25 Things You Didn't Know About John Cena
There's a lot people don't know about the "never seen 17" WWE legend.
He's one of the biggest names in wrestling and has crossed over into the mainstream via the magic of Hollywood and memes. Hell, the biggest battle John Cena and Randy Orton ever contested might not even be in the ring - it'd be over "IT'S JOHN CENA!" and the latter's viral RKO joke. All of this attention has turned Cena into a pop culture phenomenon.
Retiring in December 2025 remains a big deal to JC. His retirement tour dominated conversation throughout the calendar year, and his shocking heel turn will forever be regarded as one of WWE's most surprising moments. It's a pity they didn't follow up on that with anything meaningful, but people will be talking about Elimination Chamber in Toronto forever.
This mix of facts and stories looks at John's entire life and career. There are fascinating childhood tales to discover, and there's even word on just how different things could've been for Cena and WWE. Somebody else almost beat the McMahon family to the punch back in 2000-2001 when it comes to their future 17-time World Champ, and there would've been no guarantees had he signed on the dotted line elsewhere.
You'll learn about John's abandoned pre-match rituals, a movie-tie in finisher he tried on for a cup of coffee, why he regrets aspects from a fiery feud, who he wants to star as in a future movie (that one's on ice due to real life controversies), and even why The Undertaker thought Cena was ribbing him on the grand stage at WrestleMania.
Dive in.
25. His Amazing Giant Pizza Story
It won't have escaped anyone's attention that Cena has been a bloody tank throughout adulthood. Maintaining that muscle mass means consuming a lot of food. Ideally, young John would've liked to feast on broccoli, chicken breast and rice, but he couldn't afford to be picky after moving away from home to California in order to pursue his fitness industry dreams.
JC was broke and didn't have much money for food. So, imagine how wide his eyes got when he noticed that a local restaurant was running a pizza promotion nearby. Basically, if you could stomach a ridiculously huge pie in one sitting, then the eatery would give you it for free. John accepted the challenge, managed it, and he kept returning for more.
This is when things get pretty funny.
Eventually, the manager said he'd give John free pizza if the aspiring muscle head would stop hammering his challenge and costing the place money. Suddenly, Cena had what he wanted - a place to go grab some free/cheap food. Nobody at the restaurant could believe that he'd managed to eat the whole pizza anyway. It was deliberately giant so that people wouldn't finish the thing.
Armed with the dangerous knowledge that he wouldn't be able to pay for the food if he didn't finish it, Cena went to work and polished it off each night he visited. That's amazing. By virtue of being a greedy git who'd been ravenous and probably hadn't eaten all day, John bagged himself some meals on the house.
It wouldn't be long before affording dinner wasn't an issue for the WWE megastar.