John Cena is the face of WWE Wrestling right now.  He has been put in that position because of the excitement he generates, both positive and negative.  You either love him or hate him.  I have never seen crowd reactions like his over such a long period of time.  75% cheer him, 25% boo.  It has been this way with him for a very long time.  I don’t think Cena will be around for more than a couple more years.  He is going to go in a different direction, probably acting, much like The Rock did almost ten years ago.

John Cena was born April 23, 1977 in West Newbury, Massachusetts.  He is the second oldest of five boys.  He went to college at Division III Springfield College where he earned All-American status as a center.  Pay attention, Cena wore #54 when he played football, and he wears that number in WWE alot.  He graduated with a degree in exercise physiology from Springfield in 1998.  He made money driving limousines and competed as a bodybuilder before hitting the mat.

Cena’s training took place at Ultimate Pro Wrestling, where he was used as a robot-type character named The Prototype.  While at UPW, Cena held the championship for a little over a month.  WWE signed Cena to a developmental deal in 2001 and sent him to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) to continue training.  Cena held the OVW championship twice and the tag-team championship once while wrestling at OVW.

Cena first popped up on WWE airwaves in 2002, answering an open challenge from Kurt Angle on June 27.  Cena lost a hard-fought contest, but kicked out of Angle’s Olympic Slam before losing.  WWE teamed Cena with Billy Kidman as partners in WWE’s tag-team tournament.  After losing in the first week of the Smackdown branded tournament, Cena turned on Billy Kidman blaming him for the loss and tournament elimination.

The rap image came to be on the Halloweem edition of Smackdown when Cena rapped, imitating Vanilla Ice.  From this point, Cena started cutting all his promos via freestyle rapping.  Into 2003, Cena rapped and wrestled his way to then-champion, Brock Lesnar.  It was during this storyline that Cena unveiled his finishing maneuver, the FU.  The FU has since been renamed to the Attitude Adjustment as WWE continues to strive for moral cleanliness.

Cena beat The Big Show at Wrestlemania XX to earn his first title, the US Championship.  Cena lost the belt to Carlito in an angle which Carlito’s bodyguard, Jesus, supposedly stabbed Cena at a nightclub.  This angle was used to free Cena up to film his first movie, The Marine.  When he returned, he won the belt back from Carlito, and debuted the new “spinning” WWE Championship belt.

During a 2007 match with Mr. Kennedy, Cena suffered a legitimate torn pectoral muscle injury which shelved him for seven months, forcing Vince McMahon to strip him of his title ending what was the longest WWE Championship reign in over 19 years.

Cena is currently involved in an angle with The Big Show.  Cena has beaten Show at Judgement Day and Extreme Rules PPV’s but the feud is still moving forward. 

Cena, with his array of throwback jerseys and incredibly glib microphone skills is in the prime of his professional wrestling career.  Overexposure has to be a concern for WWE, as it seems when healthy, Cena is involved in a major storyline.  Injuries have sort of kept Cena away for periods, but he gets airtime, and ratings.  His Boston loyalty and his name are real.  Look for John Cena to be around as long as he wants to be, and look for a heel turn by the end of this year.

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