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John Cena:
A Brief Biography

John Felix Anthony Cena, an American Professional Wrestler, was born in Massachusetts on April 23, 1977. In his earlier days, he had a passion for bodybuilding. He signed with WWE in 2001 and had a successful career in the company. His WWE Championship run made him into a megastar, and he became the face of the company.

He has held the WWE Championship on multiple occasions and various other titles during his in-ring career.

Also known for his charity work, he has granted over 500 wishes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the record highest by a single person. Renowned Major Baseball League player Tony Lupien was his maternal grandfather.

Latest News Updated on John Cena

On the latest edition of SmackDown, John Cena appeared on the titantron interrupting Roman Reigns. He also announced that he will be teaming along with Kevin Owens to face Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn on the 30th December 2022 edition of SmackDown.

Personal Life

John Cena and his wife

Despite his recent immense success in wrestling, John Cena did not start as a professional wrestler. He went to Princeton College and was an NCAA Division III All American Center. He graduated in 1998 with a degree in exercise physiology and body movement. After graduation, Cena decided to make a career out of bodybuilding while he also worked as a limousine driver. He only started training as a professional wrestler in 1999, at the Ultimate University run by Rick Bassman under Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW).

John Cena assumed the character of a semi-robotic cyborg persona known as The Prototype. It was while training here that he got featured in the Discovery Channel program Inside Pro Wrestling School. Immediately finding success in the ring, Cena held the UPW Championship for almost a month. With his fame on the rise, the erstwhile World Wrestling Federation snapped him up in 2001.

John Cena is married to Shay Sharietzadeh in 2020. She is a canadian engineer.

Professional Wrestling Career

Upon signing for the WWF, he made his unofficial debut in a dark match on a SmackDown taping. He lost the match to Mikey Richardson. However, he did go on to win the next dark match against Aaron Aguilera. He was then put under a developmental contract and placed at the Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), the company’s developmental territory.

Still fighting under the moniker of Prototype or Mr. P, he held the Heavyweight Championship at the OVW for three months while also holding the tag team championship for two months with Rico Constantino.

In-ring debut of Cena

John Cena faced Kurt Angle in his in-ring debut match

Cena made his official debut in WWE after an open challenge by Kurt Angle on SmackDown. Cena declared he possessed “Ruthless Aggression,” as described by Vince McMahon. He narrowly lost the match through a basic roll-up pin. However, his efforts were lauded by senior wrestlers like Billy Kidman, Farooq, Rikishi, and The Undertaker.

However, his real shot at fame came after feuding with Chris Jericho, whom he defeated in an upset at the Vengeance pay-per-view. He then partnered up with Kidman for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship but lost to Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit in the first round. The defeat forced Cena to turn heel and attack Kidman as he blamed him for the loss. He also feuded with Los Guerreros, winning his personal feud against Chavo but losing the tag team bout against them alongside Edge.

He then ignited a feud with Brock Lesnar, and it was during this time, he started using one of his signature moves FU, named to mock Lesnar’s F-5. He faced several big names like The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit and started establishing a name for himself.

At Wrestlemania XX, Cena recorded his first win against Big Show, where he shockingly attacked the giant with a chain to pick up the win and become the United States Champion. Cena then competed in the Royal Rumble Match in 2005, where Batista eliminated him to win the bout.

He then faced John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) for the WWE Championship and won at Wrestlemania 21 to kickstart his first World Title reign.

He was drafted to RAW and had quite a run where he defeated Randy Orton, Edge, Shawn Michaels, and Bobby Lashley to retain his title.

He then faced a pectoral muscle injury and was out of action for six months. Cena, later on, returned at the Royal Rumble 2008 and eliminated Triple H to earn a title shot at Wrestlemania. Unfortunately, he lost the triple threat match against Orton and Triple H.

In 2009, He faced Orton and had some iconic matches. Orton defeated Cena on multiple occasions with the help of his teammates Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase.

John Cena also went on to win the World Heavyweight Title at Survivor Series from Jericho but his reign didn’t last for a very long time as he lost the belt to Edge.

Cena then shifted his focus towards the WWE Championship. He was involved in a Title match against Triple H and Randy Orton at Night of Champions, where he lost. A defiant Cena won the championship back at Bragging Rights 2009.

Cena then defended the title against a debuting Sheamus, where he took a shocking loss. He then got his opportunity at Elimination Chamber and picked up the win. He quickly lost the title to Batista later on that night which set up a match between these two at Wrestlemania 26. Cena wrestled Batista at Wrestlemania and took the win. After successful title defenses against Batista, Cena lost the title at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view.

In the following year, he had a feud with a faction named Nexus and where he was attacked by the group formed by Wade Barrett. This led to a match with Barrett and Cena lost the bout. Finally, Cena vowed to get revenge on the faction. His attack on the group members lead to a match with Wade Barrett at TLC where the latter lost in a vicious chairs match and put an end to Nexus for good.

John Cena and CM Punk wrestled multiple times in 2011

Cena then had some memorable matches as he faced CM Punk in the Money in the Bank match which was considered to be one of his best matches. He then locked horns with The Rock in WrestleMania XXVIII where the Great One defeated him.

After WrestleMania, he came face to face with the returning Brock Lesnar. He clashed with Lesnar in a brutal encounter at Extreme Rules where Cena picked up the win.

He then had matches with Dolph Ziggler, Ryback which didn’t gain much prominence.

Cena then renewed his feud with The Rock after winning the 2013 Royal Rumble. He faced The Rock in a rematch at Wrestlemania 29 and defeated the Brahma Bull.

Cena lost the WWE Championship to Daniel Bryan at Summerslam 2013. He had a feud with the Bulgarian Brute Rusev for the United States Championship. Cena defeated Rusev on multiple bouts and had a successful reign for months. Cena frequently issued open challenges for his title on RAW. Later he battled Seth Rollins and lost the title at Summerslam 2015.

Cena began to wrestle as a part-timer in WWE. He made sporadic appearances. Cena Challenged WWE Champion AJ Stylesand dethroned him at the Royal Rumble 2017. Cena became a Historic record-tying 16-time WWE Champion. He also challenged The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 34 where he lost to the legend in a completely one-sided squash match.

In 2021, Cena returned to confront a clueless Roman reigns at Money in the bank. He challenged Reigns to a match at Summerslam 2021. Cena and Reigns had a back and forth match only for the returning Hollywood star to take a clean defeat.

John Cena First Championship

John Cena won the United States Championship at WrestleMania XX

In 2004, Cena lost out to Big Show in the Royal Rumble. Cena then took it up to defeat Big Show on the next opportunity he got, and he did so at WrestleMania XX. The victory got him his first United States Championship. He successfully defended his title for just short of four months, after his title was stripped off him in a farcical manner. John Cena accidentally knocked Kurt Angle over, thus “attacking an official”.

However, he then won it back from Booker T at No Mercy, only to lose it again. This time he was defeated by debutant Carlito Caribbean Cool, and the duo started feuding. Allegedly, Cena was stabbed in the kidney by Carlito’s bodyguard. However, this kayfabe injury was used to allow Cena to shoot for his debut film The Marine.

On his return, he won the title back from Carlito and even defeated his bodyguard in a street fight match.

Also Read: What is John Cena’s Net Worth?

John Cena WWE Champion

John Cena is a 16-time World Champion

Despite winning the title back from Carlito, Cena was not going to keep for long as he lost it to cabinet member Orlando Jordan, after WWE Champion JBL, interfered in the match hitting Cena with his title belt. Cena instead developed a feud with the champion and eventually defeated him twice, at WrestleMania and an “I Quit” match. The Age of John Cena had finally begun.

John Cena eventually lost the title to Edge in the first pay-per-view of 2006, where Edge cashed his Money in the Bank contract, who took advantage of a worn-out bloodied Cena, who had just won the Elimination Chamber match.

Edge held on to the title by using dubious means such as disqualification and using brass knuckles but was eventually defeated by Cena winning the title back. Cena was then involved in a Champion of the Champions match where three of the WWE brand’s champions were to fight it out in a Triple Threat match. Cena lost after interference from non-wrestler Kevin Federline.

In 2007, he successfully defended his title but suffered a legitimate torn pectoral muscle which required surgery. His rehabilitation period was estimated to be around seven months to a year. As a result, he was stripped of his title. In 2008, he suffered another injury in the neck which also required surgery. The following year Cena finally regained his title from JBL but lost it to the new superstar of RAW Sheamus.

At the 2010 Royal Rumble, Cena went on to defeat some of the biggest stars of the WWE franchise including Sheamus, Triple H, and Randy Orton to win back the title. He was immediately challenged by Batista upon winning the title, and a tired Cena lost. But Cena won it back from Batista at WrestleMania. He was then forced to join Nexus and he won the Tag Team Championship with David Otunga.

Cena then again won titles from Rey Mysterio and Alberto del Rio. In 2013, he became one of the few wrestlers who have won multiple Royal Rumble events. He also won the World Heavyweight Championship from Del Rio but lost it to Randy Orton who defeated him twice.

In 2017, Cena had a feud with AJ Styles at Royal Rumble where Cena went on to defeat AJ Styles to be Crowned as the 16-time WWE Champion. He was the one who went onto to equal the record of the WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair.

John Cena WWE Return

John Cena returned to the promotion to face Roman Reigns at Money In The Bank 2021

In recent times, Cena has been termed as a free agent working both for RAW and SmackDown. However, he also had personal troubles after his breakup with Nikki Bella and his WrestleMania loss to The Undertaker. A returning Cena challenged Roman reigns for the universal championship. However, he lost the bout at Summerslam.

The Cenation Leader returned to Monday Night RAW on 27th June to celebrate his 20th Anniversary with the WWE Universe. After almost 6 months, John Cena announced digitally on the 9th December episode of SmackDown that he is going to return to WWE on the last SamckDown of the year, i.e. 30th December 2022. He is going to team up with Kevin Owens to face The Head of the Table Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn.

Eventually, Owens and Cena won against the bloodline. They delivered a double Five-Knuckle Shuffle to Reigns and Zayn. Then Cena hit the AA on Reigns and Owens finished the match with a stunner to Zayn for the three counts.

On RAW XXX, John Cena was announced as the cover athlete for WWE 2K23. Cena returned to WWE on the March 6th episode of RAW where he was challenged by the US Champion Austin Theory for a match. Cena was initially reluctant but eventually accepted the challenge thus setting up a contest at WrestleMania Hollywood for the United States Championship.

John Cena’s Movies and TV Shows

Movies

Movie Release Date RoleMarine13 October 2006John Triton12 Rounds27 March 2009Danny FisherLegendary10 September 2010Mike ChetleyFred: The Movie18 September 2010Mr. FigglehornThe Reunion21 October 2011Sam ClearyFred 2: Night of the Living Fred22 October 2011Mr. FigglehornFred 3: Camp Fred28 July 2012Mr. FigglehornTrainwreck7 August 2015StevenSisters18 December 2015PazuzuThe Wall12 May 2017Staff Sergeant Shane MatthewsDaddy’s Home10 November 2017RogerBlockers6 April 2018MitchellBumble Bee3 December 2018Agent BurnsPlaying with Fire6 November 2019Jake CarsonF925 June 2021Jakob TorettoSuicide Squad 26 August 2021PeacemakerVacation Friends27 August 2021Ron

TV Shows

Psych7 July 2006Are you smarter than a 5th grade27 February 2007Fred: The Show16 January 2012American Grit14 April 2016Carpool Karaoke: The Series9 August 2017Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles20 July 2018Wipeout1 April 2021Date of Me1 September 2021

John Cena’s Championships and Accomplishments

Championships and AccomplishmentsWWE Championship (13 times)World Heavyweight Championship (3 times)WWE United States Championship (5 times)WWE Tag Team Championship (2 times)World Tag Team Championship (2 times)Money In The Bank Winner (2012)Royal Rumble Winner (2008, 2013)