John Cena

Cena moved to California in 1998 to pursue a bodybuilding career and switched to professional wrestling in 1999, making his debut for Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW). In 2001, he signed with WWE (then WWF) and was assigned to its developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he won the OVW Heavyweight Championship and OVW Southern Tag Team Championship. After moving up to WWE’s main roster on SmackDown in 2002, he became a breakout success after adopting the character of a villainous trash-talking rapper. After winning his first WWE Championship in 2005, he underwent a gimmick change into a heroic character, which he described as a “goody-two shoes Superman”.Cena led the company as its franchise playerand public face from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s. His face run from 2003 to 2025 is the longest in the history of WWE.

Cena has held the WWE Championship a record 13 times and the World Heavyweight Championship three times. He is also a five-time WWE United States Champion, a two-time WWE Tag Team Champion, a two-time World Tag Team Champion, a two-time Royal Rumble winner, and a one-time Money in the Bank winner. He has headlined multiple major WWE pay-per-views, including its flagship event WrestleMania six times (22, 23, 27, 28, 29 and 41). His career has been met with mixed critical and audience reception, with praise for his character work and promotional skills but criticism for his perceived over-representation and on-screen dominance relative to other wrestlers.

Cena’s first starring film role was in The Marine (2006) and he gained praise for his performances in Trainwreck (2015), Ferdinand (2017), Blockers (2018), and Bumblebee (2018).[23] He starred in F9 (2021) and Fast X (2023) and portrayed Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad (2021) and the eponymous television series (2022–present). He released his only studio album, You Can’t See Me, in 2005, which peaked at number 15 on the Billboard 200. Outside of his work in entertainment, Cena is known for his involvement in charitable causes, and has granted the most wishes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation at over 650.

Early life
John Felix Anthony Cena was born in West Newbury, Massachusetts, on April 23, 1977,to Carol (née Lupien) and former Chaotic Wrestling ring announcer John Joseph Cena.[7][25] His mother is of English and French-Canadian descent, while his father has Italian ancestryHe has one older brother named Dan and three younger brothers named Matt, Steve, and Sean. He was raised Catholic. His maternal grandfather was baseball player Tony Lupien,while his maternal great-grandfather was businessman Ulysses J. Lupien.He is also a cousin of computer scientist Natalie Enright Jerger. A childhood fan of wrestling, he would create championship belts out of cardboard for himself and his brothers.He was teased and beaten up while in school, prompting him to ask his parents for a weightlifting bench at the age of 12.

Cena was educated at Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts, before transferring to the private prep boarding school Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. He then attended Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he was an NCAA Division III All-American center and football team captain. He graduated in 1999 with a degree in exercise physiology and body movement,after which he pursued a bodybuilding career and worked as a limousine driver.He also worked in the store area of Gold’s Gym.
Under his real name, Cena made his WWE television debut on the June 27 episode of SmackDown! by answering an open challenge by Kurt Angle.After declaring he possessed “ruthless aggression”, he lost by a pinning combination, but put on a good showing. After the match, he was congratulated by Billy Kidman, Faarooq, Rikishi, and The Undertaker, becoming a fan favorite.He began feuding with Chris Jericho, whom Cena defeated on July 21 at Vengeance.

In October, Cena and Billy Kidman failed to win a tag team tournament to crown the first WWE Tag Team Champions of the SmackDown! brand in the first round.The next week on SmackDown!, Cena turned on and attacked Kidman, blaming him for their loss and turning heel for the first time in his WWE career.On the October 17 episode of SmackDown!, Cena defeated Kidman but lost in a rematch the next week. At Rebellion on October 26, Cena and Dawn Marie lost to Kidman and Torrie Wilson in a mixed tag team match. Shortly after, on a Halloween-themed episode of SmackDown!, Cena dressed as Vanilla Ice, performing a freestyle rap.The following week on SmackDown!, Cena received a new character: a rapper who cut promos while rhyming.He used the nickname “The Doctor of Thuganomics” and expanded his gimmick to include rapping before his matches, wearing hats and sports jerseys as part of his ring gear On a bus, Stephanie McMahon, Paul Heyman, and others heard Cena having a rap battle with another Smackdown wrestler. The decision was made to have Cena try rapping as a gimmick.As the character evolved, Cena began adopting a variant of the 1980s WWF logo—dropping the “F”—as his “signature symbol”, along with the slogan “Word Life”. Moreover, he was joined by an enforcer, Bull Buchanan, who was rechristened to B-2 (also written B² and pronounced “B-Squared”).Buchanan was replaced with Red Dogg until he was sent to the Raw brand in February.

Cena then sought the WWE Championship, held by Brock Lesnar. He entered a number one contender’s tournament for the title, gaining upset wins over Eddie Guerrero, The Undertaker and Chris Benoit. At Backlash on April 27, Cena failed to win the title from Lesnar.On May 18 at Judgment Day, Cena and The F.B.I. (Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli) defeated Benoit, Rhyno and Spanky. At Vengeance on July 27, Cena lost to The Undertaker.[41][53] After losing to Kurt Angle at No Mercy on October 19, Cena became a fan-favorite when he joined Angle as a member of his team on November 16 at Survivor Series.