John Cena came up from humble beginnings as a kid from West New Bury Massachusetts and made himself into the biggest WWE superstar of a generation. The 16-time WWE Champion stayed at the top for more than a decade and was the undisputed face of WWE.
Cena began his WWE journey in their former developmental territory, OVW. In 2002, he made his debut which was memorable, answering Kurt Angle’s open challenge and putting up an excellent showing. Cena claimed that he had ‘Ruthless Aggression’ which was on full display that night.
However, John Cena began to lose momentum following his spectacular debut. The fan reactions had started to fade, and Cena was nothing but a generic wrestler with no personality. Looking back at those early days, his father, John Cena Sr. recalled an incident regarding his son and the former boss of WWE, Vince McMahon.
What was Vince McMahon’s perception about John Cena during his early WWE days?
In an interview on the Pancakes & Powerslams show, John Cena Sr revealed that Vince McMahon had made up his mind to fire his son from WWE during his early start. This was not only due to his unpopularity among the fans but also due to McMahon’s not wanting to have a steroid freak in his locker room.
However, the other people in the locker room convinced McMahon that John Cena was clean and had passed every drug test that was conducted back in the day. After Vince was convinced, he and the rest of the creative team sat down with Cena to work out his new character, which was called ‘The Doctor of Thuganomics.’
[Bruce Prichard] and Vince [McMahon] were standing [in the locker room] and John walked by. Vince said, ‘we gotta get rid of this dude. I can’t have a steroid freak walking around here.’ [And others said], ‘The guy’s legal. We test him every day, you know, he’s there.’ That’s how it all became, and then, I guess they got down, they sat down, and they worked out the Doctor of Thuganomics.
After Cena earned Vince McMahon‘s trust, his rapping skills were identified by Vince’s daughter Stephanie McMahon, during a bus ride. This led her to conclude that Cena could make a character out of his talent on SmackDown. Cena debuted his skills during the 2002 Halloween episode of the blue brand while impersonating Vanilla Ice.
Following that, he transitioned into the Doctor of Thuganomics, which saved his WWE career. Not only that, it marked the rise of John Cena as the flagship star of WWE and became the top fixture for them for the years to come.
John Cena delivered his first promo as a heel in WWE
After being a top babyface for more than twenty years, John Cena went rogue for the first time at the 2025 Elimination Chamber Premium Live Event. He attacked Cody Rhodes on the signal of The Rock and cemented his heel turn on the road to WrestleMania 41 where he will face Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship. However, the real fans knew that it was not his first time being an ultimate heel.
John Cena made his return to RAW in Belgium following that night. He delivered a scratching verbal rant against the fans which possibly had been building from the hate showered by them on Cena. He claimed that he was breaking up with them and focusing on himself. Furthermore, Cena stated that the fans were nothing, and now, they also meant nothing to him.
With the heel John Cena on the move on the road to WrestleMania 41, things will surely get interesting by the week. So, it remains to be seen whether embracing the hate would lead to him dethroning Cody Rhodes and winning his record 17th World Championship.
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