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John Cena. REAL NAME: John Cena
BORN: April 23, 1977 in West Newbury, MA
6' 3", 260 pounds
ALIASES/NICKNAMES: the PrototypePublished: 10 September 2005
A rap gimmick getting over in the present day WWE? Only John Cena, the self-styled "Doctor of Thuganomics" could have pulled it off, taking what should have been a one-shot Vanilla Ice Halloween costume and using it to become one of Smackdown's biggest stars and, at long last, WWE Champion.
> John Cena's introduction to the world of pro wrestling came from his father, who worked as an announcer for Chaotic Wrestling, under the name John Fabulous. His in-ring debut came in 2000 in Rick Bassman's California-based Universal Pro Wrestling, a former WWE developmental company. Dubbed the Prototype, Cena quickly earned notice in UPW, winning the organization's title from Smelly on April 27 2000 in San Diego, California, and holding the title for a month.
> John Cena was quickly spotted by WWE talent scouts, who signed him to a developmental deal. In the spring of 2001, he was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling. He began teaming with fellow future WWE superstar Rico Constantino and on August 1, 2001, the pair won the vacant OVW Tagteam titles. The title reign came to an end, however, when the Minnesota Stretching Crew (Brock Lesnar and Shelton Benjamin) returned to OVW and recaptured the belts.
> On the singles scene, the Prototype had defeated Leviathan (later known as Batista) in controversial manner to win the OVW Heavyweight title on February 20, 2002. After dropping the title to Nova on May 15th, he headed to the WWE. A month later, he appeared on Smackdown and answered Kurt Angle's challenge. Although Angle won, John Cena had earned the respect of the Undertaker, so much so that the pair teamed against Angle and Chris Jericho.
> John Cena battled Jericho over the next few months and teamed with Edge and Rey Mysterio, Jr. to battle Jericho and the other Un-Americans, until the Anti-Americans jumped to Raw. As the summer passed into the fall, Cena found himself tangling with Reverend D-Von (Dudley) and fading from the spotlight.
> That changed after he and Billy Kidman lost to Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit in the first round of the Smackdown Tagteam tournament in October 2002. Kidman and Cena feuded over the next couple of weeks as Cena became a heel.
> In addition to turning heel, John Cena also began to adapt a rapper-like gimmick. Initially conceived during the Smackdown Halloween show (when Cena came as Vanilla Ice), it continued the week after... and the week after that. Armed with this new gimmick, Cena found himself battling Rikishi. To help him in his battles against Rikishi, Cena enlisted the help of B-Squared (Bull Buchanan).
> John Cena and Buchanan would battle Los Guerreros until Cena turned on his bodyguard and brought in Redd Dogg (Rodney Mack) although that partnership was also short-lived.
> Instead, John Cena began to feud with Brock Lesnar, as he competed in and won a Number One Contender's tournament. Unfortunately, he couldn't convert that into a WWE title win, as Lesnar retained the title at Backlash on April 27th, 2003.
> Cena's next target was the United States Championship. After being eliminated from the tournament by Billy Gunn, Cena turned his attention towards the eventual champion Eddie Guerrero. Unfortunately, the U.S. title would have to wait for Cena.
> His days as a heel were also coming to a close, as John Cena took on Kurt Angle and joined Team Lesnar at the 2003 Survivor Series. John Cena and Chris Benoit were the sole survivors during that match. Cena and Benoit would face each other during a December 4th edition of Smackdown with the winner to become the number one contender to the WWE title. Benoit was victorious thanks to interference from the Big Show.
> John Cena then began to chase the Big Show and the Show's U.S Heavyweight title. Although Cena defeated Show during the Smackdown taping in Iraq, it was during a "non-title match". Ironically it was the Big Show that eliminated Cena during the 2004 Royal Rumble. It didn't help matter that John Cena found himself on the wrong side of Smackdown General Manager Paul Heyman after Cena and Benoit washed Heyman's mouth out with soap. Heyman benched Cena on the February 5th edition of Smackdown and later, forced Cena to team with nemesis Kurt Angle.
> However, John Cena finally got a title match against the Big Show at Wrestlemania XX and walked away with the United States Championship. After getting by Rene Dupre in early title defences, Cena then found himself in just as much hot water with new General Manager Kurt Angle as he had been with Paul Heyman.
> Booker T was the next challenger but after John Cena accidentally knocked Angle out of his wheelchair on the July 8th edition of Smackdown, Angle had Cena stripped of the U.S. belt, with Booker T winning the vacant title. However, Cena would regain the title, defeating Booker T in a best-of-five series, the deciding victory coming at October's No Mercy.
> Cena's second reign as champion lasted only two days, as he lost the title to Carlito Caribbean Cool. Almost immediately after the title loss, it was announced that Cena had been injured in a bar fight. However, that was just part of an angle to give Cena some time off to film "the Marine", due out later this year. (In addition, Cena was working on his rap CD, released in May 2005).
> John Cena returned in November and quickly regained the U.S. title, and continued to get revenge against Carlito Cool and his bodyguard, Jesus. Kenzo Suzuki was Cena's next challenger but was unable to wrest the title away.
> After being the last man eliminated in the 2005 Royal Rumble, Cena looked to trade the United States title in for JBL's WWE Championship.
> Orlando Jordan upset John Cena for the U.S. title, thanks to the interference of JBL but Cena would get revenge, taking JBL's WWF Championship at Wrestlemania XXI and, much like he did for the U.S. title, quickly revamped the Championship belt.
> Cena's career looks to be rising. Not only is he the WWE Champion, The Marine will hit theatres soon and he has a hip hop album, You Can't See Me now in stores. Back in the ring, a victory over JBL in a bloody "I Quit" match at Judgment Day meant that Cena might have been looking for a new challenger.
> He would find that challenger...on Raw. The first and one of the most suprising part of the 2005 Draft Lottery, Cena would team with Chris Jericho, only to have Y2J turn on him during a tag team match against Christian and Tyson Tomko. If John Cena wanted a new challenge, he got one, with Jericho set to challenge Cena for his WWE Championship at SummerSlam.
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| John Cena | Rey Mysterio, Jr. | Eddie Guerrero | Batista |
