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WHEN PRO WRESTLING
DECIDED TO MAKE ITS FIRST
BIG-BUDGET MOVIE, IT WAS
ONLY NATURAL THAT GOLDENBOY GRAPPLER JOHN CENA
WOULD PLAY THE HERO.
BUT DOES THE NEW KING OF
FAKE FIGHTING HAVE WHAT IT
TAKES TO FOLLOW THE ROCK
TO THE TOP OF HOLLYWOOD?
on a crisp evening in january, john cena, professional
wrestler and would-be movie star, arrived in Albany, New York, to
defend his title as World Wrestling Entertainment champion. At his
fight that night, which was a steel cage–style Elimination Chamber
match against Kane, Kurt Angle, Carlito, Chris Masters, and Shawn
Michaels, Cena was greeted with profanity-laced chants, a chorus
of boos, and a sea of disparaging handmade signs. Billed as a
thugged-out throwback jersey–wearing rapper, the 6'1", 240-pound
Cena was accustomed to getting jeered – he’d had a rough couple
of months – but it’s unlikely that he was prepared for the sea of
outrage he waded into that night. It is considered by many fans to
be the most surprisingly hostile audience reception in the history of
professional wrestling.
Fortunately for John Cena, the storyline, the scripted narrative
the wrestlers always follow, took a favourable turn that night. In
wrestling’s eternal battle of good versus evil, the WWE had for
months been trying, unsuccessfully, to position Cena as a good
guy, and for the Chamber match gave it one more college try by
pitting him against five opponents positioned that night as
“heels” (bad guys). After Cena had defeated all of them, his long-time
rival Edge forced an impromptu one-on-one match. Exhausted
from the Elimination Chamber, Cena was unable to defend himself. Edge pinned the WWE champ with ease. That night, Cena
not only lost the title, but he also began a personal transformation.
OCTOBER 2006 T ORO
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and that wrestling is closer to a soap opera
written to appeal to men. In doing so, he converted wrestling from an amateurish regional
phenomenon to a sophisticated, multi-dimensional production, developing the WWE into
the world’s leading sports entertainment
company, last year boasting gross revenues of
US$400-million. Monday Night RAW, one of
three major weekly WWE events, and the one
on which Cena currently appears, attracts
more than 500,000 viewers in Canada. In the
U.S., in excess of 14 million people tune in to
a wrestling event each week (that number sits
at around a million in Canada). It’s a long way
from the days of Jess McMahon, Vince’s
goal is for that fan who pays money to get in,
to say, ‘Dude, I’m going to come back.’ ” In the
WWE, where the singular objective is to entertain, popularity is almost a neutral term: fans
either care about a wrestler – and boo or cheer
him – or they don’t. To be hated is to be loved.
Not unlike Don Cherry, Cena has a distinct
knack for this schizophrenic brand of stardom.
The Monday before we meet over coffee, for
instance, at a RAW event in Cleveland, the
audience roars as soon as it hears the first few
chords of “The Time is Now,” Cena’s selfpenned entrance song, but the frenzy as Cena
swaggers down the aisle is hard to identify as
either adoration or disdain. (In fact, fans will
flip allegiances during Cena’s match
this night, a tag-team bout in which
he and Ric Flair take on Edge and
Johnny Nitro.) The din reaches a
fever pitch as Cena, wearing baggy
shorts and basketball shoes, slides
under the ropes to enter the ring. He
briskly salutes the decidedly patriotic
crowd (when the “Star Spangled
Banner” was played earlier in the
evening, the crowd began chanting
“USA! USA!” as soon as it ended).
Cena equates himself with America; his mantra – “Hustle, loyalty,
respect” – is a hip-hop spin on the
American dream.
As a wrestler, he’s hyperkinetic,
the most energetic man in the ring,
the ne plus ultra of wrestlersbouncing around frenetically, limbs
turned–movie stars is The Rock,
waving in a kind of chaotic adrenaa.k.a. Dwayne Johnson. When The
line rush. On the mic, he is ruthless,
Rock entered wrestling, in the late
mocking Lita, the trashy girlfriend
1990s, the WWE (then the WWF)
of the self-proclaimed Rated R
was evolving into a more theatrical
Superstar, Edge, as “NC-17 – no
affair; many female characters were
cold sores for seventeen days.” Then
introduced, and plot lines became Cena hammers Shelton Benjamin with The Five Knuckle Shuffle on Monday Night Raw.
he adds, “Might I remind you folks,
more sophisticated. The Rock’s
there is no cure for genital herpes.”
arrogant and flamboyant persona
After the bout, which Cena wins,
grandfather, who was promoting boxing
lent itself perfectly to compelling interviews
there is only one name I can hear being
matches in New York three-quarters of a cenand storylines. Before long, the wrestler was
chanted by the fans. Cena.
Still, Dave Meltzer, editor of the Wrestling
tury ago. Today’s WWE is less like a travelling
offered opportunities in other areas of enterObserver Newsletter and the author of three
sports club than a travelling group of Elizatainment, appearing in a Wyclef Jean music
books about wrestling, is amazed at the antibethan players, bringing their stage show to a
video, and hosting Saturday Night Live to great
acclaim. From there, the movie offers began to
Cena sentiment from earlier this year. “He got
different city every night.
roll in, and The Rock left wrestling for Hollyit worse than anyone I’ve seen,” says Meltzer.
Like the audience at Shakespeare’s Globe
wood in short order. The lesson? Wrestling
According to Meltzer, Cena is also a weak
Theatre in London, wrestling fans are both
and showbiz are not all that different: Both
technical wrestler. “He’s kind of awkward and
notoriously raucous and notoriously fickle.
are character-driven entertainment vehicles in
his stuff doesn’t look very real. He’s distinctly
John Cena handles the swings in approval with
which charisma, good looks, and a sense of the
below average.” Like Hulk Hogan before him,
grace; it’s because he understands the WWE’s
dramatic go a long way.
Cena relies on charisma and simple moves.
positioning as theatre first, where personal
It was Vincent K. McMahon, current chairThe fact is, wrestling is increasingly not
admiration is irrelevant and ratings are king.
man of the WWE, who first laid bare
really about wrestling. It’s only a small group
“My main goal is not winning the popularity
wrestling’s secrets, acknowledging in the early
of fanatics more interested in quality wrestling
of fans,” he says to me over coffee, on a rare
1980s that match outcomes are predetermined,
than storylines, who are truly uninterested in
Saturday morning off in Boston. “My main
70
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W W W. T O R O M A G A Z I N E . C A
Cena. (Tellingly, Cena’s pay-per-view numbers
are weak, a reflection of the hard-core fan
base that spends $40 to see a single event.)
On the whole, says Meltzer, “Cena’s got more
emotion behind him than any other character
in the business.”
courtesy of wwe
Soon after, he lost the throwback jerseys,
abandoning his gimmicky rapper image,
which so many fans resented, and resumed
the role of underdog, a “blue-collar son of a
gun,” according to WWE commentators. He
also stopped trash-talking in rhyme, one thing
that some fans may actually miss. (Cena once
rapped about how Chris Masters “has a body
that makes people say, ‘Oh my God’ / but his
Masterpiece is smaller than the Nano iPod.”)
His popularity resurged. Within weeks, he was
enjoying overwhelming crowd approval, which
he carried through the summer.
And it was a good thing, too. Cena’s ability
to elicit an impassioned fan response, positive
or negative, has cemented his role as
the new golden boy of the WWE.
The twenty-nine-year-old is not only
their biggest draw by far; he’s also
the great hope of WWE Films, the
star of their first independently
produced mainstream feature, The
Marine, a high-octane action film
due out this month. The stakes are
high. If the movie flops, it could
send WWE Films the way of the
XFL, the WWE’s failed football venture; if it succeeds, it will allow the
WWE to gain a foothold in a very
lucrative industry, and will make
John Cena a star.
being a character is nothing new for
John Cena. It’s how he describes himself as a
teenager in high school.“In West Newbury [the
small town north of Boston where he grew
up], they listen to rock music. I listened to rap
music. Those guys were wearing T-shirts that
were ripped and stained; I got a rayon Kwamé
polka-dot shirt on,” he says.“I would show up
in a jail jumpsuit with an afro wig. I was different.” Hip-hop’s flamboyant style and its message of rebellion and individualism captured
Cena. “I knew there was something about
hip-hop that I could find my identity with.”
After high school, Cena left for Springfield
College, a Division III NCAA school where
he was an all-American offensive lineman.
He graduated with a degree in exercise physiology and went to California, where he started
wrestling in 2000. He enjoyed moderate success initially, even landing a role in a reality
program called Manhunt, in which he played
Big Tim Kingman, hunting down contestants
with a paintball gun. The show ended in controversy after participants alleged the series
had been partially scripted and its outcome
predetermined. (Fittingly, it was produced in
association with the WWE.)
After griding it out for a couple of years on
California’s Ultimate Pro Wrestling circuit,
Cena’s fortunes changed. WWE brass overheard Cena rapping to himself on a tour bus,
and soon after, the small-town white boy
appeared on live television in a gaudy Vanilla
Ice–style costume on Halloween in 2002,
performing an outlandish rap mocking his
opponents. He’d found his gimmick, and it
was a phenomenal success: The fans hated it.
Cena carried the shtick further, releasing
an album, You Can’t See Me – a favourite
taunt he mimes to semi-conscious players in
the ring – a passable debut released by
Columbia Records. Cena insists that his character
“is me, with the volume and the excitement
turned up.”
He’s not the first wrestler to make this claim,
and not the first to inspire doubt. Meltzer, who
interviewed Cena multiple times in his early
days, says that five or six years ago,“his dialect
was completely different. He talked like a
California surfer guy.” It’s possible Cena may
have picked up his surfer-dude affectation on
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W W W. T O R O M A G A Z I N E . C A
grooming: lynne avallone/ennis. this page: courtesy of twentieth century fox
the Pacific coast during his first years on the
that. Although The Marine was originally
curricular activities – filmic or musical – as
wrestling scene; and the split-personality act
intended to be a straight-ahead action film, the
vehicles to drive more people to wrestling;
may simply prove he’s just an adaptable guy.
first time Bonito read the script he realized it
what’s good for the WWE is good for John Cena.
Ultimately, the point is moot.
was so over the top, he had only one recourse.
Is The Marine good? Only the fans will tell.
An early preview received a positive response
The question of what’s fake and what’s real
Wrestling was in the air, which meant winkonline, but Dave Meltzer, for one, is not optiis fundamentally irrelevant in the wrestling
ing was, too: he turned it into a comedy.
mistic. “The WWE’s track record at going into
world. Wrestling is premised on the suspennew things is pretty horrible,” he says, referring
sion of disbelief, and Cena knows this.
the winking approach is a good fit for
not only to the XFL but to other failed ventures
“I make my living through believability,” he
the WWE, a league that never takes itself too
in reality television (2001’s Tough Enough) and
says, acknowledging that matches are predeseriously. In this sense, Cena is perfect for a
nightclubs (The World, a WWE-themed
termined. “But between the time that bell
starring role. “The way you play comedy off
restaurant-club combo in Times Square, shut
rings and when it rings again, that’s my time,
of John Cena,” says Bonito, “is you ask him to
down in 2003 after four years). “I don’t see
and that’s impromptu.” Wrestling mats provide
play it straight.”
John Cena having much appeal outside of the
little protection, and there’s no way to fake a
For three-and-a-half months, Cena comwrestling audience.”
fifteen-foot fall off a ladder. Injuries are comThough Cena resists the comparmon. (Cena, who doesn’t warm up
ison, the name that continues to
before matches, or stretch afterward,
loom large for any wrestler crossing
damaged his neck recently but will
over into film is Dwayne Johnson.
not require surgery.) The bottom
Cena claims his ambitions are excluline is entertainment, and behind the
sively focused on wrestling – fans
entertainment is always the script.
felt abandoned by The Rock when
Movies, ergo, are a perfectly
he started acting, and Cena knows
logical extension for WWE. The
better than to incur their wrath if he
characters already exist, and, more
can avoid it – but the promise of
importantly, so does the fan base.
earning US$5- to US$10-million for
Besides, all wrestlers are actors, to
three months’ work is appealing,
some degree. The Marine is Cena’s
formal acting debut, but according
especially compared to the alternato the film’s director, John Bonito,
tive, enduring chokeholds four nights
Cena’s a natural. “He’s got the
a week for US$1.7-million, Cena’s
chops,” says Bonito. “He’s got a long
estimated annual salary.
career in movies if he wants it.”
Cena’s unlikely, however, to be
That career begins this way: In
confronted with the choice. As a
The Marine, Cena plays John Triton,
wrestler, The Rock inhabited a “coma recently discharged marine officer
pletely different echelon” of popuwho must rescue his wife, played by
larity than Cena, says Meltzer. The
Kelly Carlson (CSI, Nip/Tuck), from
Rock has an appealing, mixed-race
the murderous criminals who’ve
face, and, more importantly, he quit
taken her hostage. Joel Simon, preswrestling, and studied under top
ident of WWE Films, is thrilled with
acting coaches to make the transiCena’s performance. “We’d like John Cena takes on all comers in The Marine, the first big-budget release by WWE Films.
tion. Cena wrestles more than 200
Cena to become another Clint Eastdays a year, which doesn’t leave a lot
wood or Charles Bronson,” he says.
of time for acting lessons.
muted almost weekly between the set in AusPlans are in the works for at least two more
Besides, the wrestling lifestyle is taking its
tralia and various RAW events in the U.S.
Cena films, but The Marine is the sink-ortoll on Cena even before you add the Hollyswim opportunity, for both Cena and the
Bonito says he was indefatigable. “He’d get off
wood extracurriculars. “I feel old,” he says,
WWE. It’s one of the league’s biggest gambles
an eighteen-hour flight and do chase scenes
sounding it. “I’ve stopped listening to rap
yet. Though WWE Films has been around
in a car without a roof on it, getting smashed
music. I guess it’s because I’ve been on the
since 2002, The Marine is just their second
up at seventy miles an hour. John is a director’s
road. You learn a lot, you see a lot. I started
independent release. Its first outing was See No
dream. The guy will do anything it takes.” In
listening to a lot of older country.” In spite of
Evil, a low-budget horror picture starring felthe wrestling world too, Cena has a reputation
his weariness, though, Cena is determined to
low wrestler Kane, released in May. See No Evil
as a hard worker. He hasn’t taken time off in
carry on in the ring for many years to come.
turned a modest profit – no mean feat in Holyears, and though he is often driven around
“This gig is cake forever,” he says. “There’s
lywood – but it’s unclear if the film attracted
by limo and flies first class, he is known in the
nothing else I’d rather be doing. Nothing.”
many non-wrestling fans. The Marine’s budget
WWE as a low-maintenance character.
Except, maybe, accepting an Oscar. He might
is closer to $20-million, and in order to be
Cena insists that he hopes the film succeeds
make time in his schedule for that. Ω
successful, it will need to reach beyond what
“not for personal reasons, but for company
Simon calls the WWE’s “built-in audience.”
reasons.” In an unconventional business, Cena
Benjamin Leszcz is a regular contributor
The gamble is even more precarious than
is a classic company man. He views his extrato our Ringside section.