57. JOHN CENA
Aliases – The Prototype
Hometown – West Newbury, MA
Debuted – 16th February 2000
Titles Held – OVW Heavyweight (1) OVW Southern Tag (1); UPW Heavyweight (1); WWE Heavyweight (3); WWE Tag Team (1); WWE United States (3)
Other Accomplishments – starred in WWE Films’ major motion picture “The Marine”; released rap album “You Can’t See Me which reached #15 on the Billboard top 200; only 5 men have spent longer as WWE Champion; Portrayed Big Tim Kingman on “Manhunt”
Like him, love him or hate him, John Cena is THE face of World Wrestling Entertainment right now. Just by walking out into an arena the man can illicit some sort of reaction from at least 90% of the crowd. Whether it’s high-pitched cheers and squeals from the women and children or bass-filled boos from the men of the crowd, he’s got them all saying something at least. And it this point that is a lot more than a lot of his colleagues can say.
John Cena debuted on WWE television in the summer of 2002 as a babyface so vanilla that Bob Backlund from the 1980s would have thought he was plain. Sporting a high-and-tight buzz cut, two-toned matching tights and a gimmick of having “ruthless aggression” you would think he should have been Velocity jobber fodder.
Then Christmas came in the form of Halloween for young Mr. Cena. One Vanilla Ice impression later and John Cena was on a path to super stardom. He battled though low card feuds with Billy Kidman and Rikishi and failed partnerships with Rodney Mack and Bull Buchanan. His popularity grew as he got his first chance at WWF gold against Brock Lesnar in April 2003 and battled the Undertaker through that summer. By the fall he began his chase for The Big Show and the United States Championship. His chase finally ended at WrestleMania XX, as he hoisted the big man on his shoulders for an F-U. He won the belt and got his first WrestleMania moment. Under his watch the US belt became a silver plated spinner as he battled against Rob Van Dam, Rene Dupree and often-forgotten best-of-five series with Booker T. He was “stabbed” by freshly debuted Carlito, but he used the time off while healing the stab wound to shoot a movie. He was back soon enough to win his belt back in order to lose to Orlando Jordan so that he could be properly ready for his WWF Championship match at WrestleMania 21.
From that point, the WWE has entered the “era of Cena.” In the two and half years since that event, the WWE Championship has become synonymous with John Cena. If he’s not defending the belt, he has been challenging for it. The belt has been even been molded into an expensive, diamond-studded spinner; a reminder to us all that yes, this is John Cena’s world and we just live in it. When we see that belt go away, we’ll officially see the end of his era. In the approximately thirty months since initially won the belt, he has been in possession of it nearly 26 of those months. He stopped to briefly give the belt to Edge for the better part of a month in January 2006 and then took the summer of 2006 off so that Rob Van Dam could launch the new ECW and Edge could try to repair the damage Van Dam created. As we approach the one-year anniversary of his third reign as Champion, it is apparent that John Cena is the superstar of today.
Whether you love him or hate him, you pay to see him. No one in wrestling today can cause every fan to have some sort of reaction to him, especially reactions as polarizing as the ones Cena gets. He has been a good face for WWE to promote and one helluva company man. He is a life-long wrestling fan and you can tell he loves his job; it’s easy to see. He busts his ass every time he is performing in public and that is an admirable thing. Like him or hate him, at least respect him.
John Cena is currently injured after suffering a torn pectoral in early October 2007. He forfeited the WWE Championship upon suffering the injury. He could be out anywhere from six months to a year.
The entire Top 100 Wrestlers feature can be found here.
