5 of the best and worst music-related wrestling gimmicks

#4 “Best” John Cena - rapper - WWE

You wouldn’t know it by watching him now (when he’s actually on TV), but John Cena got to where he is in the WWE now in part because of his rapping talent. In 2002, with his career a bit directionless, Cena cut a freestyle rap while dressed as Vanilla Ice for that year’s Halloween episode. This was the impetus for his “Doctor of Thuganomics” character.

The main difference between this and other failed music gimmicks is that while Cena may have been rapping, he didn’t play himself as a rapper who was also a wrestler. He was a wrestler who also liked to rap. Again, music taste is subjective, but apparently, he was good enough to cut an album that sold reasonably well and also, you know, become the biggest wrestling star of the last decade.

Also read: 5 Dumbest WWE tag team names

About the author

Kevin Christopher Sullivan has been writing online professionally since 1999, which makes him probably older than you. He's written for sites such as Uproxx and Austin.com. He's also performed stand-up comedy, attended Butt-Numb-A-Thon and E3, and owns some pretty cool t-shirts. He lives outside of Austin, TX with his wife, daughter and four annoying cats. And, yes, he knows who he has the same name as.

When he's not watching and writing about wrestling, he's probably playing video games, advocating for mental health issues, or yelling at something in his house for not "working the way it's supposed do, dang it!"

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Edited by Staff Editor