Pro wrestling is a business that sees people from many walks of life. Some come from mixed martial arts, some come from the Olympics, and some have worked in the business since their teenage years. But 16-time world champion, John Cena had a surprising entry into the business, one that no one could see foresee him becoming one of the biggest wrestlers in the world.
What was a dead-end job at first became the spot where Cena would take the first step into becoming the face of WWE.
John Cena once revealed how he got into the wrestling business
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On the TV show, Open Mike with Mike Bullard, back in 2003, John Cena talked about his then-growing popularity in the WWE. At the time, Cena had recently showcased his rapping skills to Stephanie McMahon and started appearing in his Doctor of Thugonomics gimmick. But that wasn’t the start of his career as he later explained in the interview.
He recalled, “Moved out to California, started working dead-end jobs, working for hours. Building gyms, a ton of hours. Building gyms, moving the dumbbells and equipment. Like set up the gym. Every single day, it was crazy. One of the guys I worked with was training to be a wrestler. He convinced me to go down to school. Once I saw the ring and could get in the ring mess around, it was good.”
This comes off as a classic case of Cena just happening to be in the right place. But this isn’t the only time that Cena’s ability to be in the right place at the right time has worked wonders for him.
Instances when John Cena was the right person at the right time
As recent as last year, Cena was in the right position when Margot Robbie met him in a restaurant while both actors were filming their respective movies. On the fly, Robbie just asked Cena about appearing in Barbie and he said yes, which led to Cena becoming a part of the eventual hit movie.
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Another coincidence was Cena’s debut in acting. While WWE’s The Marine was already made for Steve Austin, the former WWE champion rejected the role. Instead, McMahon decided to put Cena in the main role which helped him tremendously in understanding the Hollywood machine, long before he would dive deep in the industry.
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Tell us what you think about Cena’s intro into the world of wrestling in the comments below.