6 Amazing facts you didn't know about John Cena

John Cena is without a doubt one of the greatest to have set foot inside the squared circle. The 16-time World Champion has now used his successful career in wrestling to transition into a career as an actor.

Cena only wrestles occasionally for WWE now and wrestled Bray Wyatt in a Firefly Fun House match at WrestleMania 36. Despite Cena slowly transitioning out of wrestling, he still has a lot to offer WWE even if his appearances are few and far between,

We decided to take a different kind of look at Cena today with some things fans may not know about Cena including his favourite video game series and his favourite anime among other things.

---

#6 The Prototype

Cena as The Prototype

Cena is one of the most successful pro wrestlers of all time. However, it could have all gone so wrong if he had persisted with one of Cena’s early gimmicks.

Early on in his career in UPW, Cena started portraying a half-human, half-robot character called The Prototype. In fact, when Cena made his first appearance in WWE during a dark match against Mikey Richardson, he was still billed as The Prototype.

Cena later had the following to say about the gimmick:

My first try was the Prototype which was half-man and half-machine & 100% ***p. I used this ability to talk rather monotone and would say things authoritative and just when I said I’d kick your ass at the fairgrounds on Sunday I would rewind it and say it again for you.

---

#5 Cena loves Japanese anime

One thing that a lot of fans may not know about ‘The Face That Runs The Place’ is that the man is actually a big fan of Japanese anime. Cena’s favourite anime film of all time is Fist of the North Star. You can check out Cena talking about his love for anime in the clip below:

#4 Cena is a huge fan of the Command and Conquer series

When you think about John Cena, one thing you wouldn’t immediately associate him with being a gamer. However, Cena is, in fact, a gamer and he hasn’t been shy about his love for the Command & Conquer series in the past.

Cena revealed in an interview that the series was his favourite of all-time and that he’d played every game in the series since the beginning.

Command & Conquer is my favourite game of all time. I’ll talk trash about Tecmo Bowl, i’ll talk trash about baseball stars, about Madden. Command & Conquer I’ve been playing since the very [beginning], since Tiberian Sun. That is the very essence of what I stand for, build a huge army and destroy a lot of ***t.

---

#3 He was pinned by Kevin Federline

John Cena and Kevin Federline

As unbelievable as it sounds, John Cena was actually pinned by Britney Spears’ ex-husband on an episode of RAW in 2006. Federline was on WWE television to promote his album Playing With Fire. All this somehow led to the two men facing off in singles action.

Partway through the match, Umaga came out and took out Cena, giving Federline the chance to pin John Cena. The craziest part about this is that Cena never got his win back. Think of the wrestlers who never managed to beat Cena while Federline was bafflingly booked to do so.

#2 Why Cena started bodybuilding when he was young

Cena started bodybuilding when he was 12

John Cena started bodybuilding as young as 12. Cena revealed that he decided to head down that path because he was getting bullied in school and “shoved down” regularly which led him to take to bodybuilding. Here’s what he said about it:

I remember the walk to the school bus, at the very least, five times, shoved down, toppled down. I asked my dad, ' Is it okay if I start working out?' By the time I showed up at high school, I was big. The guys who were pushing me down were kind of like, 'We cool?'

---

#1 His first movie appearance was on Ready To Rumble

John Cena has transitioned from his successful career as a WWE Superstar to the film industry.

Check out Cena's brief appearance in Ready To Rumble below:

However, one thing some fans may not know is that Cena’s first-ever movie appearance came in the Ready To Rumble film which was produced in partnership with WCW. Cena was an extra and appeared only for a few seconds.