Never Give Up: John Cena’s Journey to Superstardom

Brian Damage

John Cena’s rise to superstardom started out with a slap, a handshake, rapping about tuna fish, and a babyface turn. Before the rocket was strapped to Cena’s back and received a monster push to main event status, there was a heel turn of sorts thrown in to the mix. A heel turn that happened, but was never seen.

John Cena was a heavily touted wrestler in developmental for WWE. Scouted and signed by Jim Ross, Cena learned a lot of his craft down in Ohio Valley Wrestling under the gimmick name of ‘The Prototype.’ He finally got the call to the main roster on June 27th, 2002, where he answered Kurt Angle’s open challenge. He wasn’t given a gimmick, simply wrestling under his real name. According to Angle, the match wasn’t pre-planned. It was decided on that day that John Cena would debut against Kurt Angle.

The reasoning for Cena wrestling a top guy like Angle in his first WWE match, was Vince McMahon wanted to see how he could handle the pressure. Basically, McMahon wanted to throw John Cena into the deep end and see if he could swim or sink. After Kurt asked what his name was, John Cena introduced himself to the world and slapped Kurt’s face. It was the unofficial start of the ‘Ruthless Aggression Era’ in the company. When the match ended, Angle recalled going to the back and Cena was there to thank Kurt for the opportunity and shake his hand. Vince McMahon hugged Kurt and thanked him for putting Cena to the test.

To help solidify John Cena as a true up and coming superstar, they filmed a segment where the Undertaker offered a handshake to Cena impressed with his potential. It all seemed like John Cena was going to have a rocket tied to his back and be pushed to the moon. That seemed to be the plan, but fans simply didn’t gravitate to his character. Cena wasn’t connecting with the audience at all. Cena said that it was so bad that he was informed that his job with the company was in jeopardy. From the info he gathered, he was going to be released after WWE did a tour of Europe.

While on that tour, Cena was hanging out with some of the boys in the back of the bus. Rikishi and others were rapping and Cena jumped in and began to freestyle rap which is basically just rapping off the top of your head. It got over with the boys in the back, but there was someone in the front of that bus that took notice…Stephanie McMahon. Impressed with what she heard from Cena, she asked John if he could rap about anything? Cena was up for the challenge and Stephanie pulled out a can of tuna fish from her purse and asked him to rap about that. Cena did and amazed Stephanie who told Cena to meet with her after the European tour.

Stephanie came up with the idea to make Cena into a ‘white boy rapper’ and work as a heel. The transformation was a successful one and injected new life into his WWE career. Cena would come out to the ring dressed in hip hop attire and freestyle rap about the city he was in and run down his opponents. The formula worked and soon this new version of John Cena was starting to hear more cheers than boos. So much so, it allowed Vince McMahon to pull the trigger and turn Cena babyface once again.

The babyface turn was set up prior to the Survivor Series 2003 pay per view. Paul Heyman offered Cena a spot on Brock Lesnar’s team, to which Cena turned them down. The fans erupted in cheers for Cena not accepting the offer and Cena was internally made into a babyface that night…that is until the following week.

The original plan had Cena teaming with Chris Benoit to take on members of Team Lesnar and both Cena and Benoit standing tall to end the show to solidify Cena’s face turn. That is until writer/producer Michael Hayes decided to change the script up. Hayes wanted Cena to turn of Benoit and make Cena a “tweener” much like Stone Cold Steve Austin was during his WWF tenure. Hayes felt that Cena turning on Benoit would leave fans questioning if Cena could be trusted by anyone going into the Survivor Series.

Reportedly, Hayes’ idea was met with a lot of resistance as the other writers felt it was not only a bad idea, but could stymie Cena’s babyface momentum. Hayes and the other writers argued back and forth and it all came down to Vince McMahon and his decision. In the end, Vince sided with Hayes and greenlit his idea. Once the match took place and Cena turned on Chris Benoit, the fans were left in silence confused about what they just saw. Backstage, the writers other than Hayes went to Vince and said the Cena turn on Benoit was horrible and confusing.

Vince McMahon realized he sided incorrectly and before that edition of Smackdown aired nationally, it was heavily edited. The final result made it appear that Cena and Benoit were standing tall and the heel turn after was completely cut. The supposed heel turn never made it past the fans that were in the arena that night and Cena was pushed hard as a mega face of the company.

Of course, the end result saw him become the face of WWE for over two decades, win 17 world titles, main event countless pay per views, a rap album and roles in Hollywood. Patience definitely paid of for both John Cena and WWE.