Biography
John Felix Anthony Cena, born April 23, 1977 is an American professional wrestler, employed by the WWE currently working under the RAW brand. He has also been involved in making an album, which featured a hip-hop genre and he is also known for starring in the Marine, a WWE film.
Throughout his career thus far, John Cena has been a three-time WWE champion, a two time World Heavyweight Champion, a three-time United States champion and a two-time WWE Tag team champion with Shawn Michaels. He also won the Royal Rumble 2008 match. Before making it big in WWE John Cena trained in both Ohio Valley Wrestling and Ultimate Pro Wrestling, holding the top titles of each promotion.
John Cena first appeared in WWE when Kurt Angle issued an open challenge to anyone in the back, he was unknown at this point and was seen as a jobber. When asked by Kurt Angle what makes him different from anyone else, John Cena replied “Ruthless Agression,” and then proceeded to smack Kurt Angle. John Cena came close to winning the match, kicking out of the Angle Slam and enduring the ankle lock, unfortunately John Cena got rolled up by Kurt Angle in an amateur style pin.
This led John Cena onto being a face throughout the early days in his WWE career and he got involved in a program with Chris Jericho. After this, John Cena along with Billy Kidman got pit into a Tag Team championship crowning tournament, in which they lost in the first round. The next week John Cena attacked Billy Kidman, blaming him for their loss.
A couple of weeks later, on a Halloween themed episode of Smackdown, John Cena dressed as Vanilla Ice and performed a freestyle rap, a week later he had a new gimmick in which he would cut promo’s in rhymes. As the gimmick grew, he adopted the slogan “Word Life,” which was also the name of his theme song, which he sung.
For the first few months of 2003, John Cena kept challenging Brock Lesnar (the then WWE champion), during the feud John Cena then adopted his finishing move – the FU, as to mock Lesnar’s F5. He finally got a match against Lesnar, but he unfortunately lost. The end of the year saw John Cena turn face again and join Kurt Angle’s Survivor Series team.
John Cena then participated in 2004 Royal Rumble and made it to the final six before being eliminated by the Big Show, the elimination led to a feud between John Cena and the Big Show – which would lead up to Wrestlemania XX, in which John Cena defeated Big Show to gain the United States Championship. The reign lasted four short months, and he was stripped of the championship by Kurt Angle. He then went onto win the title back in a “Best of 5 Series” match with Booker T, only to lose it to Carlito within the next week.
The two continued to feud until John Cena was stabbed in a Boston Nightclub by Carlito’s bodyguard, Jesus. This was used for John Cena to take time off to film the Marine. Upon returning a month after, John Cena immediately went onto win the United States title back from Carlito and debuted the “spinner United States Championship.”
John Cena participated in the Royal Rumble 2005 match in which he made it to the final two, where him and Batista went over the top rope at the same time. And then Vince McMahon came out and ordered they battle it out, Sudden-death to determine a winner. Batista went onto win the match. Within the next month, John Cena defeated Kurt Angle to earn a spot in Wrestlemania 21′s main event match again JBL.
In the beginning of the feud, John Cena lost his US title to Orlando Jordan (one of JBL’s cabinet members), who then proceeded to blow up the title and replace it with the old normal one. At Wrestlemania 21, John Cena defeated JBL to gain the WWE championship. As a continuation to the feud, John Cena took the belt and had a spinner made, while JBL still walked around with the old, traditional title, claiming to be the rightful champion. This, then led onto Smackdown’s next big pay-per-view – Judgment Day, where John Cena defeated JBL again in an “I Quit” match.
A few weeks following this, John Cena got drafted to Raw as part of the draft lottery. John got involved with Bischoff in a storyline, when he refused to participate in an ECW reunion show. Eric Bischoff then proceeded to having John Cena take on Chris Jericho, in which he ordered Jericho to take the title from Cena. John Cena defeated Chris Jericho, resulting in Jericho being “Fired.”
Cena then proceeded to feud with Kurt Angle, in which he added another finisher to his movelist, the STFU (STF). John Cena defeated Angle several times in the feud and he was ordered to then go into a Triple threat submission match, in which John Cena then used the aforementioned STFU.
John Cena proceeded onto 2006 as WWE Champion, but sadly lost it in the first pay-per-view, New Years Revolution. However, he did not lose it in the elimination chamber, he lost it due to Edge cashing in his money in the bank – “a guaranteed championship against any champion, that can be cashed it at anytime,” after two quick spears from Edge, it saw the title change hands and John Cena lose the WWE championship. A mere three weeks later, John Cena then regained the championship back from Edge at the Royal-Rumble pay-per-view.
John Cena was then put into a feud with Triple H, who he defeated at Wrestlemania 22, using his signature submission move – the STFU. However, the crowd was severely against Cena, booing the meant to be face Cena, but chanting for the heel Triple H. After Wrestlemania John Cena went onto ECW One Night Stand to face Rob Van Dam. The negative feedback from the crowd intensified when he faced Rob Van Dam, in a very hostile situation, chants like “Fuck you, Cena,” “You can’t wrestle” and “Same, old shit” were directed at him. When he began using different moves – the crowd then went onto chant “You still suck.” John Cena lost the match after being speared through a table by Edge (in which the crowd chanted “Thank you, Edge”) and then a five-star frogsplash from RVD.
The next month, Edge defeated Rob Van Dam to gain the WWE championship for the second time, this then re-ignited the feud between John Cena and Edge. After Edge retained the title a few times, by using underhanded tactics and getting disqualified dubious times, he took his own “spin on things” by mocking John Cena’s title by making his own custom title with a spinning “R” (Rated R Superstar). John Cena eventually won the title back in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match against Edge at Unforgiven 2006, he then returned the championship back to normal a week later.
John Cena was then placed into a “Champion of Champions” program, which involved Big Show, John Cena and Booker T, each holding the main title from each respective brand, which would take place at Cyber Sunday with the viewers voting which championship would be on the line. Round about the same time, John Cena got involved in a storyline with Kevin Federline, upon this, K-Fed got involved in the Cyber Sunday “Champion of Champions” costing John Cena the win, and helping King Booker to retain the title.
2006 ended with John Cena getting involved with the undefeated Umaga in a feud over the WWE championship. 2007 began on January 1st, with K-fed defeating John Cena with the help of Umaga, however Cena later FU-ed Kevin Federline. New Years Revolution 2007 would mark the end of Umaga’s undefeated streak in a Cena would also go on to the Royal Rumble to face Umaga again, in a last man standing match, in which John Cena retained the belt.
One night after the Royal Rumble, Cena was thrown into a Tag team titles match with Shawn Michaels as a partner, Cena and Michaels went onto win the titles, making Cena a double champion. On April 2nd, Shawn Michaels turned on Cena and lost them the championships, to the Hardys (Jeff and Matt). Bitter about the wrestlemania defeat, Shawn would continue to feud with John Cena. Cena also feuded with The Great Khali, Randy Orton and Edge. The Great Khali proceeded to “laying out” all three of John Cena’s opponents and John Cena and then stealing the physical belt. He then feuded with John Cena for two months, and Cena was the first person to make him submit and pin him in the WWE.
In the weeks leading up to Summerslam, Randy Orton was named as the number one contender for John Cena’s championship. In the weeks leading up to their match, Randy Orton laid several sneak attacks on Cena, RKO-ing him on three seperate occassions. However, when it came to the actual match, John Cena defeated Randy by pinfall. The feud then continued until Unforgiven, in which Cena won due to disqualification, after Randy Orton wouldn’t let up on beating John Cena in the corner.
During a match with Mr. Kennedy – John Cena suffered a torn pectoral muscle injury, resulting in him being out for seven months to a year, this resulted in Mr. McMahon stripping John Cena of the title and then determining the next WWE champion at No Mercy, which was meant to be a “Last Man Standing” match between John Cena and Randy Orton. Despite his injury, John Cena still participated in the annual “Tribute to the Troops” program where he showed up as a “one armed Santa” and FU’ed Vince.
John Cena made an abrupt return to WWE in the Royal Rumble and entered at Number 30 to win the Royal Rumble. This resulted in John Cena getting a number one contender shot at Randy Orton for the title at Wrestlemania, however – John Cena stated that he wanted the championship back sooner and so gave it a go at No Way Out, only to win by disqualification due to Randy Orton’s underhanded tactics. The night after John earned a spot to go in the Wrestlemania Triple Threat match involving Orton and Triple H.
Wrestlemania came rapidly, and John like always brought something unique to the table — this time having his theme song played in instrumental by a marching band, John unfortunately lost in the match after he got pedigreed, and then Orton pinned him for the victory. And so it was that Cena’s pursuit for the title continued onto Backlash Pay-Per-View in which he faced two top contenders to the title (JBL and Triple H) and the WWE Champion Randy Orton, Cena again came up short getting pinned by Randy Orton and eliminated from the match-up. During the match, Cena eliminated John Bradshaw Layfield, thus refueling their 2005-feud.
Cena went onto beat JBL twice at two consecutive Pay-Per-Views, once at Judgment Day and once at One Night Stand in a “First Blood” match, after he applied his patented STFU for the victory, making JBL bleed from the mouth. Their rivalry continued onwards to the Great American Bash in which Cena was pitted against JBL in a “Parking Lot Brawl” Match, where Cena lost after being thrown down onto a car.
John Cena and Batista had been a rivalry in the making since 2005; where both John and Batista scored big and elevated themselves to main event status and arguably, the faces of the WWE. While their feud escalated to one of the most remembered, they obtained the World Tag Team Champions, but quickly lost them when they proved they could not co-exist as a unit. SummerSlam saw the two thrown into a unique atmosphere and proved to be as good as expected. Back and forth action, each hitting their signature finishing moves, it was however Batista who prevailed after two Batista bombs.
The match had cataclysmic results, as both were injured in the match and both required surgery. Cena, who was supposed to be involved in the Championship Scramble match at Unforgiven for CM Punk’s title ended up being put on the sideline and required surgery. Cena underwent successful surgery to repair his herniated disk, shortly after vignettes started airing promoting John Cena’s return to WWE for the Survivor Series Pay-Per-View which took place in the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston.
Cena made his in-ring return at the Garden and defeated the World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho to claim his first ever World Heavyweight Championship (fourth of the world titles). Chris Jericho and John Cena continued their rivalry up to Armageddon where Cena would once again beat Chris Jericho: thus retaining the World Heavyweight Championship.
Shortly after another old rival would get in the way again: JBL – John Bradshaw Layfield, who proved to have a secret weapon in the means of Shawn Michaels, which practically guaranteed that JBL would be heading to WrestleMania with the title. The night came and at the Royal Rumble 2009, John Cena overcame all the odds and a superkick by Shawn Michaels to retain the World Heavyweight Championship and start his own road to WrestleMania 25.
No Way Out 2009 rolled along and John Cena found himself pitted against five other superstars in an Elimination Chamber: Edge (who took the place of Kofi Kingston), Rey Mysterio, Mike Knox, Kane and Chris Jericho. Cena found himself getting eliminated early upon his entrance into the match, receiving consecutive finishers from Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho and Edge. Edge would go on to win the match and prove once again that he was indeed “The Ultimate Opportunist.”
Another one of Cena’s old rivalries was rekindled: John Cena vs. Edge, with Big Show thrown in there for seemingly insurmountable odds. The three faced off in a triple threat match on the grandest stage of them all: WrestleMania, which showed another unique entrance. This time with a barrage of Cena’s each lining the edges of the ramp while in unison doing the “You Can’t See Me” taunt. WrestleMania 25 was nothing short of spectacular, where Cena would show unparalleled strength when he accomplished the feat. of hoisting up both Edge and the Big Show on his shoulders for an Attitude Adjustment, proving his stature in WWE by overcoming the odds and once again making himself the World Heavyweight Champion.
It was a short lived reign as a month later, he and Edge would face off again in a Last Man Standing match. Cena and Edge threw everything at each other, and it was Edge, with the help of Big Show who would win the match, after John was sent plummeting through a 7000-watt search light by a devastating chokeslam from the Big Show.
This started off another feud between the two, with Cena being billed as the ultimate underdog after getting knocked out week-after-week by the largest athlete in the world. Cena managed to overcome the Big Show at Judgment Day when he gave him an Attitude Adjustment for the three. Big Show, not happy by this upset, challenged Cena once again at Extreme Rules in a submission match, where Cena would once again overcome the odds and apply the STF to the Big Show for the tap out.
While partaking in the feud with the Big Show, an arrogant and cocky up-and-comer — The Miz would challenge Cena each week to no answer and thus hold 7-0 victories over Cena by forfeit. Finally, after the feud with the Big Show had concluded, Cena got the chance to actually shut the Miz up and challenged him to a match at “The Bash.” The Miz got much more than he bargained for when he stepped into the ring with the leader of the “Cenation,” John Cena would ultimately end up breaking the “streak” that Miz had going and proved that the Miz was all talk. Several weeks this rivalry continued until the Miz ended up getting “banished” from Raw by losing to Cena in a lumerjack match.
With his feud with the Miz out of the way, Cena sought after the WWE championship which he had never lost and hung around the waist of Randy Orton. In a triple threat at Night of Champions, it was Randy Orton who would prevail and keep hold of the title. The biggest party of the Summer was once again around the corner and to determine the #1 contender to Orton’s title, Cena took part in a “Beat the Clock” challenge, where he would set the record time and ultimately get the shot.
SummerSlam had come after weeks of back and forth action between Orton and Cena, and it was finally time to put up or shut up for Orton. In a heated match that had “controversial” written all over it, Orton retained after the match had restarted four times. Not deterred by this, Vince McMahon was not happy and set up a match between the two at Breaking Point — an “I Quit” match.
