When John Cena debuted in the WWE as a complete unknown in June 2002, he made an immediate impression.
The 16-time world champion and Hollywood icon, who will return to Raw on June 27 to celebrate two decades in the business, made his debut in a competitive loss to Kurt Angle, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Of course, things weren’t always so simple, and even that day had its ups and downs, as Cena found himself in a brief and frank encounter with Vince McMahon.
‘I discovered out around 2:45 in the afternoon that I’d be wrestling Kurt Angle,’ Cena recalled, reflecting on his WWE Payback debut.
‘I had one meeting with Mr. McMahon before this, and I was pushed into his office and Michael Hayes asked like, “What do we do with this?”
‘And Mr. McMahon’s first sentence to me, it was a short meeting. He said, “Cut his f**king hair, and then I was out of the office.’
Despite the fire Cena showed by referencing his ‘ruthless aggression’ and slapping Angle in the face, the match itself didn’t catch fire with WWE fans, and the future Hall of Famer wishes they’d done things differently.
‘I definitely could have done better with the idea of “ruthless aggression”, and been embodied that more rather than just wear boots and tights,’ he explained. ‘This is just a bunch of stuff.
‘I don’t mean to — I guess the goal was to make me tired. How’s that a test of one’s ability to sell tickets at a low price? You know, it’s weird. Here we are. 20 years later, I got an accidental match against the top performer and it was kind of like an inside joke to see if it would make me exhausted.’
Another infamous moment which has gone down in wrestling history was a moment of respect between Cena and The Undertaker, which really happened before being recreated on screen – but he wishes they’d changed things round.
He explained: ‘Certainly, it was pretty genuine. Everyone’s like “Hey, maybe you did really good. Let’s put it on tape.” But here I am, intimidated by The Undertaker – John Cena.
‘If I am aggressive and ruthless, I wouldn’t really be intimidated by anybody, right? I might not ask to shake Kurt’s hand or any of that. You know, here I am, marveling at my own hand because The Undertaker shook my hand.
‘If I really embodied ruthless aggression and kicked him in the nuts, you know, or bowed up to him and say, “Hey, I’m going to take that championship in a week or so.” ‘