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While John Cena is one of the most beloved WWE Superstars of all time, he’s also one of the most disliked.
When sections of fans (usually the women and children in the audience) chant “Let’s go Cena!” during his matches, another section (predominantly 18+ males) will chant “Cena sucks!”, and it’ll continue in unison until everyone finally gets tired.
Hated or adored, the 16-time WWE World champion is never ignored. In this article, we take a look at five reasons why fans should choose to cheer – not jeer – one of the most polarising people ever to step foot inside a WWE ring.
#5 He’s the perfect representative for WWE
If you were to ask a non-WWE fan to name a wrestler a few years ago, there’s a good chance they’d have said they don’t know any wrestlers. But then you’d have listed a few names – say, Hulk Hogan and The Rock – and they’d immediately know who they were.
Fast forward to the present day and, while Hogan and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson remain household names, John Cena can be spoken about in the same breath. Whether people know him as a movie star, a tough guy or an internet phenomenon, people know who Cena is and they immediately associate him with WWE.
You only have to watch a handful of his interviews during his recent media tour to promote the movie ‘Ferdinand’ to notice that many conversations started off with chit-chat about an animated bull and ended with lengthy explanations about why people should watch WWE.
#4 He elevates his opponents
Once upon a time, John Cena was a rookie who had the “Ruthless Aggression” to accept Kurt Angle’s challenge to have a match on SmackDown. That memorable debut, followed by a handshake with The Undertaker later in the episode, put Cena on the map and instantly elevated him to Superstar level.
Nowadays, Cena plays the role that Angle and ‘Taker did that day, and you know WWE thinks highly of a performer – Elias, for example – when they are put into a one-on-one match with “The Face That Runs The Place”.
Whether the match is amazing or average, it really doesn’t matter. Simply by being associated in the same storyline as "Big Match John" is enough to elevate an opponent.
Some fans criticised the outcome of Cena’s WrestleMania victories over Bray Wyatt and Rusev in recent years, but both guys’ status in WWE significantly improved during those rivalries, and that’s because they were in the ring with the 16-time champion.
#3 He was "The Doctor of Thuganomics"
While the WWE audience is split when it comes to liking and disliking John Cena’s current persona, it’s universally accepted that his 2002-2003 run as “The Doctor of Thuganomics” was among the most entertaining gimmicks of its era.
The polar opposite to how he behaves in front of a camera now, Cena was a freestyle rapper who, along with the slogan “Word Life”, would put down his opponents with edgy language and hilarious insults.
The character, created by chance when Stephanie McMahon heard him rapping at the back of a WWE tour bus one day, certainly helped make Cena stand out and it was even named Best Gimmick in 2003 by readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
#2 Match of the Year contenders
Fans can joke about John Cena’s repetitive move set, aka his ‘Five Moves of Doom’, but he has proven to be one of those rare cases of a Superstar whose matches have gotten better and better in his late 30s and into early 40s.
The match against AJ Styles at the 2017 Royal Rumble, in which he won his 16th WWE World Championship, was among the best of Cena’s career and was recently named Match of the Year by the company’s official website.
While his matches were often criticised as being too similar earlier in his career, nobody can accuse Cena of that now – just look at the vast array of rivals he’s had over the last year, from Styles and The Miz to Rusev and Roman Reigns, for proof.
Besides, when someone wins the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Match of the Year award in four of the last six years, they can’t be that bad, can they?
#1 His charity work
Only in WWE, and only with John Cena, can a celebrity receive applause from 10,000+ people for giving their shirt to an ill child and then get told they “suck” by half of those very same people one minute later.
While a section of the WWE fanbase is quick to tell Cena how much they don’t like him, it’s worth remembering what he does for charity outside of the ring.
He has granted more wishes to the ‘Make-A-Wish’ foundation than anybody else and was recognised for his charity work in 2015 when he was nominated for a Sports Humanitarian of the Year Award.
Simply put, Cena is a perfect role model for anybody who watches WWE (yep, not just children!), and if you haven’t seen the emotional five-minute video (embedded above) where he was given a surprise by his fans in 2017, then you should go out of your way to watch it.
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