West Newbury’s John Cena

Perched on the ropes of the square ring wearing his customary jeans shorts and flexing his sweat-speckled muscles, it is not hard to deduce from his physical appearance why John Cena is at the top of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) roster. Since the beginning of his wrestling career, Cena has become a five-time World Champion (he won the World Heavyweight championship twice and the WWE championship three times), three-time United States Champion, and a two-time World Tag Team Champion. Though his success in his wrestling career is indisputable, it is lesser known that Cena, alongside his championship belts, holds the profession of actor as well as musician. Following the footsteps of other wrestling superstars such as Hulk Hogan and The Rock (who now also go by Terry Bollea and Dwayne Johnson, respectively), Cena recently starred in the 2006 WWE Studios film, The Marine as well as his most recent film, 12 Rounds, which was released on March 27 and is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. He also released a hip hop album in 2005 entitled You Can’t See Me (which serves as a type of catch phrase for Cena) that debuted at number 15 on the US Billboard 200 chart.

John Cena Courtesy US Fed

Despite his successes on both the small and large screens, Cena hails from the small, rural town of West Newbury, Massachusetts, where he recently purchased land. Born on April 23, 1977 to John and Carol Cena, the future world wrestling champion was reputedly a quiet child, with an interest in music rather than grappling. It was only until later when Cena developed an interest in bodybuilding did he begin to consider a future in wrestling. He relocated to California where, working as a clerk at Gold’s Gym, a friend suggested that he explore the possibility of professional wrestling. Cena’s first trained and wrestled for Ultimate Pro Wrestling, eventually moving on to Ohio Valley Wrestling where he wrestled under the in-ring name of “The Prototype” and “Mr. P,” then finally ending up at WWE.

There seems to be no concrete plans for Cena in the future of film and music, but in the realm of WWE, he continues to dominate in and out of the ring. As his wrestling popularity is at a peak, there is no telling what this actor-rapper-wrestler will add to his repertoire.