John Cena counts 3 WWE defeats that turned him into a would-be Hall of Famer

John Cena has revealed the WWE losses that helped turn him into a wrestling icon.

The Doctor of Thuganomics is set to bring his 24-year WWE career to an end this year wit his Farewell Tour culminating in one last match at the end of December. Cena has mixed it with some of the biggest and best in the business over two decades including The Rock, Triple H and Hulk Hogan and will go down as one of Vince McMahon's favourites.

But winning isn't everything, claims the 47-year-old. Some of the losses are what made surely soon-to-be WWE Hall of Famer. He explains the origin of the infamous “LOL Cena Wins” meme, a mocking statement in reference to his seeming invincibility in the peak of his career.

In an exclusive interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub for Cena’s upcoming project What Drives You , the 16-time World Champion reflected on the losses that shaped his career and the necessity of his unparalleled winning streak during the peak of his WWE run.

He said: "One of the biggest hang-ups in the middle portion of my career was that, spoiler alert, John wins. What people don’t understand is, I think now, maybe, as we begin to reflect back here on this last run of like, ‘Hey, man, I was in it for the long haul. The way you make those losses impactful is sometimes you’ve got to win, and sometimes you’ve got to win a lot.

"Any time you can pass energy on to somebody, that’s kind of the life cycle of the business. You come in an unknown and, hopefully, you get the flywheel spinning, you create all this energy on your way out, you pay it forward, you pass it off.”

He revealed: "Some of the ones that come to mind are certainly The Rock in Miami (at WrestleMania 28) was a fantastic loss; Kevin Owens’ debut (at Elimination