5 Times Vince McMahon changed a WWE star's look before their debut

#4 Vince McMahon changed John Cena’s appearance

John Cena looked very different before Vince McMahon ordered him to get a haircut

John Cena claimed before his debut match against Kurt Angle on a June 2002 episode of SmackDown that he possessed “ruthless aggression” – a quality that Vince McMahon wanted WWE Superstars to have at that time.

As Cena recalled in a 2014 interview on WWE’s website, Vince McMahon instructed him to get rid of his blonde hair just hours before he made his first on-screen WWE appearance.

“He [Vince McMahon] turned around and with a disgusted look on his face, he said, ‘Cut his hair,’ and I was whisked away from Vince like an assembly line. That was the first time I met Vince McMahon and he was disgusted to look at me. They shipped me out and I immediately got a haircut, which was not dyed blonde, but equally as horrible.”

Cena previously performed under a different name – The Prototype – alongside future Superstars including Batista, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton and Shelton Benjamin in WWE’s Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) developmental system.

The 16-time WWE World Champion has gone on to change his appearance for various different movie roles in recent years, but he has never brought back the Prototype hairstyle that Vince McMahon disliked so much.