John Cena shares emotional story of his pre-WWE career
John Cena has earned a name for himself in the field of wrestling but the 16-time WWE champion’s journey to glory was not easy. In 1999, Cena had moved to California to land a job. Despite having an exercise physiology degree under his belt, Cena found it pretty difficult to make ends meet. In an interview with comedian Kevin Hart, Cena, who is now a popular Hollywood actor, revealed that he had to face homelessness at that point in time living off a free pizza from a local store.
“They had a deal where, if you could eat their whole pizza, you got it for free. I used to eat there every night, a whole pizza, so I didn’t have to pay, because I didn’t have the money to pay the guy,” Cena recalled. In 2000, Cena kicked off his wrestling career at Ultimate Pro Wrestling. He won the heavyweight championship there to earn a WWE contract.
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The wrestling ring ultimately offered him fame, glory and money as well. But back then Cena hardly knew that wrestling could be a viable career option. “I did not know that wrestling was even a career option. I watched it as a young man, kind of fell out of it as an adolescent, a teenager, because it’s like, ‘Oh, you’ve gotta study hard and maybe play sports and go get a real job or whatever,’” the 46-year-old said.
After enjoying a fruitful outing at the Ohio Valley Wrestling, Cena made his WWE debut in 2002. In his maiden television appearance on WWE, Cena was up against Kurt Angle. Cena had to suffer a defeat in that fight but his resilient style of fighting and a never-back-down attitude soon became a big hit among the fans.
Cena won the United States Championship two years after making his WWE debut. At WrestleMania 21, Cena clinched his first WWE Championship defeating JBL. Cena would eventually go on to claim two more World Heavyweight Championship titles. Cena succeeded in earning the WWE Championship on 13 occasions. He has won the WWE United States Championship title five times. In the tag-team segment, Cena became champion twice. He has been World Tag Team Champion twice as well. At the Royal Rumble, Cena emerged victorious two times- 2008 and 2013.
Apart from exhibiting his supreme wrestling skills, John Cena has done a brilliant job in the field of acting as well. He has been a part of movies like The Marine (2006), 12 Rounds (2009), The Reunion (2011), F9: The Fast Saga (2021), The Suicide Squad (2021) and Fast X (2023).
