"I would embody the words 'ruthless aggression' more" – John Cena on his WWE debut

A young John Cena made his WWE debut in 2002!
A young John Cena made his WWE debut in 2002!

WWE legend John Cena recently shared his thoughts on his debut match in the company in 2002.

John Cena had his first match on SmackDown against Hall of Famer Kurt Angle. The then-newcomer responded to Angle's open challenge. After introducing himself to Angle, when asked what made him tough enough to respond to the challenge, a young Cena said it was 'ruthless aggression.'

Recently, on an edition of WWE Playback, Cena, who celebrates his two-decade anniversary with WWE, looked back on his debut match. He said the attendees weren't impressed with his entrance and in-ring skills. Cena said he couldn't hear what the crowd was chanting as he was focused on not messing up the two iconic words in wrestling history:

"I've now come down to the ring and Kurt's look says it all, like, what's going on? You can look past the people that are standing, which means they're unsure, but they are, like, apathetic. They have no clue what's going on. And no one knows who I am, but they're still kind of into it, but they're not. I can't hear anything at this point. Like, if I can only do it now, you know, I'd do it a lot different, but I can't hear anything for sure. Probably just not trying to mess up saying two words." (from 1:57 to 2:32)

The Cenation Leader added that if given the opportunity, he'd embody the terms more, thanking Angle for making him look good in the match:

"I think I'd embody the words 'ruthless aggression' more. I don't think I came out looking like a normal person doing normal stuff. The beginning of the match, though, seems to be pretty aggressive and ruthless and fast. It's, you know, thank you to Kurt for making me look so good. (from 2:42 to 3:00)

Check out the entire interaction below:

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John Cena will make his return to RAW this month

This week, RAW announced that John Cena would return on June 27 to celebrate his 20th anniversary with WWE. The date is special for Cena as it's the same date he made his televised debut match in the early 2000s.

Cena responded to the official announcement, saying it had been far too long since he had been in the ring and looked forward to seeing the WWE Universe again:

John Cena was last seen in the ring against Roman Reigns at SummerSlam 2021. He has been arguing back-and-forth on social media with the current United States Champion, Theory. It'd be interesting to see them clash, as Theory has cited Cena as his inspiration for becoming a WWE Superstar.


While using quotes from this article, please add a H/T to Sportskeeda and credit WWE Playback.

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