WWE champion John Cena is the undisputed face of modern professional wrestling. And with
a growing film career, Cena is steadily turning wrestling fame into Hollywood gold as well.
But the road to triumph wasn't easy for Cena. The superstar champ worked and hustled his
way into show business after experiencing some surprising setbacks in the start of his
career. Here's a look back at John Cena's tough journey to the top.
Childhood bullying
Although you'd be hardpressed to find someone who'd pick on Cena now, as a kid he was on
the receiving end of some serious bullying.
"I remember the walk to the school bus, at the very least five times, shoved down."
In his younger years, he was relatively scrawny, so he started to pack on some muscle as a
means of defending himself from his attackers.
"By the time I showed up at high school, I was big. The guys who were pushing me down
in high school were kinda like, 'we cool?'"
Sports selection
While growing up in Massachusetts, Cena's father was a huge fan of professional wrestling
and he loved taking his sons to see WWF matches in the "cheap seats" at Boston Garden. But
while Cena enjoyed watching the greats and reenacting their moves like a lot of young
boys growing up in the '80s, he told the Huffington Post that he was actually more interested
in "proving himself on the baseball diamond or football field than in the wrestling ring."
Despite the fact that he'd become a WWE giant in later years, he wasn't big enough for the
professional gridiron. So he set his sights on California where he unfortunately learned
that there were way more careers than football that weren't the best fit.
Odd jobs
After graduating with a bachelor's in exercise physiology, Cena headed to Santa Monica at
21 years old to be around the bodybuilding scene in Venice Beach and also to prove himself
to his father — who'd said he wouldn't last on his own for longer than two weeks.
He told ABC News, "I left with 500 bucks and an Army duffle bag, and hit ground in Santa
Monica and just started working. No career, just working a job to make money to stay out
there to spite my father and the jobs were taking me nowhere."
In addition to trying to make it as a limo driver and failing the highway patrol exam,
he picked up a position as a bar bouncer.
"Early twenties and I was a d**k."
"I'm sitting at the front door in a Hawaiian shirt that's six sizes too small and a blonde
mohawk just like this"
Perhaps the strangest gig Cena found himself doing to make ends meet was his brief stint
as a competitive eater.
He explained, "I'm a Zeppy's pizza-eating champion. [...] I was broke and didn't have
any food, and they had a promotion, they had really thick dish pizza, if you ate a whole
pizza, you'd get the pizza free. So, I went in there on a lunch break and crushed a pizza
in about 20 minutes and the [pizza parlor] guy's face dropped. He didn't realize that
I was broke and hungry, so I went back the next day and did the same thing. Finally,
he pulled me over and he's like, 'Man, I kind of know what you're doing. Just stop by for
a free slice any time you want.'"
Near-enlistment
This next part of Cena's early history can be a controversial topic for some wrestling
fans and veterans. To promote his 2006 movie, The Marine, Cena began incorporating dog tags
and military elements into his WWE uniform and entrances, making fans question for years
what branch Cena served in. The answer is none.
However, he did say he almost joined the Marines while struggling to make it in California.
He explained, "I just thought because, of all the service branches, it kind of exemplified
who I was as a 22-year-old. You think you're bulletproof, and you can handle any sort of
resistance put in front of you, and you're gungho to the hilt."
But according to Cena, the very same weekend he made the decision to enlist, a chance encounter
changed his life forever.
Toilet to Tinseltown
Cena landed a job at a Gold's Gym cleaning toilets while living out of his car. Despite
working his way up and even starring in a commercial for the Gold's Gym franchise, Cena
was about to enlist in the Marines — until fate stepped in.
A patron of the gym overheard him discussing wrestling. Since he was training to become
a wrestler himself, he made Cena the offer to train with him. Cena told ABC News, "I
was already up to my eyeballs in debt, but I leveraged every credit card I had… paid
a promoter out in southern California, and learned the trade. Had we never had that conversation,
I would have probably been honorably discharged or medically discharged from the Marines."
And with that, a star was born …
Cena still had to work his way through the ranks at the WWE, but while Vince McMahon
wasn't sold on him right away, his daughter Stephanie McMahon saw some serious potential
in the budding wrestler. She gave him the gig that would become a superstar career.
The rest is wrestling history.
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