John Cena: 10 things you didn't know about the former WWE Champion

John Cena is one of the biggest and best superstars to have ever stepped foot inside a WWE ring.

Cena arrived on WWE’s main roster in 2002, and initially struggled to make it work, narrowly escaping being fired in 2003.

John recovered from that and went from strengh-to-strength, earning the trust of Vince McMahon before going on to become one of the biggest stars in wrestling history.

Cena is one of wrestling’s most recognisable ever names but there are still things that even WWE fans have to find out about the 16-time World Champion, so here are 10 things you might not know about him…

John Cena has one of the best physiques in WWE history but he only started weightlifting to combat bullies at school. Picked on for being a scrawny kid who liked rap and hip hop in a neighbourhood that did not, he packed on the muscle by the time he was 15 and never looked back.

Cena attended Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts where he was an NCAA Division 3 All-American centre on their football team. His jersey number, 54, is featured on much of his WWE merchandise.

Using his large physique, Cena adopted a half-man half-robot character known as “The Prototype” in the early days of his wrestling career. The gimmick landed him a WWE developmental contract and saw him win the OVW Heavyweight Title before moving to the main roster.

Cena debuted on Smackdown as a cookie-cutter babyface with little to no character. Dressed as Vanilla Ice for a Halloween-themed episode of Smackdown, he performed a freestyle rap. It led to him adopting a rap gimmick which saved and then launched his WWE career.

Cena’s rapping skills saw him feature on two of his theme songs, “Basic Thuganomics” and “The Time Is Now.” His second and most famous