25 Things You Didn't Know About John Cena

16. He Ate 10,000 Calories Of Tic-Tacs Daily

John Cena WWE Title 2025
WWE

Many wrestlers have their own quirky pre-match rituals. Mick Foley listened to a certain pop song before putting his body through hell in some of the most brutally violent matches ever, others do specific warm ups that put them in the right frame of mind, and Scott Steiner sat down to do every kid in the arena's maths homework before going through the curtain during his TNA days. What a guy, eh?

John Cena's pre-match ritual might surprise you. He consumed an eye watering amount of those Tic-Tac mints before his matches at one point in his career. Later, he admitted via The Kelly Clarkson Show that he had to "wean [himself] off of them, because [he] got up to 3 boxes a day" deep before stopping. That's...a lot of minty action right there.

John would typically gobble most of the mints for 20 minutes before his matches, which he estimated was around "10,000 calories of straight sugar". He described this as a "nervous superstition", and it was a habit he had to break before it got even further out of hand. Stop eating all of the Tic-Tacs on the planet, Mr. Cena. Put the mints down, son. 

Eventually, he did.

Cena didn't go into details during the chat about whether or not he replaced Tic-Tacs with anything else. Walking around the hallways singing that old Cody Rhodes entrance track, for example. He was once filmed doing just that. Hey, at least John's breath would've been fresh during his matches. That's an ungodly amount of sugar in one sitting though.

How did he still have abs?!

Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.