The WWE locker room used to laugh at John Cena for one reason, claims former superstar

Former WWE Superstar D'Lo Brown recently claimed that the locker room used to laugh at John Cena during his early days at the Stamford-based company.

The Cenation Leader joined WWE in 2000 and spent about two years in OVW, the company's then-developmental territory, before making his main roster debut in 2002. While competing in OVW, Cena adopted the gimmick of The Prototype. He used that persona to wrestle in a few dark matches on Sunday Night Heat and Jakked before getting called up to SmackDown.

In a recent interview with Attitude Era Podcast, D'Lo Brown recalled the locker room laughing at Cena as he wrestled as The Prototype in dark matches.

"I'll tell you this. Here, I'll give you a little story. Here, so, in WWF we do dark matches, right? They're matches that no one sees on TV. So, for about a year John Cena kept coming in as The Prototype. And the boys, all of us would go sit up in the stands because back then it wasn't full arenas. So, we can go sit up in the arena and no one would see us and you could watch the matches. And we would laugh at John Cena going, 'He's so robotic. he's so robotic,'" he said.

The former Intercontinental Champion added:

"Then he came one day and he had a flow to him. And you're like, 'Wait a minute, that's the same dude?' Because his body moved differently, his matches worked differently, and you're like, 'Okay, there's something to that son of a b*tch. There's something there. Lo and behold, a year later, he becomes the biggest star in wrestling and moves on for ten years. He puts the company on his shoulders. But I remember for about nine-ten months, we would laugh at him going, 'What is this guy doing? Why is he even doing this?' He became John Cena." [4:13 - 5:17]

John Cena revealed how much his first WWE contract and rent were. Check out his comments here.

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John Cena became arguably the greatest WWE Superstar ever

After his debut in 2002, John Cena became the face of the Stamford-based company. The 46-year-old also equaled Ric Flair's record, winning 16 World Championships, becoming arguably the greatest superstar in WWE's history. Over the past few years, however, the Cenation Leader has transitioned into a part-time superstar, while pursuing an acting career in Hollywood.

Cena last competed earlier this year when he lost to Austin Theory at WrestleMania 39. He recently returned at the Money in the Bank Premium Live Event to announce to the UK audience that he is trying to bring WrestleMania to their country.

Four WWE Superstars could retire John Cena. Check out the list here.

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