John Cena

John Felix Anthony Cena, an American Professional Wrestler, was born in Massachusetts on April 23, 1977. In his earlier days, he had a passion for bodybuilding. He signed with WWE in 2001 and performing as a part-timer since 2018 as of November 2024. His WWE Championship run made him into a megastar, and he became the face of the company. He has held the WWE Championship on multiple occasions and various other titles during his in-ring career. Also known for his charity work, the 14-time world champion has granted over 500 wishes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the record highest by a single person. Renowned Major Baseball League player Tony Lupien was his maternal grandfather.

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Early Life

John Cena was born in 1977 on April 23rd in West Newbury, Massachusetts. John Joseph Cena and Carol Cena are the parents of John Cena while his siblings are Matt Cena, Dan Cena, Steve Cena, and Sean Cena. John's mother is of English and French-Canadian lineage. His father has an Italian heredity and worked at Chaotic Wrestling as an in-ring announcer. John Cena is the second oldest son of his parents.

Regardless of his enormous success in wrestling, John Cena didn't begin his career as an expert grappler. Cena was first admitted to Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He moved to the Cushing Academy, in Ashburnham, Massachusetts after a few years. Cena attended Springfield College, Massachusetts, and became an NCAA Division III All-American center and skipper of their football squad. He graduated college in 1998 with a degree in body movement and exercise physiology.

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After graduation, Cena chose to make a profession out of bodybuilding while working as a limousine driver. Cena worked in the Gold's Gym store for $6 for 60 minutes. He started his wrestling training in 1999, at Ultimate University under Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW), run by Rick Bassman.

John Cena portrayed the personality of a semi-robotic cyborg known as The Prototype. While training there he was highlighted in the Inside Pro Wrestling School, a Discovery Channel program. Promptly making success in the ring, Cena held the UPW Title for nearly a month. With his fame on the ascent, the World Wrestling Federation grabbed him in 2001.

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Professional Wrestling Career

Upon signing for the WWF, he made his unofficial debut in a dark match on a SmackDown taping. He lost the match to Mikey Richardson. However, he did go on to win the next dark match against Aaron Aguilera. He was then put under a developmental contract and placed at the Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), the company's developmental territory.

Still fighting under the moniker of Prototype or Mr. P, he held the Heavyweight Championship at the OVW for three months while also holding the tag team championship for two months with Rico Constantino.

The in-ring debut of Cena

Cena made his official debut in WWE after an open challenge by Kurt Angle on SmackDown. Cena declared he possessed “Ruthless Aggression,” as described by Vince McMahon. He narrowly lost the match through a basic roll-up pin. However, his efforts were lauded by senior wrestlers like Billy Kidman, Farooq, Rikishi, and The Undertaker.

However, his real shot at fame came after feuding with Chris Jericho, whom he defeated in an upset at the Vengeance pay-per-view. He then partnered up with Kidman for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship but lost to Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit in the first round. The defeat forced Cena to turn heel and attack Kidman as he blamed him for the loss. He also feuded with Los Guerreros, winning his feud against Chavo but losing the tag team bout against them alongside Edge.

He then ignited a feud with Brock Lesnar, and it was during this time, that he started using one of his signature moves FU, named to mock Lesnar's F-5. He faced several big names like The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, and Chris Benoit and started establishing a name for himself.

At Wrestlemania XX, Cena recorded his first win against Big Show, where he shockingly attacked the giant with a chain to pick up the win and become the United States Champion. Cena then competed in the Royal Rumble Match in 2005, where Batista eliminated him to win the bout.

He then faced John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) for the WWE Championship and won at Wrestlemania 21 to kickstart his first World Title reign.

He was drafted to RAW and had quite a run where he defeated Randy Orton, Edge, Shawn Michaels, and Bobby Lashley to retain his title. He then faced a pectoral muscle injury and was out of action for six months. Cena, later on, returned at the Royal Rumble 2008 and eliminated Triple H to earn a title shot at Wrestlemania. Unfortunately, he lost the triple threat match against Orton and Triple H. In 2009, He faced Orton and had some iconic matches. Orton defeated Cena on multiple occasions with the help of his teammates Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. John Cena also went on to win the World Heavyweight Title at Survivor Series from Jericho but his reign didn't last for a very long time as he lost the belt to Edge.

Cena then shifted his focus towards the WWE Championship. He was involved in a Title match against Triple H and Randy Orton at Night of Champions, where he lost. A defiant Cena won the championship back at Bragging Rights in 2009. Cena then defended the title against a debuting Sheamus, where he took a shocking loss. He then got his opportunity at Elimination Chamber and picked up the win. He quickly lost the title to Batista later on that night which set up a match between these two at Wrestlemania 26. Cena wrestled Batista at Wrestlemania and took the win. After successful title defenses against Batista, Cena lost the title at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view.

In the following year, he had a feud with a faction named Nexus where he was attacked by the group formed by Wade Barrett. This led to a match with Barrett and Cena lost the bout. Finally, Cena vowed to get revenge on the faction. His attack on the group members led to a match with Wade Barrett at TLC where the latter lost in a vicious chairs match and put an end to Nexus for good.

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Cena then had some memorable matches as he faced CM Punk in the Money in the Bank match which was considered to be one of his best matches. He then locked horns with The Rock in WrestleMania XXVIII where the Great One defeated him. After WrestleMania, he came face to face with the returning Brock Lesnar. He clashed with Lesnar in a brutal encounter at Extreme Rules where Cena picked up the win. He then had matches with Dolph Ziggler, and Ryback which didn't gain much prominence. Cena then renewed his feud with The Rock after winning the 2013 Royal Rumble. He faced The Rock in a rematch at Wrestlemania 29 and defeated the Brahma Bull.

Cena lost the WWE Championship to Daniel Bryan at Summerslam 2013. He had a feud with the Bulgarian Brute Rusev for the United States Championship. Cena defeated Rusev in multiple bouts and had a successful reign for months. Cena frequently issued open challenges for his title on RAW. Later he battled Seth Rollins and lost the title at Summerslam 2015. Cena began to wrestle as a part-timer in WWE. He made sporadic appearances. Cena Challenged WWE Champion AJ Styles and dethroned him at the Royal Rumble 2017. Cena became a Historic record-tying 16-time WWE Champion. He also challenged The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 34 where he lost to the legend in a completely one-sided squash match.

In 2021, Cena returned to confront a clueless Roman Reigns at Money in the Bank. He challenged Reigns to a match at Summerslam 2021. Cena and Reigns had a back-and-forth match only for the returning Hollywood star to take a clean defeat.

John Cena's First Championship

However, he then won it back from Booker T. at No Mercy, only to lose it again. This time he was defeated by debutant Carlito Caribbean Cool, and the duo started feuding. Allegedly, Cena was stabbed in the kidney by Carlito’s bodyguard. However, this kayfabe injury was used to allow Cena to shoot for his debut film The Marine.

On his return, he won the title back from Carlito and even defeated his bodyguard in a street fight match.

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John Cena WWE Champion

Despite winning the title back from Carlito, Cena was not going to keep it for long as he lost it to cabinet member Orlando Jordan, after WWE Champion JBL, interfered in the match hitting Cena with his title belt. Cena instead developed a feud with the champion and eventually defeated him twice, at WrestleMania and an “I Quit” match. The Age of John Cena had finally begun.

John Cena eventually lost the title to Edge in the first pay-per-view of 2006, where Edge cashed his Money in the Bank contract, and took advantage of a worn-out bloodied Cena, who had just won the Elimination Chamber match.

Edge held on to the title by using dubious means such as disqualification and using brass knuckles but was eventually defeated by Cena winning the title back. Cena was then involved in a Champion of the Champions match where three of the WWE brand's champions were to fight it out in a Triple Threat match. Cena lost after interference from non-wrestler Kevin Federline.

In 2007, he successfully defended his title but suffered a legitimate torn pectoral muscle which required surgery. His rehabilitation period was estimated to be around seven months to a year. As a result, he was stripped of his title. In 2008, he suffered another injury in the neck which also required surgery. The following year Cena finally regained his title from JBL but lost it to the new superstar of RAW Sheamus.

At the 2010 Royal Rumble, Cena went on to defeat some of the biggest stars of the WWE franchise including Sheamus, Triple H, and Randy Orton to win back the title. He was immediately challenged by Batista upon winning the title, and a tired Cena lost. But Cena won it back from Batista at WrestleMania. He was then forced to join Nexus and he won the Tag Team Championship with David Otunga.

Cena then again won titles from Rey Mysterio and Alberto del Rio. In 2013, he became one of the few wrestlers who have won multiple Royal Rumble events. He also won the World Heavyweight Championship from Del Rio but lost it to Randy Orton who defeated him twice.

In 2017, Cena had a feud with AJ Styles at Royal Rumble where Cena went on to defeat AJ Styles to be Crowned as the 16-time WWE Champion. He was the one who went on to equal the record of the WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair.

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John Cena's WWE Return

In recent times, Cena has been termed as a free agent working both for RAW and SmackDown. However, he also had personal troubles after his breakup with Nikki Bella and his WrestleMania loss to The Undertaker. A returning Cena challenged Roman Reigns for the universal championship. However, he lost the bout at Summerslam.

The Cenation Leader returned to Monday Night RAW on 27th June to celebrate his 20th Anniversary with the WWE Universe. After almost 6 months, John Cena announced digitally on the 9th December episode of SmackDown that he is going to return to WWE on the last SamckDown of the year, i.e. 30th December 2022. He is going to team up with Kevin Owens to face The Head of the Table Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn. Eventually, Owens and Cena won against the bloodline. They delivered a double Five-Knuckle Shuffle to Reigns and Zayn. Then Cena hit the AA on Reigns and Owens finished the match with a stunner to Zayn for the three counts.

On RAW XXX, John Cena was announced as the cover athlete for WWE 2K23. Cena returned to WWE on the March 6th episode of RAW where he was challenged by the US Champion Austin Theory for a match. Cena was initially reluctant but eventually accepted the challenge thus setting up a contest at WrestleMania Hollywood for the United States Championship. Theory won the match marking Cena's third straight loss at The Grandest Stage of Them All.

John Cena then returned in August and announced that he would serve as the host for WWE Payback 2023. At the event, he was the special guest referee in the LA Knight vs. The Miz matchup, which the former won. The next week, Cena flew to India where he teamed up with Seth Rollins to defeat The Imperium at Superstar Spectacle. He then shifted his focus to The Bloodline's Solo Siko and Jimmy Uso, whom he challenged to a tag team match at WWE Fastlane 2023 where Knight and Cena won.

Following the event, John Cena confronted a returning Roman Reigns, whom he acknowledged and believed that Reigns's title run was perhaps one of the greatest achievements in WWE's history. However, he also introduced a guy whom he believed could dethrone Roman Reigns. He introduced LA Knight as Reigns' opponent, while Solo Sikoa chose Cena as his next opponent. Solo Sikoa and John Cena then faced each other at Crown Jewel 2023 where Sikoa won with ease.

At WrestleMania XL, John Cena made a surprise appearance and helped Cody Rhodes by taking out Sikoa and Roman with his finishing move. Later The Rock appeared and delivered a Rock Bottom to Cena. The next night on RAW, Cena wrestled his first Raw match beginning around 2019, as the partner of the Awesome-Truth to beat Finn Balor, JD McDonagh, and Dominik Mysterio.

John Cena's Final Appearances

At Money in the Bank 2024, John Cena made an surprise appearance to reveal his retirement from in-ring competition. He shared that WrestleMania 41 will be his last WrestleMania appearance, however he intends to keep wrestling till the end of 2025.

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John Cena's Championships and Accomplishments

John Cena Physical Attributes

John Cena's Net Worth

As per celebrity net worth, WWE Superstar and Hollywood actor John Cena is worth around USD 80 Million as of November 2024. You can read more about Cena's net worth by clicking here.

John Cena's Family

John Joseph Cena (Father)

John Joseph Cena or John Cena Sr. was born in Massachusetts USA on June 16, 1944. He is of Italian descent and had worked in the pro wrestling industry before his son tore it apart. He worked as an announcer in Chaotic Wrestling and went by the name Johnny Fabulous. He has also served as a commissioner in East Coast Wrestling. Further, Cena Sr. has made multiple appearances in WWE, especially during the heated feud between his son John Cena, and his arch nemesis Randy Orton.

Carol Cena (Mother)

Not much is known of John Cena's mother Carol Cena. It is known that she was born in November 1947 and is of English and French-Canadian descent.

John Cena's Siblings

John Cena has four siblings. He is one of five sons of John Cena Sr. and Carol Cena. He has an elder brother named Stephen Cena and rest three brothers are younger than him. They are Dan, Matt, and Sean Cena.

John Cena Wife

John Cena married Shay Sharietzadeh in October 2020. She is a Canadian engineer. The couple married again in July 2022 at the Rosewood Hotel in Georgina, Canada. Sharietzadeh was born in 1989 in Iran and she currently works at Sonatype as a project manager as per PureWoW. According to John Cena's co-star Keegan-Michael Key, Cena and Sharietzadeh met during the shooting of the movie Playing with Fire.

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Before marrying Sharietzadeh, Cena was once married to Elizabeth Huberdeau. The two were married in 2009 and parted ways in 2012. Cena filed for the divorce on May 1st which was then finalized on July 18th. He then started dating fellow WWE Superstar Nikki Bella. The two became engaged on national television when Cena proposed to Bella at WrestleMania 33. However, they ended their relationship in 2018 and Cena finally met and married Sharietzadeh after that.