- I accidentally became a meme
and here's that story.
Hey, I'm John Cena,
WWE superstar,
in the cast of the upcoming movie "Vacation Friends" on Hulu
and above all else, I am an internet meme.
In order to explain the origin of these memes,
I first need to explain how I got into sports entertainment.
This all started for me in 1989,
as Chuck D would say.
You wouldn't guess it from how I'm dressed now,
but I dressed a little different as a kid.
Rap music was becoming extremely popular.
The Beastie Boys and Run-DMC, N.W.A.
I was from an area of the world
that didn't care about that,
but I did.
I loved the rebellious nature of the message.
I wasn't going through any of that struggle,
but I really liked its loud brash approach
and the music just spoke to me.
So I began to be immersed in rap and hip hop culture.
And for that
in an area of the world that wasn't so immersed,
I got my ass kicked every single day
and the core of the abuse was just,
hey, dress, like all of us.
And I think at a young age,
instead of folding, I doubled down
and went even more ridiculous
to get even more of my ass kicked.
So as a way to defend myself,
I asked my father for a home gym.
This was at 12 or 13
and my grandfather convinced him
and I got it for Christmas.
Began working out Christmas day
and here we are 32 years later and I haven't stopped.
I followed WWF in the eighties as a young kid
and I did not get into sports entertainment
with any idea that I would ever make it to the WWE.
I just really wanted to do it.
So even doing small shows at flea markets
in Los Angeles and Northern California, Tijuana,
if there were five people there in a ring,
I was probably there.
It was a way for me to justify my nine to five existence
so I could enjoy a weekend hobby.
The toughest thing for anyone in entertainment
is to somehow find a way to captivate an audience.
You have to create a personality for yourself
and invest in that personality and hope people get it.
And my character was The Prototype,
half man, half machine and a hundred percent (beep) rotten.
It was so bad,
but I was invested in it
and it was enough to catch the eye of a scout
to send me to Kentucky.
So I got to be an understudy
of one of their prominent performers.
And then I made it to WWE
and the first thing they said was like.
drop The Prototype, cut your hair and be a good guy.
So I debuted as John Cena,
the most stale, unentertaining character you can imagine
and was just about to be fired after a year and a half
of me trying to connect with the audience.
And on what was supposed to be one of my last tours,
when we go overseas, we all travel together
and in the back of the bus, people were freestyling.
And I remember I just went back and joined in
and in the front of the bus,
the creative department,
a few people were like, hey, how did you remember all that?
I'm like, well the concept behind freestyle rap
is you just kind of think on your feet
and they're like, well, would you want to do that on TV?
Yes, I do.
And it really gave me a chance to invest in costuming,
mannerisms,
delivery,
personality.
I'm not the most technically proficient guy.
I'm not the biggest aerial performer,
but I really love the make believe aspect.
I really genuinely do and the storytelling aspect
and being the rap guy I bought in all in.
And I mean like did rap battles
in the parking lots of arenas.
And they'd bring in rappers for me
to have freestyle battles with, and I didn't win 'em all.
Like I'd get burned, I'd get scorched
and there were some that I would win.
And it was fun and interactive.
Imagine this, the one thing
that I got my ass kicked for as a teenager,
dressing different and embracing hip hop culture
was the catalyst to me connecting
with a global WWE audience.
We were in production of new theme music
for the John Cena rap identity.
So we recorded about like 85 songs.
Keep in mind, they're only like 16
on the "You Can't See Me" album.
And I remember hearing this one beat
and it was the beat for "My Time is Now."
Build up to the crescendo and horns and the brass
and the heavy hit of the bass, like it had everything.
And we would always use my little brother
as kind of our litmus test
because he was a really harsh critic.
And if he enjoyed it, I knew we were okay.
And I remember him just going like this
and like getting lost in it
and I think he was doing what was,
I think the Tony Yayo dance at the time,
where Tony Yayo would put his hand in front of his face
and shake his head.
And I was like, dude, what are you doing?
It was ridiculous.
And he's like, I'm doing the Yayo dance.
I'm like, okay,
I'll do that on TV to pay homage to you liking the beat
'cause I'm gonna go with this for the song.
And he dared me and on the dare, I was like,
yo, I'm definitely doing it.
So instead of doing the Yayo dance,
I kind of did the reverse
because I figured it would be more visible
to show my brother on TV.
Like, hey, I'm doing the thing that you dared me to do.
"You Can't See Me" is kind of a way to talk smack
in hip hop culture of like, you're not on my level.
So I kind of put the two and two together,
just really trying to make one person
in West Newbury, Massachusetts laugh.
Now we come to the internet
and the internet was like, we can't see this guy.
I don't know why, like I became invisible
and the cool joke was either if I was in a picture,
I wasn't, it'd be like, okay,
this is just a chair talking to you
or people would take their picture with John Cena,
which is simply like pointing at nothing
or if nothing was there and be like,
yo, I can't believe John Cena crashed our party.
I did an interview before this
where the audio technician pinned the mic on me.
And when he's pining the mic on me,
he was like, I didn't know
if I'd be able to see where to put it.
And I never get offended, I love hearing it.
I think it's extremely creative.
It's something that's been in the internet cycle
for so long,
but it still never gets old.
So as you can see,
I am a veteran of memes and the internet,
but fear not internet, I am far from finished,
My character, Ron in "Vacation Friends"
I have a feeling there'll be some memes.
Some that will make me laugh, some that might make me cry,
but all of which you will enjoy.
So I'll be checking your Hulu account
and seeing if you're watching "Vacation Friends" because
I got my eyes on you.
(bright music)