On July 6, 2024, just over 22 years after he first appeared on the WWE television show Smackdown!, John Cena entered the ring at Money in the Bank to announce his upcoming retirement. It shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise, as Cena, ever the merchandising machine, wore a T-shirt with “JOHN CENA FAREWELL TOUR” emblazoned on it. But his announcement was treated with a chorus of shock and disappointment from the Toronto crowd and stood in stark contrast to the hero’s welcome he received when his theme music first hit in the arena minutes before. After 2025, the legend says good-bye.
It wasn’t always like this, though. Fans who have been around since 2002 have seen Cena go from beloved to reviled and back again a few times. They’ve seen him evolve from a bland bodybuilder to the elder statesman of a company, and change from a superhero to a fourth-wall-breaking veteran. He’s been both a vulgar jerk and a sponsor-fueled hype man, a relentless wrecking ball and a bewildered jobber. In fact, the one thing you can bet on about Cena is that in a few years he won’t quite be the same John Cena, and over these 15 essential moments, we’ll cover how the most stable devotee of WWE has transformed in ways no one ever expected.
John Cena Debuts — June 27, 2002
Roughly 13 years before he began his own “open challenge” series against a variety of performers, Cena charged to the ring to answer a gauntlet being thrown down. His opponent was Kurt Angle, the preternaturally gifted Olympic gold medalist turned pro wrestler who is widely regarded as one of the best to ever enter a ring. To make your name against him, the man who made Hulk Hogan tap out for the first time the night before, was a vote of confidence from WWE brass like few others.
Cena was obviously being primed for stardom here. Despite his lackluster red-and-black tights and early-aughts-appropriate amount of hair gel, he took Angle to the limit. More important, he was allowed to stand in the ring afterward while Angle threw a tiny tantrum outside of it. The audience wasn’t quite sure what to make of him yet (most of the segment was devoted to Angle’s impeccable sore-winner character work), but it’s a debut that would change WWE forever.
Cena Begins His Rap Gimmick — October 31, 2002
John Cena needed … something else. The “ruthless aggression” era of the early aughts was too full of good wrestlers for him to continue to try and make his name purely as “a jacked guy.” He didn’t have the powerhouse tenacity of Brock Lesnar, the fluidity of Kurt Angle or Eddie Guerrero, the sheer spectacle of Rey Mysterio, or the charismatic likability of Edge. If he didn’t change or find a gimmick to latch onto, he would have inevitably drowned in a sea of talent or been fired.
While Cena’s official debut seemed designed to strap a rocket to his back, the unofficial second debut of John Cena was much more inauspicious. At a “Smackdown Halloween Party,” he dressed as Vanilla Ice and “freestyled” to the chagrin of his co-workers. It was a spinoff of what Cena had already become known for behind the scenes: rapping to pass the time with the other guys during the long road trips required for the job. But as annoyingly as it was portrayed here, it would carry Cena away from career oblivion.
Cena Wins the U.S. Championship — March 14, 2004
Having a new persona as a rapper who would often perform freestyles in the ring to insult his opponents offered Cena a much wider variety of direction than before. Though he was originally positioned as a grating heel, he was able to seamlessly transition to a babyface role (it mostly came down to the fact that he was able to insult the other heels and make them look foolish instead), and this took him to his first performance at WrestleMania, WWE’s flagship event. He opened the official show with a match for the United States Championship against The Big Show, and he took home the title. It was his first championship in the company — the first of many.
But more important than the title win was how he accomplished it. The Big Show was billed at 500 pounds, and Cena, after hitting him with brass knuckles (weapons are fine if the audience finds you cool enough), lifted him up on his shoulders for his “FU” finisher. The Madison Square Garden audience rose to their feet and roared their approval at this act of outlandish strength. It wasn’t the first time that Cena had lifted Big Show (it’s not even the first time he’d beaten Big Show), but to do it in the first match of a WrestleMania began Cena’s evolution from wrestler to WWE superhero. Overcoming vast physical obstacles would be an unassailable part of his gimmick going forward.
Cena Gets New Theme Music — March 17, 2005
By 2005, the WWE needed some new stars. Or, to put it more directly, they needed a new The Rock. None of the other rookies from Cena’s class of newcomers really fit: A frustrated Brock Lesnar moved on to football and then the UFC; Batista had the look but his in-ring style at the time was best suited for outright domination; and Randy Orton had a kind of sociopathic energy that made him a better foil than leading man. The company was thus placed on the back of Cena, whose image immediately underwent a cosmetic overhaul.
Gone was his former nickname, “The Doctor of Thuganomics.” Soon to be changed was the name of his finishing move, as the “FU” became the much more advertiser-friendly “Attitude Adjustment.” His freestyle raps, already being filtered out of his schedule, were replaced by relentless passion and willpower mantras. And his theme music, “Basic Thuganomics,” became “My Time Is Now.” WWE likely didn’t predict that one day “My Time Is Now” would ensure John Cena’s future as half-man, half-meme (the song begins with what sounds like “BRRRRRRRRR APPLE DOUUUUUUGGHHHHHHHH”), but like most of the creative decisions involving Cena, it would reverberate through pop culture in unexpected ways.
Cena Wins the WWE Championship — April 3, 2005
John Cena’s win against John Bradshaw Layfield at WrestleMania 21 should’ve been one of the most clean-cut WWE Championship victories in history. Cena was an optimistic underdog, and JBL, a character who once did a promo where he “chased” Mexican immigrants back across the border, was a rich, smarmy Über-heel. It couldn’t get more simple: Build up some steam, have Cena’s “You Can’t See Me” catchphrase echo across the arena, perform the finisher, take home the gold. On paper, it all works.
But if you listen closely, you don’t hear unanimous approval for Cena. Instead, you hear a smattering of jeers and boos as well. If there’s one thing that professional wrestling audiences abhor it’s the idea that they’re not getting the champions and faces that they want, but the champions and faces that the company wants them to want. Cena’s rise had a lot to do with his own merit. He’d obviously worked hard to try and become a better wrestler. He was more assured on the microphone. Outside of the ring, he carried himself like a star. But Cena’s recent repositioning had come back to bite him, and his relationship with his audience would be conflicted for the next decade.
“If Cena Wins, We Riot” — June 11, 2006
“ECW One Night Stand,” the reunion show for the beloved hard-core wrestling company that had been gobbled up in a WWE buying spree back in 2001, was going to be a tough sell for any wrestler who didn’t emerge from ECW’s blood-soaked pantheon. With WWE set to spin off a new (ill-fated) version of ECW centered around original ECW icon Rob Van Dam, no WWE loyalist would leave unscathed. Signs like “If Cena Wins, We Riot” hung around the Hammerstein Ballroom, less an actual promise of violence and more a cultish display of outright disdain for Cena and everything he was purported to stand for.
Cena did his best to absorb the energy of the hostile crowd, walking to the ring with his head down, his championship up, and a shadow cast by his hat brim across his eyes (a fantastic visual). However, when he threw his shirt into the audience, they threw it back to him. The same thing happened again, and when Cena stared into the crowd, the camera caught a man vehemently flipping the bird and screaming at him. In what might’ve been his first real challenge as the company’s golden boy, he stayed in character as the corporate rival to the “homegrown” Rob Van Dam. He played his part throughout and took the loss. He passed the test.
Cena Stars in The Marine — October 13, 2006
WWE Films was always going to be a desperate venture. It had co-produced some of The Rock’s early films like The Scorpion King and Walking Tall, and its decision to branch out on its own reeked of a cynical, “Well, The Rock was made famous by WWE and became a big-time actor. Why can’t some other guys?” But the last time WWE produced a film (1989’s No Holds Barred, starring a never-goofier Hulk Hogan) it had been a tremendous embarrassment for all involved. This run, starting with the slasher film See No Evil, the survivalist-adventure-thriller The Condemned, and the straightforward action flick The Marine, would hopefully be a little more stable.
As a vehicle for John Cena, it’s not quite a success. Cena had yet to develop the infectiously unhinged onscreen personality that would make him a delight in things like Blockers and Peacemaker, so he’s little more than muscles in a shirt in The Marine. But as a part of Cena’s legacy, it’s unmissable. WWE Films would never create any movie stars (wrestlers would have to do that by venturing out on their own), and See No Evil, its first solo production, remains its best effort. But it did show what a wrestler turned actor would need to make it in Hollywood. And the answer for Cena was, like it had been when he’d first started to stagnate in 2002’s WWE, “a little more.”
Cena Returns at the Royal Rumble — January 27, 2008
It’s kind of impossible to define whether John Cena is “hated” or “beloved” at any given time. And that’s not just due to the old system of heels and babyfaces being replaced by a much more self-aware era, or because of the fact that, while Cena lost the attention of wrestling purists, general audiences and kids bought his merchandise by the ton. It’s because something about Cena’s doggedness eventually wins you over, forces you out, and draws you back in again. He proves his own slogans true by continuing forward through hard work and persistence, and the audience phases through exhaustion and embrace, adoration and indifference, irony and sincerity, and everything in between.
Take the 2008 Royal Rumble for instance — Cena’s entrance in the event was truly a surprise. He’d suffered a legitimately major pectoral injury the previous October and had to drop the WWE Championship. So when his music hit (“BBBRRRRRRRRRRRR APPLE DOUUUUUUUGH!”), fans erupted in surprise. We were in the throes of what online message boards would dub the “Super Cena” era, where Cena would inevitably conquer every foe no matter the odds. And in just a little while, fans would return to their love-hate relationship with him. But when Cena stepped through the curtain and later won the match, the applause was definite. Cena had done it again.
CM Punk Defeats John Cena — July 17, 2011
Because Cena’s basic character trait of “never give up” is so simple, he makes for a remarkable rival. Randy Orton essentially played his cold robot doppelgänger, a fellow handsome main-eventer who lacked Cena’s scruples. Edge was the devil on Cena’s shoulder, an opportunist who tried to undercut Cena’s perseverance. Triple H was Cena’s patriarchal bludgeon, a ruler trying to prevent the rise of someone who could one day replace him. But his best foe was arguably CM Punk, a scrappy mercenary who had risen from the independent wrestling scene and amassed an impenetrable fan following. He was everything Cena wasn’t.
At Money in the Bank 2011, John Cena and CM Punk had a great match with a great buildup: Punk threatened to leave WWE after beating Cena for the championship. And as with everything involving Punk, there was the allure of a break in the “reality” of pro wrestling: Was he actually going to leave? Did he actually hate the company and want his boss dead? What was real and what was made up? But after his feud with Punk, Cena began another evolution. He added a few more moves to his roster, he began to act a bit more self-aware, and he took advantage of Punk blurring the lines. He would play along with a crowd that thought they knew it all. It was yet another new age, and Cena had to keep up.
John Cena Feuds With The Rock — April 1, 2012 & April 7, 2013
In 2002, The Rock defeated Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 18 in what was a massively lucrative “passing of the torch” moment. Well, at least the “lucrative” part was assured. At this point, The Rock already had one foot out the door toward Hollywood, and the win would matter less in his career than the overall ballyhoo of the match. Ten years later, The Rock would return and Cena would face him in back-to-back WrestleMania main events. They weren’t as well received as Rock versus Hogan, but they did play an integral part in Cena’s career.
Mainly because Cena had always felt oddly removed from WWE’s past. When he debuted, both The Rock and Stone Cold, stars of the “Attitude” era that defined the late ’90s, would only appear sporadically. He tangled with some of its other mainstays, like the Undertaker and Triple H, but he’d never had a true passing-of-the-torch moment of his own. This was a chance for one, and infused by some of the aforementioned fourth-wall breaking (rumors of animosity between the two abounded), Cena was able to best The Rock in the second contest. Did Cena actually gain anything from it? Not really, as Cena was a decade into his time as WWE’s prodigal son by then. But WWE tends to write its own history, and in its annals, this win meant that Cena had earned his place.
Brock Lesnar Demolishes Cena — August 17, 2014
Brock Lesnar returned as a changed man. In his eight-year break from WWE, he’d become UFC Heavyweight Champion and was “legitimized” in a way. The world had seen him hammer blows into a helpless Randy Couture’s face — who was gonna believe in any pre-scripted WWE match? And considering that he’d also just ended the Undertaker’s undefeated WrestleMania streak, the entire WWE existed to pretty much be fed to him, including John Cena.
Cena would have upset wins afterward, but over the course of his 16-minute match/beatdown with Lesnar, his armor crumbled and fell. In a beautiful attempt by the universe to provide us with an obvious metaphor, a lone child attempted to start a “Let’s go Cena!” chant while his preferred wrestler is thrashed around the ring and eventually beaten with little chance of a comeback. It was the painful but necessary death of “Super Cena.” From now on, Cena would have to play the veteran, wounded but not yet out of the fight.
John Cena’s Open Challenge — Spring-Summer 2015
Thirteen years after his debut, Cena’s career came full circle. He’d garnered the U.S. Championship at WrestleMania 31 and began an “open challenge,” testing himself against an array of both new and old opponents. For some, it would be a good opportunity on the main roster — WWE’s NXT brand had proven to be a prime way to both gather indie talent and develop new stars, and these wrestlers had begun to filter into WWE proper. It would also give Cena a chance to reinvent himself. Over time, he’d been considered a good talker and a good character, but rarely an actually good wrestler. He could change that.
And he … sort of did. Pitting Cena against such a wide variety of wrestlers, like the eternally underrated Cesaro, the vengefully pugilistic Kevin Owens, and WWE’s new preferred underdog, Sami Zayn, gave Cena an opportunity to prove himself. Everyone involved would go on to have better matches with other talent, but Cena’s drive to improve was evident. The “open challenge,” meant to help new stars get the spotlight in a match with the John Cena, would be a boon for Cena too. He’d never be the world’s greatest technical wrestler, but at least he’d go down as someone who wanted more out of himself.
John Cena Cuts Down Roman Reigns — August 28, 2017
In 2017, the Roman Reigns project was not going well. If Cena’s push to the top had seemed obvious to WWE’s audience, then Reigns’s was glaring, and every appearance and victory was accompanied by a stunningly negative reception. Reigns would eventually find himself amid the hate, becoming a grim, paranoid “tribal leader” who was desperate for respect. But when he had to face John Cena at the No Mercy event in 2017, he was still out of his depth as WWE’s heir apparent.
Cena, having already been through the trials of an audience turning on him, had … no mercy. In another break of the traditional fourth wall, Cena channeled the spirit he’d developed since his war with Punk and attacked Reigns’s lack of mic skills, his inability to connect with the audience, and his failed push as the company’s star. “I’m still here because you can’t do your job!” Cena accused, and though he’d go on to lose the actual match (a good choice considering that Cena was in fact becoming a part-time talent at this point), Cena would retain his spark and his reputation. He’d already come out on the other side of what Reigns was currently undergoing, and the WWE fan base rewarded him for it.
The Firefly Fun House Match — April 5, 2020
With Cena’s WWE career nearing the two-decade mark, there were a lot of what-ifs. What if Cena had made that long-rumored heel turn? What if Cena had never been able to break away from his milquetoast debut? What if he really was an egomaniac behind the scenes? And what if he’d lost some of his biggest matches, particularly a past WrestleMania one he’d had with rising star Bray Wyatt, whose character of a bizarre cult leader had been one of WWE’s greatest personality triumphs of the modern era? The Firefly Fun House match, aired at a WrestleMania in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, tackled all of these questions.
To call the Firefly Fun House a “match” is a bit of a misnomer, though. It’s both professional wrestling and a cinematic WWE multiverse, with John Cena and Bray Wyatt playing both themselves, other versions of themselves, and other roles that riff on wrestling history. Wyatt, who died in 2023, took the win here, but Cena proved to be the more interesting subject.
Did he earn his spot by being the hardest worker in the locker room? Or did he keep his spot by standing on his co-workers’ shoulders with backstage politics? The Firefly Fun House offers no concrete answers, but in the end, a match that has hardly any real wrestling in it is pure pro wrestling. No matter how hard you try to peer behind the curtain, you’ll never know the real answers to everything. Professional wrestling is a carnival, a fun house, where the distorted mirror of itself is all you can see.
John Cena Announces His Retirement — July 6, 2024
It’s hard to imagine John Cena retiring. Not just because he’s been a creature of incremental reinvention, evolving with his chosen industry over the years, but because he’s never really been gone that long. Others have drifted from WWE and, after long periods and a highly dramatic comeback or two, put away their boots. But Cena has never been away for any massive length of time. We’ve never gotten the chance to truly miss John Cena.
But we will! Cena has stated that after 2025, he’s done for good. And while “done for good” has often meant “done until someone offers me a massive paycheck or I physically cannot walk,” it appears that Cena is being realistic in his in-ring retirement outlook. And after that? Considering how many forms John Cena has taken so far and his ability to roll with the punches, it’s likely that it will take far more than a physical withdrawal from the sport to keep the “BRRRRRR APPLE DOOOOUGH” out of WWE arenas for long.
