John Cena

John Cena
File:Johncenatitle.jpg
Born	April 23, 1977 West Newbury, Massachusetts
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	The Prototype John Cena
Billed height	6 ft 1 in (186 cm)
Billed weight	248 lb (112 kg)
Billed from	West Newbury, Massachusetts
Trained by	Ultimate Pro Wrestling Ohio Valley Wrestling
Debut	2002

John Felix-Anthony Cena, Jr. (born April 23, 1977 in West Newbury, Massachusetts), is an Italian-American professional wrestler and part-time hip hop artist who currently performs for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on the RAW brand, where he is the current WWE Champion. Cena brought the once SmackDown!-exclusive WWE Championship belt to RAW on June 6, 2005 when he was drafted to RAW during the 2005 Draft. Cena has released a music CD, You Can't See Me, with real life cousin Tha Trademarc, and has performed live concerts with Tha Trademarc and Bumpy Knuckles.

Before his professional wrestling career, John Cena was a bodybuilder, college football player, a team captain and All-American center for Division III at Springfield College. While at Springfield, he earned a degree in exercise physiology.^[1]

Early career

In 2000, Cena first started training to become a wrestler at the California-based Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW) where he created his character, The Prototype. WWE signed him to a developmental contract at Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) straight out of UPW.

World Wrestling Entertainment

Cena's first televised WWE match was against Kurt Angle on June 27, 2002 at the Allstate Arena in Chicago. Angle was giving "free shots" at himself to newcomers. Inspired by Vince McMahon's recent speech to WWE's rising stars, exhorting them to show "ruthless aggression" to earn a place among the legends, Cena took advantage of this opportunity. He almost beat Kurt Angle, kicking out of the Angle Slam and surviving the Ankle Lock submission hold, but ultimately losing to a hard amateur-style pin.

Cena was a typical face, an underdog in each match. After losing with then-babyface Billy Kidman in a tournament match for the WWE Tag Team Championships, Cena turned heel and blamed Kidman for the loss. Shortly after his heel turn, on a Halloween episode of SmackDown!, he performed a freestyle rap in a Vanilla Ice costume to Stephanie McMahon, and his gimmick was changed to that of a white rapper. At first, this gimmick got Cena a lot of heel heat from the fans, but his frequent freestyle raps about other wrestlers helped to gain him a following. During his run as a heel, Cena feuded with the Undertaker and Chris Benoit and also got some backup from the Full Blooded Italians. One of Cena's first trademark symbols was a modified, classic WWF logo (without the "F") with the slogan "Word Life".

Cena also feuded with Brock Lesnar. During that feud, he derived his signature finishing maneuver, the F-U, as a counterpart to Lesnar's similar F-5 move. Later, when Lesnar turned heel, they briefly joined forces. He would also feud with Kurt Angle and the late Eddie Guerrero before Cena turned face, betraying Lesnar and feuding with him again. Cena established his signature "you can't see me" catch phrase and hand gesture during this time as well. In a 2003 Survivor Series match, he was on a team led by Kurt Angle with Benoit, John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) and Hardcore Holly against Lesnar, Big Show, Nathan Jones, Matt Morgan and A-Train. In the end, Cena hit the F-U on Big Show and got the final pin, leaving him and Benoit as the sole survivors. The two superstars ended their feud there, though they would later fight each other during Cena's run for the WWE United States Championship.

United States Champion

In 2004, Cena's popularity started to increase. He feuded with The Big Show, leading to a WrestleMania XX victory to win the United States Championship. Cena claimed the gold by distracting the ref and using his brass knuckles on Big Show. This was his first WWE title. Eventually he was stripped of the title by then-SmackDown! General Manager Kurt Angle. He later won the title back after winning a best-of-5 match series against Booker T. Cena's second title reign was short-lived; he lost the title to the debuting Carlito in Cena's first televised match since regaining the title.

File:Cenaustitle.jpg

Cena as US Champion

As part of an angle, Cena was attacked in a Boston nightclub by Carlito's bodyguard, Jesus, which kept Cena from wrestling for about a month due to a kidney puncture. In actuality, this event was kayfabe and Cena was actually busy filming The Marine. He returned to wrestling just in time for the 2004 Survivor Series. Upon his return, Cena exacted revenge on Carlito in a SmackDown! match and won the U.S. title back. Afterward, however, Cena was attacked in the ring by Jesus, who hit him in the kidney several times with Cena's own chain.

Cena's United States title reigns were notable for two reasons. His second title reign came after a best-of-5 series of matches - a series of matches similar to the one wrestled by Booker T and Chris Benoit for the World Television Championship in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In addition, Cena wore a modified United States title belt during his third reign as champion. The new belt featured the same colors, but with the face plate fashioned as a spinner.

First WWE Championship reign

At the 2005 Royal Rumble, Cena and Batista both went over the top rope at the same time to end the match, but Vince McMahon demanded the match go into sudden death. Cena had Batista in the F-U, but Batista reversed it to win the match. Shortly after, Cena competed in a tournament to become the #1 contender for the WWE Championship, and won the tournament by defeating Kurt Angle at No Way Out. In the weeks leading up to WrestleMania 21, where Cena was to face JBL, he lost his United States Championship to JBL's Chief of Staff, Orlando Jordan, with he and JBL blowing up the spinner-style belt the following week. During this feud with JBL, Cena established a name for his fans: the "Chain Gang Soldiers" (often shorted to just "Chain Gang").

On April 3, 2005 at WrestleMania 21 in Los Angeles, Cena defeated JBL to win his first WWE Championship. He then had a custom WWE Championship belt made, just as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin had done with his "smoking skull" belt. Cena's WWE Championship belt is similar to his custom U.S. title belt, featuring a spinner-type WWE logo plate. In the meanwhile, JBL stole the original WWE belt and claimed he was still WWE Champion.

At Judgment Day, Cena successfully defended his title against JBL in a bloody "I Quit" Match. JBL, cornered against a glass pane, quit to avoid getting hit by a tractor trailer's exhaust pipe. He got hit anyway, sending him through the glass pane behind him. Cena was able to reclaim the real WWE Championship belt, though he still carried around his spinner belt.

Drafted to RAW

File:Johncena.jpg

John Cena on RAW

On the June 6, 2005 episode of RAW, John Cena became the first drafted in the annual WWE Draft Lottery, with Eric Bischoff drafting him from SmackDown! to RAW. Upon entering RAW, Cena immediately entered an angle with Chris Jericho and Christian. The rivalry between Christian and Cena had already been established when Christian attacked Cena on the Jericho's Highlight Reel, while Cena's rivalry with Jericho started when Jericho turned on Cena in a tag-team match against Christian and Tyson Tomko.

Cena defeated Christian and Chris Jericho in a Triple Threat match at WWE Vengeance by knocking Jericho out of the ring and pinning Christian. On the June 27 edition of RAW, Cena teamed with Shawn Michaels and a returning Hulk Hogan for the first time to beat Jericho, Christian and Tyson Tomko.

Feud with Bischoff

Cena quickly made enemies with RAW GM Eric Bischoff, delivering the F-U to Bischoff on the July 11, 2005 edition of RAW. Bischoff vowed to make Cena's stint on RAW difficult and chose Chris Jericho to contend for Cena's title. On July 25, 2005 Cena and Jericho competed in the first ever battle of the bands on RAW. The battle featured Cena's Chain Gang against Jericho's Fozzy. Cena performed but Jericho refused, claiming the audience was biased against him and that Fozzy would not perform until the upcoming SummerSlam 2005 pay-per-view. After a successful title defense against his rival Carlito, Cena also successfully defended his title against Chris Jericho at SummerSlam 2005.

On August 22, 2005 in Hampton, Virginia, Cena beat Jericho in a "You're Fired" match for the WWE Championship despite the General Manager giving Cena a low-blow and also handing a pair of brass knuckles to Jericho. After the match, Kurt Angle came into the ring and attacked Cena while Eric Bischoff revealed that Angle was the number one contender for Cena's world title. After several weeks of feuding, both men faced off in the main event of Unforgiven 2005, where Cena lost to Angle by disqualification after hitting Angle with the WWE title belt, meaning Cena would still be champion. At Taboo Tuesday 2005, Cena again successfully retained his WWE Championship in a Triple Threat match against Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels by pinning Michaels.

On the November 14, 2005 edition of RAW, Cena paid tribute to Eddie Guerrero, who had recently passed away. After a main event match with Randy Orton that had Cena delivering the F-U to Orton, Cena took off the Eddie Guerrero "I'm Your Papi" T-shirt he had worn during the match in Eddie's honour. He laid it down on the mat and placed his championship belt on top of it, honouring Guerrero, who was a former WWE Champion.

At the 2005 Survivor Series, Cena successfully defended the WWE Championship against Kurt Angle.

On the December 5, 2005 episode of RAW, Cena made his opinion of Bischoff known during Bischoff's mock trial and helped Vince McMahon fire Bischoff by delivering the F-U to the former RAW GM, effectively ending the hostilities he had with Bischoff and giving Cena the last laugh.

Losing the WWE Championship

On January 8, 2006, at New Year's Revolution, Cena successfully defended his WWE Championship in an Elimination Chamber match. John Cena had to face Kane, Kurt Angle, Carlito, Chris Masters and Shawn Michaels. However, after the match, Vince McMahon came onto the stage and announced that Cena was going to defend the WWE Championship against Edge, who was cashing in his previously earned Money in the Bank title shot. Edge quickly delivered two spears to Cena, pinning him to win the WWE Championship and to end Cena's reign as WWE Champion at 280 days, matching that of previous champion JBL.

Second WWE Championship reign

On January 29, 2006, Cena defeated Edge at the 2006 Royal Rumble to regain the WWE Championship, three weeks to the day he lost it.

On February 20, 2006, Triple H defeated Rob Van Dam (RVD) and Big Show to win the Road to WrestleMania tournament, which in turn gave him a title shot at Cena's WWE Championship at WrestleMania 22. On the February 27, 2006 edition of RAW, Triple H and John Cena went face-to-face verbal confrontation in the middle of the ring. Triple H accused Cena several times of lacking in-ring ability, saying, "Well, excuse me if I'm not afraid of the guy whose one big move is pumpin' up his Reeboks." Cena went on to retain the WWE title at WrestleMania. Cena joined Hulk Hogan, Triple H, Diesel, Eddie Guerrero, and Yokozuna as the only men to retain the WWE Title at WrestleMania. (Yokozuna retained against Lex Luger at WrestleMania X, but lost the title to Bret Hart in the main event of the show.)

File:JohnCenaWM22.jpg

John Cena after his victory over Triple H at WrestleMania 22

On the April 3, 2006 edition of RAW, Cena again came out to a mixed reaction from the fans, which he commented on. Later in the night Cena was defeated in a handicap match against Triple H and Edge. After the show ended, Cena thanked the fans, whether they were cheering for him or cheering because he had just taken a considerable beating. Despite his positive words, he still received a substantial amount of jeering, though less than what he had received during the show. On April 30, 2006 at Backlash, Cena successfully defended his WWE Championship title in a Triple Threat match against Triple H and Edge, despite interference from Lita. Cena again successfully defended his WWE Championship the following night on RAW against Kenny of the The Spirit Squad, despite having Triple H as the special guest referee. After Triple H left Cena at the mercy of The Spirit Squad, Shawn Michaels came down to the ring as a referee to help Cena pick up the win. According to WWE.com, Vince McMahon declared that Cena would defend the WWE title against Triple H on the May 9, 2006 edition of RAW. However, McMahon went back on his word during the start of the show and put Cena, along with Shawn Michaels, in a handicap match against The Spirit Squad. McMahon then gave Triple H "the night off." Triple H emerged regardless at the end of the match (which The Spirit Squad won) and pedigreed Cena.

On the May 15, 2006 edition of RAW, Cena teamed with Rob Van Dam to defend his WWE Championship along with RVD's Intercontinental Championship in the first ever two-on-three Texas Tornado dual-title match against Triple H, Shelton Benjamin and Chris Masters, with the first cover winning or defending the respective title. The match ended when Benjamin pinned RVD to reclaim the IC title, allowing Cena to retain.

On the May 22, 2006 edition of RAW, Cena defeated Chris Masters by submission. Afterwards, Rob Van Dam informed Cena that he will be cashing in his Money in the Bank contract at ECW One Night Stand in order to challenge Cena for the WWE Championship.

Fan backlash

After the draft lottery which brought him to RAW, Cena's popularity with the fans slowly began to fade. With his two biggest rivalries being against Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle, the cult followings of both men were overwhelming in the crowd. At SummerSlam 2005, when Cena defended the WWE Championship against Chris Jericho, chants of "Let's go, Cena!" and "Let's go Jericho" were clearly audible, a sign that the fans were becoming divided over Cena. Slowly, boos began to emerge during Cena's matches.

Over time, the reactions towards Cena became more and more negative, especially during his feuds with stars such as Kurt Angle. Despite Angle's best attempts to attain heel heat, the fans continued to boo Cena. At New Year's Revolution, Cena successfully defended his title in an Elimination Chamber match, much to the displeasure of most of the crowd. During the match, everytime Cena was attacked, the crowd cheered, whether or not he was attacked by a face or heel. At the end of the match, Edge appeared much to the surprise of the crowd, cashing in on his Money-in-the-Bank clause. He defeated Cena, becoming the new WWE Champion, which was seen as a cheap move by the fans, as well as Joey Styles and Jerry Lawler, who claimed that Edge had "stolen the damn title."

Cena was reported as being upset by fans' negativity, although he stated that the fans obviously had a choice in deciding whom they wanted to root for. Possible reasons for the negative or mixed reactions were the predictability of the storylines and matches he had been booked in, his poor workrate in the eyes of many fans, and that his character had become too mainstream and less edgy over time as he received more exposure from the non-wrestling press becoming more of a typical face instead of remaining as a tweener antihero. Cena's circumstances are similar to Rocky Maivia's, before he became The Rock, who despite being pushed as a face was booed the more he tried to get the fans to side with him.

In the follow-up to the 2006 Royal Rumble, the brief feud with Edge seemed to be restoring Cena's popularity, with him making saves for crowd favorite Ric Flair. At the Royal Rumble, Cena reclaimed the WWE Championship, again drawing polarized reactions from the crowd.

Between this time and WrestleMania 22, where he was slated to face Triple H in a WWE Championship match, Cena's popularity appeared to be declining. A popular heel, Triple H drew positive crowd reactions for verbally putting Cena down, especially when he brought up Cena's perceived lack of wrestling ability. Cena responded with self-deprecation and sharp promos, which ultimately did little to aid his popularity at WrestleMania 22.

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John Cena preparing to F-U both Triple H and Edge simultaneously, Backlash

At WrestleMania 22, Cena retained the WWE Championship. He was booed at every turn, despite his grand entrance that glorified the Chicago Mafia, while Triple H had difficulty garnering heel heat. Announcers at WrestleMania 22 attributed the constant booing of Cena to the overwhelming population of "traditional wrestling fans," Jerry Lawler suggesting that Cena was too young, edgy and original for the older audience to appreciate.

Afterwards, Cena would continue to draw mixed reactions from the crowd, including his win against Triple H at the April 20, 2006 Backlash (WWE would even put up a blurb on the Backlash website after the PPV reading "Cena "wins""). On the May 8, 2006 RAW, Cena received unfavorable heat during a verbal sparring with Triple H, but was received more warmly when he paired up with Michaels to fight the Spirit Squad. Cena's crowd response during the May 22, 2006 RAW was mildly positive during his match with Chris Masters. After his win over Masters, the fans even cheered Cena when he brawled with Rob Van Dam, and booed RVD when he laid Cena out with his briefcase.

== AMERICA STILL SUCKS!!!!!!!!! ==

Wrestling facts

"The Six Moves of Doom"

File:F-U.jpg

John Cena hits the F-U on Chris Masters.

Cena's "Six Moves of Doom" is a term that some wrestling fans use to refer to a combo of moves Cena uses when he is on an in-ring comeback that leads to the pinfall or submission. The phrase was originally coined by Scott Keith in the Internet Wrestling Community as the "Five Moves of Doom" in reference to Bret Hart, who had a well-established sequence of five moves in the same context (in both cases, the term was also at times used in a pejorative fashion by critics who perceived the wrestler in question to have a limited moveset). The following are the six moves and the approximate order in which John Cena executes them (the fifth move can be either the finishing move or the set-up for the sixth and final move):

1. Flying shoulder block
2. Sitout hip toss or multiple clotheslines
3. Killswitch / Protobomb (Side release spin-out powerbomb)
4. Five Knuckle Shuffle (Fist drop with theatrics)
5. F-U (Standing fireman's carry takeover or fireman's carry powerslam)
6. STF-U (Stepover Toehold Sleeper)

Finishing and signature moves

• F-U (Standing fireman's carry takeover or fireman's carry powerslam)
• STF-U (Stepover toehold sleeper)
• Five Knuckle Shuffle (Fist drop with theatrics)
• Protobomb (Side release spin-out powerbomb)

• Flying shoulder block
• Sitout hip toss
• Freestyle (Swinging fisherman suplex)
• Throwback (Modified neck snap)
• Spinebuster
• Twisting belly to belly suplex
• Fisherman suplex

File:WWE JohnCena.jpg

Cena's Customized 'Spinner' WWE Championship Belt

Signature illegal weapons

• Steel chain
• Brass knuckles
• Chain Gang pendant
• Customized 'Spinner' WWE Championship Belt
• Customized 'Spinner' U.S Championship Belt

Signature taunts

• Waving one hand in front of his face, saying, "You can't see me."
• Pumping up his Reebok Pump sneakers.
• Putting his hands up while spreading them and putting his thumb sideways and his pinky up, meaning "Word Life".
• Occasionally freestyling on his opponents before his matches. (more commonly when he was a heel)
• Screaming, "The Champ is here!" (when holding a championship)
• Spinning his spinner title championship belt.

Personal information

John Cena's wrestling influences include Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and The Rock. Cena's father, John Cena Sr., works in the pro wrestling business as New England independent wrestling announcer and manager Johnny Fabulous. He is second of five brothers. His brothers are Dan, Matt, Steve and Sean (known affectionately as "Boog" to Cena and his brothers). Matt is also a body builder.[2]

Cena used to hang out and freestyle while on the road with Samoa Joe and Frankie Kazarian while in UPW.^[3]

He bought a 3.5-million-dollar house in Tampa Bay, Florida and currently resides there.

Cena is real-life good friends with fellow wrestler Randy Orton

Championships and accomplishments

• Ohio Valley Wrestling

• 1-time OVW Heavyweight Champion
• 1-time OVW Southern Tag Team Champion (with Rico Constantino)

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI Most Improved Wrestler Award (2003)
• PWI Most Popular Wrestler Award (2004)
• PWI Most Popular Wrestler Award (2005)

• Ultimate Pro Wrestling

• 1-time UPW Heavyweight Champion

• World Wrestling Entertainment

• 2-time WWE Champion
• 3-time WWE United States Champion

Footnotes

1. ^ "College football career". shopping.yahoo.com. Retrieved January 27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
2. ^ "College academics". biography.ms. Retrieved January 27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
3. ^ "Wrestling trivia before WWE". www.imdb.com. Retrieved January 27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
4. ^ "Cena still the champion due to disqualification". www.wwe.com. Retrieved April 4. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
5. ^ "Cena to star in new movie, The Marine". columbiarecords.com. Retrieved January 31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
6. ^ "Freestyling with Samoa Joe and Frankie Kazarian". Retrieved May 5. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

External links

• WWE Profile

• John Cena at IMDb
• Cena Unleashed (Fansite)