper, actor, and reality television show host signed to WWE, where he is assigned to the 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 WWE) in 2001, debuting on the WWE main roster in 2002. From a generic character in 2002, Cena morphed into an arrogant and edgy rapper for the time period of 2002–2004, which earned him a huge stardom 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 pro wrestler ever" as his character has many supporters and many detractors.[12] In 2015, WWE credited Cena as being the "face of WWE",[13] while in 2012, IGN described Cena as WWE's franchise playersince 2005.[14]
So far in his career, Cena has won 24 championships, with 15 reigns as a world champion (12 times as WWE Champion – with his last reign being as WWE World Heavyweight Champion[15] – and three times as WWE's World Heavyweight Champion),[16][17] five reigns as United States Champion, and four reigns as 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. Cena also has the most pay-per-view main event matches in WWE history at sixty-eight.
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).[18] 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.[19]
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.[20]
Contents
[show]
[show]
Early life
![[Image: 220px-John_Cena_Sr..jpg]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Cena_Sr..jpg)
Cena was born on April 23, 1977 in West Newbury, Massachusetts,[21] the son of Carol (née Lupien) and John Cena, Sr.[22] He is the second oldest of five brothers: Dan, Matt, Steve, and Sean.[23] His maternal grandfather was baseball player Tony Lupien.[24] His father is of Italian and Albanian descent and his mother is of French-Canadian and English ancestry.[25] Cena originally attended Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts, before transferring to Cushing Academy, a private prep boarding school. After graduating from Cushing Academy, Cena attended Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts.[26]
In college he was a NCAA Division III All-American center on the college football team,[27] wearing the number 54,[26] which is still used on some of his WWE merchandise.[28][29] He graduated from Springfield in 1998 with a degree in exercise physiology,[30] after which he pursued a career in bodybuilding[31][32] and worked as a driver for a limousine company.[33]
Professional wrestling career
Ultimate Pro Wrestling (1999–2001)
Cena started training to become a professional wrestler in 1999 at Ultimate Pro Wrestling's (UPW) California-based "Ultimate University" operated by Rick Bassman. Once he was placed into an in-ring role, Cena began using a semi-robotic character known as "The Prototype".[3][34] Some of this period of his career was documented in the Discovery Channel program Inside Pro Wrestling School.[35] He held the UPW Heavyweight Championship for 27 days in April 2000.[36] Cena wrestled for the UPW until March 2001.[37]
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
Early appearances (2000–2001)
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.[38] 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.
Ohio Valley Wrestling (2001–2002)
In 2001, Cena signed a developmental contract with the WWF. He was assigned to its developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW).[39] During his time there, Cena wrestled under the ring name The Prototype. He held the OVW Heavyweight Championship for three months and the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (with Rico Constantino) for two months.[40][41][42]
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.
Rise to superstardom (2002–2004)
![[Image: 220px-CenaF-U.jpg]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CenaF-U.jpg)
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 gave Angle a hard fight and only lost by a pinning combination. After the match, Cena was congratulated by The Undertaker, Rikishi, Faarooq and Billy Kidman.[43][44]Following the near-win, Cena became a fan favorite and started feuding with Chris Jericho, defeating Jericho at Vengeance.[43] On that weeks episode of SmackDown! Cena continued his winning ways defeating Test in a singles match. In September, Cena feuded with Eddie and Chavo Guerrero and Cena picked up a victory over Chavo Guerrero on the September 3, 2002 taping of Velocity. 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, 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.[45] 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.[43] At Rebellion, Cena teamed with Dawn Marieto take on the team of Billy Kidman and Torrie Wilson in a mixed tag team match in a losing effort. On the October 17 episode of SmackDown!, Cena defeated Kidman in a singles contest,[46] but was defeated by Kidman in a rematch on the October 24 episode of SmackDown!.[47]
Shortly after the Kidman attack, on a Halloween themed episode of SmackDown!, Cena dressed as Vanilla Ice performing a freestyle rap.[43] The next week on SmackDown!, Cena received a new character: a rapper who cut promos while rhyming.[43] 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".[48] Moreover, he was joined by an enforcer, Bull Buchanan, who was rechristened B-2 (also written B² and pronounced "B-Squared").[43] Cena and B-2 failed to capture the WWE Tag Team Championship from Los Guerreros (Eddie and Chavo Guerrero), resulting in Cena replacing B-2 with Red Dogg,[43] until he was sent to the Raw brand in February.
For the first half of 2003, Cena sought the WWE Championship and chased the reigning champion Brock Lesnar after WrestleMania XIX, first having to go through Chris Benoit, who mocked him by wearing a "Toothless Aggression" shirt.[49][50][51] Cena won a number one contender's tournament against Lesnar at Backlash. However, Cena was defeated by Lesnar.[52] At Vengeance, Cena lost a singles match against The Undertaker.[43][53] Cena pursued the United States Championship, but lost to then champion Eddie Guerrero in a Latino Street Fight for the title.
At the end of the year, Cena became a fan favorite again when he joined Kurt Angle as a member of his team at Survivor Series.[54][55] Team Angle would go on to defeat Team Lesnar at the event with John Cena being left the sole survivor. Cena would go on to defeat Team Lesnar members, The Big Show & A-Train in consecutive weeks on SmackDown. At Tribute to the Troops 2003, Cena would defeat Big Show via pinfall.
![[Image: 170px-John_Cena_as_United_States_Champion.jpg]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Cena_as_United_States_Champion.jpg)
In early 2004, Cena participated in the Royal Rumble match at the 2004 Royal Rumble,[56] making it to the final six before being eliminated by Big Show.[57] The Royal Rumble elimination led to a feud with Big Show,[58][59] which Cena won the United States Championship from Big Show at WrestleMania XX.[60] The reign ended almost four months later, when he was stripped of the title on July 8 by Angle after he accidentally knocked him over, thus attacking an official.[61] Cena won the championship back defeating Booker T in a best of five series that culminated at No Mercy,[62]only to lose it to the débuting Carlito Caribbean Cool the next week.[63] After the loss to Carlito, the duo began a feud, which resulted in Cena allegedly being stabbed in the kidney while at a Boston-area nightclub by Carlito's bodyguard, Jesús.[64][65] This worked injury was used to keep Cena out of action for a month while Cena was filming The Marine.[41] Immediately on his return in November, Cena won the United States Championship back from Carlito.[66][67]
WWE Champion and championship feuds (2005–2007)
Cena took part in the 2005 Royal Rumble match, making it to the final two. Cena and Batista went over the top rope at the same time, ostensibly ending the match. The match was restarted in which Batista eliminated Cena to win.[68] The next month, Cena defeated Kurt Angle to earn a spot in the SmackDown brand's WrestleMania 21 main event match,[69] beginning a feud with then WWE Champion John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) and his Cabinet in the process. In the early stages of the feud, Cena lost his United States Championship to Cabinet member Orlando Jordan,[70]Cena defeated JBL at WrestleMania winning the WWE Championship, giving Cena his first world championship.[71] Cena then had a spinner WWE Championship belt made,[72] while JBL took the original belt and claimed to still be WWE Champion,[72] until Cena reclaimed the original belt in an "I Quit" match at Judgment Day.[73]
Cena was drafted to the Raw brand on June 6, 2005, becoming the first wrestler selected in the annual draft lottery.[74] Cena immediately entered a feud with Eric Bischoff, after refusing to participate in the "war" against the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) roster at One Night Stand.[75] With Bischoff vowing to make Cena's stint on Raw difficult, he hand picked Jericho to take Cena's championship from him.[76] During their feud, even though Cena was portrayed as the "face" and Jericho as the "heel", a vocal section of live crowds, nonetheless, were cheering Jericho during their matches.[77] Crowds started to heavily boo Cena during his next feud with Kurt Angle,[78] who took over as Bischoff's hand-picked number-one contender after Cena defeated Jericho in a You're Fired match on the August 22 Raw.[79] Cena held on to his championship through his feud with Angle, losing to him by disqualification[80] at Unforgiven and pinning him at Survivor Series.[81] The feud with Angle also saw Cena add a secondary, submission based, finishing maneuver – the STFU (a stepover toehold sleeper, though named for a stepover toehold facelock) – when he was put into a triple threat Submissions Only match on the November 28 Raw.[82]
![[Image: 220px-Edge_vs._Cena.jpg]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edge_vs._Cena.jpg)
At New Year's Revolution, Cena participated in the main event Elimination Chamber match where he retained the WWE Championship when he pinned Carlito. Immediately after a bloodied Cena won, Edge made his way to the ring to cash in his Money in the Bank contract – a "guaranteed title match for the WWE Champion at a time and place of the owner's choosing." Two quick spears allowed Edge to pin Cena, winning him the championship.[83] Three weeks later, Cena won the championship back at the Royal Rumble.[83] After winning the championship, Cena began feuding with Triple H, in which the crowd again started booing Cena and cheering the intended villain, Triple H, after being mostly cheered the last few months.[84][85] Cena beat Triple H at WrestleMania 22 to retain his WWE Championship.[6] The negative reaction towards Cena intensified when facing Rob Van Dam at One Night Stand. Taking place in front of a boisterous crowd of mostly original ECW fans at the Hammerstein Ballroom, Cena was met with raucous jeering and chants of "Fuck you, Cena", "You can't wrestle", and "Same old shit". When he began performing different moves into the match, the fans began chanting "You still suck". Cena lost the WWE Championship at One Night Stand, with Van Dam pinning Cena after interference from Edge.[86]
![[Image: Cena-2006.jpg]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cena-2006.jpg)
In July, Edge won the championship from Van Dam in a triple threat match that also involved Cena,[87] re-igniting the feud between him and Cena from earlier in the year. After Edge went about retaining the title by dubious means – getting himself disqualified[88] (for which championships do not change hands) and using brass knuckles[86] – he introduced his own version of Cena's "custom" belt, this one with his logo placed on the spinner.[89] Cena eventually won the championship back in a match and arena of Edge's choice: a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match at Unforgiven at the Air Canada Centre in Edge's hometown of Toronto, Ontario, Canada after FU'ing Edge through two tables off a ladder. The match had a stipulation that, had Cena lost, he would have left the Raw brand for SmackDown.[90][91] Cena returned his version of the spinner belt on the next night's Raw.[92]
On the heels of his feud with Edge, Cena was placed in an inter-brand angle to determine the "Champion of Champions" – or which was the most dominant champion in WWE's three brands. Cena, the World Heavyweight Champion King Booker, and the ECW World Champion Big Show engaged in a mini-feud leading to a triple threat match at Cyber Sunday, with the viewers voting on which of the three championships would be placed on the line.[93] At the same time, Cena became involved in a storyline with non-wrestler Kevin Federline, when he began appearing on Raw with Johnny Nitro and Melina. After getting into a worked physical altercation with Federline on Raw,[93] Federline appeared at Cyber Sunday to hit Cena with the World Heavyweight Championship during the match, helping King Booker retain his championship.[86] 2006 ended with Cena beginning a feud with the undefeated Umaga over the WWE Championship,[94] while 2007 began with the end of his storyline with Kevin Federline. On the first Raw of the new year, Cena was pinned by Federline with an assist from Umaga, although later in the night he was able to get his hands on Federline performing an FU on him.[95]
One night after the Royal Rumble, an impromptu team of Cena and Shawn Michaels defeated Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton) for the World Tag Team Championship, making Cena a double champion.[96] On the April 2 episode of Raw, after losing a WWE Championship match to Cena at WrestleMania 23,[97] Michaels turned on Cena, costing them the championship in the second of two 10 team battles royals, by throwing Cena over the top rope and eliminating the team. The Hardys (Matt and Jeff) eventually won the match and the championship.[98] For the rest of the month, Cena feuded with Michaels, Orton, and Edge until The Great Khali declared his intentions to challenge for Cena's championship attacking and "laying out" all three of the top contenders[99] before assaulting Cena himself and stealing the physical belt.[100] For the next two months, Cena feuded with Khali over the championship, eventually becoming the first person in WWE to defeat him by submission at Judgment Day[101][102] and then by pinfall at One Night Stand.[103][104] Later that summer, Randy Orton was named the number one contender for the WWE Championship,[105] starting a feud between the two. Leading up to SummerSlam, Orton delivered a number of sneak-attacks, performing three RKOs to Cena, but in the actual match, Cena retained the championship.[106] A rematch between the two occurred at Unforgiven, with Orton winning by disqualification after Cena ignored the referee's instructions and continued to beat on him in the corner.[107]
During a match with Mr. Kennedy on the October 1, 2007 episode of Raw, Cena suffered a legitimate torn pectoral muscle while executing a hip toss.[108] Though finishing the match and taking part in the scripted attack by Randy Orton after the match, surgery the following day found that his pectoralis major muscle was torn completely from the bone, estimating at the time to require seven months to a year of rehabilitation.[109][110] As a result, Cena was stripped of the title by Mr. McMahon on the next night's episode of ECW,[111] ending what was the longest WWE Championship reign in over 19 years.[112] Cena's surgery was performed by orthopedic surgeon James Andrews at St. Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama.[108] Two weeks later, in a video update on WWE.com, Dr. Andrews and Cena's physical trainer both said that he was several weeks ahead of where he was expected to be in his rehabilitation at that time.[113] Despite his injury, Cena attended the annual WWE's Tribute to the Troops show filmed at Camp Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq on December 7, and aired on December 24.[114]
World Heavyweight Champion and various feuds (2008–2010)
![[Image: 170px-John_Cena_August_2008.jpg]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Cena_August_2008.jpg)
Cena made a surprise return as the final participant of the [color=#0b0080]Royal Rumble match, winning the match, and the traditional WrestleMania title shot, by last eliminating Triple H.[115] Instead of waiting until WrestleMania, the title shot was cashed in against then WWE Champion Randy Orton at February's No Way Out pay-per-view[116] in a match where Cena won by disqualification, resulting in him not getting the championship.[117] The night after No Way Out, Cena was placed back into WrestleMania XXIV's WWE Championship match, making it a triple threat match also involving Triple H,[118] during which he was pinned by Orton.[119] At Backlash, Cena failed to regain the title in a fatal four-way elimination match, in which he was pinned by Orton.[120] Triple H won the title during that match. During the match, Cena eliminated JBL,[120] renewing their feud from 2005. Cena defeated JBL at Judgment Day and then at One Night Stand in a First Blood match.[121][122] JBL, however, defeated him in a New York City