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John Cena Profile |
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Birth Date: April 23, 1977
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Birth Place: West Newbury, Massachusetts, USA
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Birth Name: John Felix Anthony Cena
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Height: 6'1"
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Biography |
John Cena is an
American professional wrestler, rap music artist and actor
who wrestles on the RAW brand of World Wrestling
Entertainment (WWE), where he is the reigning WWE Champion.
Cena first started training to become a wrestler in 2000 at
the California-based Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW) where he
created the character The Prototype. After UPW, he was
signed to a World Wrestling Entertainment developmental
contract and assigned to "farm territory" Ohio Valley
Wrestling (OVW).
During his time in OVW, he also appeared on the UPN reality
show Manhunt under the pseudonym "Big Tim Kingman", the
"lead hunter" in a team "hunting" contestant with paint ball
guns. The show was produced in association with WWE. It was
later revealed that many of the scenes in the show were
re-shot or staged to enhance the drama, contests were rigged
to eliminate contestants, and other contestants read from
scripts. As a result of the controversy, WWE has never
referenced the show or Cena's part in it.
Cena's first televised WWE match was in answer to an open
challenge by Kurt Angle on June 27, 2002. Inspired by Vince
McMahon's speech to WWE's rising stars, exhorting them to
show "ruthless aggression" to earn a place among the
legends, Cena took advantage of the opportunity and almost
beat Kurt Angle kicking out of the Angle Slam and enduring
the ankle Lock submission hold, but ultimately lost to a
hard, amateur-style pin.
Cena then played the role of a typical underdog face in each
match. After losing alongside Billy Kidman in a tournament
match for the WWE Tag Team Championships, Cena turned heel,
blaming Kidman for the loss. Shortly after his heel turn, on
a Halloween episode of SmackDown!, he performed a freestyle
rap for Stephanie McMahon while wearing a Vanilla Ice
costume prompting a gimmick change to a white rapper. At
first, this gimmick got Cena heel heat from the fans, but
his frequent comical "freestyles" about other wrestlers
helped to gain him a following. During this time Cena
adopted the classic WWF logo (without the "F") along with
the slogan "Word Life" as his "signature symbol". He was
joined by an enforcer, first B-2 (also written as B˛,
pronounced "B-Squared"), who was later replaced by Rodney
Mack under the moniker "Red Dogg".
Cena eventually feuded with Brock Lesnar over the WWE
Championship. During the feud he unveiled a new signature
finishing maneuver, the F-U, as a counterpart to Lesnar's
similar F-5 (the name being derived from a combination of
"F-5" and the shorthand for "Fuck You"). The two eventually
joined forces when Lesnar also turned heel and together
feuded with Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero before Cena turned
face by betraying Lesnar and feuding with him again,
establishing his signature "you can't see me" catch phrase
and hand gesture in the process.
During 2004 Cena's popularity began to increase. At the
start of the year, he participated in the annual January
Royal Rumble, lasting up to the final 6 before being
eliminated by Big Show. After the elimination Cena and Big
Show began a feud, leading to Cena winning the United States
Championship from Big Show in a match at March's
WrestleMania XX. Cena claimed the title, his first in WWE,
by distracting the ref and using his signature brass
knuckles on Big Show before hitting him with the F-U. In
July he was stripped of the title by SmackDown! General
Manager Kurt Angle, whom he had a contentious relationship
with, after "attacking" him.
He won the title back at October's No Mercy after winning
the final match of a Best-of-5 series with Booker T. This
second reign was short-lived, however, as he lost the title
to the debuting Carlito in the very next weeks SmackDown!.
This started a feud with Carlito. The storyline said Cena
was attacked in a Boston nightclub by Carlito's bodyguard,
Jesús, who stabbed him in the kidney, keeping him out of
action for a month. In truth, this event was set up to allow
Cena time off to film The Marine. Upon his return, Cena
exacted revenge on Carlito in a SmackDown! match, winning
back the U.S. title. During this reign he debuted a "custom
made" spinner style title belt.
At the 2005 Royal Rumble, Cena and Batista went over the top
rope at the same time to end the match, prompting Vince
McMahon to demand the match be restarted and go into "sudden
death".
With Batista winning, and choosing to vie for the (RAW
exclusive) World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania
21, SmackDown! held a tournament to determine #1
contendership for the their top title, the WWE Championship.
In the tournament finals Cena pinned Kurt Angle to win the
WrestleMania title shot.
In the following weeks, Cena feuded with champion John
Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) and his Cabinet, including losing
his United States Championship to Cabinet member Orlando
Jordan, who (with JBL) proceeded to "blow up" the custom
spinner belt. It was during this feud that Cena first began
referring to his fans as "Chain Gang Soldiers" (often
shorted to just "Chain Gang").
On April 3, at WrestleMania 21, Cena defeated JBL to win the
WWE Championship. As part of the storyline, he then had a
custom WWE Championship belt made similar to his custom U.S.
title belt, featuring a spinner-type WWE logo plate. This
belt also featured a 'winged eagle' at the top, which is a
staple of the WWE Championship belts. Meanwhile, JBL took
the original belt and claimed he was still the WWE Champion
until Cena reclaimed that belt following an "I Quit" match
at Judgment Day in May.
On the June 6th episode of RAW, John Cena became the first
wrestler selected in the annual draft lottery, when Eric
Bischoff drafted him from SmackDown! over to RAW. Upon
arriving on RAW, Cena immediately entered a program with
Chris Jericho and Christian, two wrestlers with strong cult
followings. Taking on these two began a trend of "fan
backlash" against Cena.
During this feud Cena made (kayfabe) enemies with RAW
General Manager Eric Bischoff, because he didn't wish to
play Bischoff's political games. Bischoff vowed to make
Cena's stint on RAW difficult and chose Chris Jericho to
take Cena's title from him.
On August 22, Cena beat Jericho in a "You're Fired" match
for the WWE Championship - despite interference from
Bischoff which included giving Cena a low-blow and handing
Jericho a pair of brass knuckles. After the match, with
Jericho now off of RAW due to his loss, Kurt Angle came to
the ring and attacked Cena, with Bischoff revealing that
Angle was his new "hand picked" number one contender for
Cena's world title. Despite Angle's best attempts to attain
heel heat through their feud, the fans continued to cheer
him and boo Cena.
After several weeks, Angle and Cena main evented September's
Unforgiven, where Cena hit Angle with the WWE title belt,
losing by disqualification but remaining champion (titles
don't change hands on a disqualification). They met again at
November's Survivor Series, with Cena picking up a clean win
this time.
The night after, Bischoff put Cena in the ring against Kurt
Angle and Chris Masters in a triple threat submission match
for the title, which Cena won by making Masters tap out for
the first time to his new submission maneuver, the STFU
(name derived from a combination of the STF name [although
Cena's submission is actually an STS], his other move - the
F-U - and the shorthand for "Shut The Fuck Up").
When Vince McMahon returned to RAW to put Bischoff "on
trial" in December, Cena made his opinion of Bischoff known
and eventually helped Vince McMahon remove Bischoff from the
show by delivering the F-U to the former RAW GM, effectively
ending the hostilities he had with Bischoff.
Cena successfully defended his WWE Championship in an
Elimination Chamber at the January New Years Revolution to
kick off 2006. After the match, however, Vince McMahon
appeared on the stage and announced that Cena was going to
have to defend the title again, this time against Edge, who
was cashing in his previously earned Money in the Bank title
shot. Edge delivered two spears to a battered, bloody, and
exausted Cena, pinning him in short order to win the WWE
Championship. Cena's championship reign ended at 280 days,
matching that of previous champion JBL.
Three weeks, to the day, after losing the title Cena
defeated Edge at the Royal Rumble to regain the WWE
Championship. During this time WWE announcers, most notably
Jim Ross, were forced to acknowledge the negative reactions
Cena was getting and began to refer to him as a
"controversial champion" saying that he was alienating some
fans with his "unorthodox style".
Jerry Lawler would often suggest that Cena was too young,
"edgy" and original for the older audience to appreciate.
Cena continued to polarize crowds leading up to WrestleMania
22, during which he was soundly jeered during his main event
win over Triple H. Despite Triple H's best attempts to get
heat, the crowd continued to favor him over Cena. Vince
McMahon was reportedly upset by fans' negativity, though
Cena stated that the fans "obviously had a choice in
deciding whom they wanted to root for".
The crowd began to cheer Cena once again after April's
Backlash, most notably when he began to side with the
popular Shawn Michaels in matches against the Spirit Squad.
After Cena stopped taking part in this angle and moved on to
working against Rob Van Dam there was once again a notable
mixture of cheers and boos in most arena's he visited, with
some being more pro-Cena and some more against him.
On the May 22nd edition of RAW, Rob Van Dam informed Cena
that he intended to cash in the Money in the Bank title
match contract he won at WrestleMania at the upcoming
Extreme Championship Wrestling One Night Stand pay-per-view
event. The event saw Cena get his most negative reaction yet
from the very pro-ECW crowd, including profanity-laced
chants and anti-Cena signs (most memorably one reading, "If
Cena wins, we riot," which has been used since then, with
different names in place of Cena's). Although Cena was
affected, it also motivated him to use moves outside of his
usual moveset in order to play to the crowd. Cena lost the
title at the event when Edge appeared from under the ring
and speared Cena through a table, setting him up for Van
Dam's Five Star Frog Splash. With two referees "knocked out"
(the first by Cena, the second by Edge) Paul Heyman ran down
the entrance aisle and counted the three count, giving Van
Dam the win and his first World Title. On the next nights
RAW Paul Heyman announced that the title change was
official, as the match was under "Extreme rules".
Coincidently, both of his WWE Championship losses in 2006
were as a result of the Money in the Bank title contract.
When Edge won the title from Van Dam in a Triple Threat
match (also involving Cena) it re-ignited the feud between
Edge and Cena. The opening stages of the feud saw Edge
taking constant shortcuts in order to keep his title (losing
by disqualification) while still seemingly getting positive
reactions from most crowds. This lead to a Cena and Edge
match at SummerSlam in a match where, if Edge was
disqualified, he would not only lose the match but his
title. Edge ultimately defeated Cena by pinfall after
hitting him with a pair of brass knuckles while the referee
was distracted to retain the title.
Having beaten Cena, Edge debuted a new "Rated R" version of
the spinner belt, having Lita toss Cena's version into the
Long Island Sound and declaring "the end of the era of Cena
in [his] life". The "Rated R" belt looked almost exactly
like the "Spinner" belt that came before it, only with a
spinning 'Rated R Superstar' logo in the center. Cena would
not go quietly however, convincing Edge to give him one more
match for the title with an added stipulation -- if Cena
lost, he would leave RAW for SmackDown!. Edge accepted, on
the grounds that the match also be a Tables, Ladders, and
Chairs match at Unforgiven in his hometown of Toronto. In
their match Cena defeated Edge, retrieving the title after
hitting an F-U on Edge from the top of a ladder and through
two stacked tables. He brought back his original spinner
belt on the following night's RAW. |
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Other Information |
Former Ohio Valley Wrestling Heavyweight Champion.
Former Ohio Valley Wrestling Tag Team Champion with Rico
Constantino.
Usually wears knee high denim shorts with a throwback and
cap.
2001 PWI Wrestling Rookie of the Year, 3rd runner-up.
Writes his own raps
Attended Springfield College in Massachusetts.
Is the second oldest of five brothers.
His debut match in the WWE was against Kurt Angle on
Smackdown
He's of Italian descent.
Defeated The Big Show for the U.S. Championship at
WrestleMania XX.
His father's name is also John Cena.
Is best friends with wrestlers Randy Orton and John Hennigan
off-camera.
Sported his own version of the WWE United States
Championship Belt. The front plate had a sparkled Red/Blue
background with 'US' in big white letters. The center plate
spun round like a turntable.
Used to be known as Prototype before starting with the WWE
Sometimes known as the Marky Mark of wrestling.
Defeated John Bradshaw Layfield for the WWE Championship at
Wrestlemania XXI
Cousin of "Tha Trademarc" Marc Predka.
Has four brothers - Matt, Sean, Boog, and Dan
#2 on the PWI top 500 wrestlers list in 2005.
Is a fan of Classic Rock.
Led Zeppelin is his favorite band.
Is a huge fan of cartoons
Played football his college year at his hometown of West
Newbury, Massachusetts.
Resides in Tampa Florida
Has made a suggestion to WWE Films that they team up with
Disney to do a film version of Dave The Barbarian, with
himself playing the title character.
Has a degree in exercise physiology and movement studies.
Favourite Magazine vis Auto-Trader.
Favourite cartoon is Family guy. |
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