History YMMV / JohnCena

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Cena started to build a fanbase in 2003, well before his rise to main-event status and back when he was technically still supposed to be a heel. When he was playing the "wigger" rapper, fans adored him either for his "don't-take-no-guff-from-nobody" (including Wrestling/KurtAngle and Wrestling/TheUndertaker) attitude or for his {{Narm}}-y "white-boy" rhymes, which were originally intended for comedy but were eventually embraced by the fans. Then, beginning in 2005 and culminating in 2006 with the release of his first movie, ''Film/TheMarine'', Cena transitioned from a rebellious thug to a by-the-book armed-forces recruit who wore paramilitary gear and saluted the audience. Not only did we already get this gimmick with Wrestling/SgtSlaughter (not to mention Wrestling/HulkHogan and other top faces throughout WWE's history), but Cena lost almost all of the "underdog" aura that had up until then sustained much of his popularity. CM Punk lampshaded this to hell and back during his feud with Cena, comparing Cena to the perennial contender [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams New York Yankees]]. Obviously, as the show where he did this was in Boston (Cena's de facto 'hometown' arena since he's a Massachusetts native), it was a creative way to draw heat. But the RealitySubtext was obvious, and it's very likely that same statement would have gotten him cheers of agreement anywhere else.

** Everyone expected the {{Wrestling/ECW}} crowd at ''One Night Stand'' to eat him for lunch. That Philly crowd were not going to settle for anything less than a Cena burial: "IF CENA WINS, WE RIOT". Also, at one point you can spot a "I CAME TO SEE CENA DIE" sign. But Cena came prepared. He knew there was no point in being a whitemeat babyface (or perhaps he had more agency since Vince wasn't as hands-on with this event?) and played an effective heel vs. Wrestling/RobVanDam, the most-obvious example being Cena punching RVD through a "FUCK CENA" sign. This is a spectacle and really doesn't get old to watch; probably Cena's best performance ever.

** Bing Chilling[[note]]Related to the meme above, it comes from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWOyEIuVzzQ a video]] he made in Chinese promoting Fast and Furious 9 while holding ice cream, which quickly became a popular GagSub source.[[/note]]

** His 2015 US Title run. Never mind the people that don't appreciate his going over Rusev at [=WM31=] (see above), but he's been holding an 'open challenge' [[OnceAnEpisode weekly]] on ''Raw'' since he won the belt. Some people believe that the whole point is to establish a new precedent for the US Title (perhaps as more of a 'television' title that sees the bulk of its defenses on TV programming moreso than the other titles) and restore some of its prestige and visibility. Others think it's just an excuse to have Cena steamroll a bunch of up-and-comers. The thing is, these two opinions wouldn't be mutually exclusive, either. Eventually {{subverted|Trope}}, the US Open Challenges have been the best thing to happen to Cena in years. Now that Cena is working in the midcard, he's having PPV-quality matches nearly every week on RAW against the likes of Cesaro, Neville and Sami Zayn. His in-ring ability has been a renaissance in 2015, and he's even won over some smarky fans who were getting tired of him.

*** Subverted in 2016 when they restarted the brand extension. Cena was drafted to ''Wrestling/WWESmackDown'', most likely to both give legitimacy to the brand and to acknowledge his gradually reduced role in the main event picture. He wasn't even SD's first or second pick (that would be the then-current WWE Champion Wrestling/DeanAmbrose and Wrestling/AJStyles respectively).

** Subverted with the Wrestling/CMPunk angle. [[Wrestling/VinceMcMahon Mr. McMahon]] really was going to fire Cena. In fact, it was the fact that he was going to fire Cena, along with quite a few other things, most of which probably included about half the demands that Punk laid out, that caused the board of directors to give a vote of no-confidence and force him to step down as chairman, consequently saving Cena's job.

* WMG/PoisonOakEpilepticTrees: After Cena took some time off towards the end of 2015 so he could host his new TV show, the terrible booking of the main roster became more and more apparent, culminating in ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries 2015'', the ending of which was publicly lambasted by almost all of the Internet, including one Wrestling/MickFoley, who made a post on Facebook echoing the thoughts of practically every fan even remotely privy to how things work in the company (which might as well just be every fan at this point), after the equally horrible ''Raw'' the night after. After ''that'' fiasco, many began to admit that they actually '''''missed''''' Cena, leading to some theorizing (half-jokingly, half-not) that this is all some elaborate plot of Wrestling/VinceMcMahon's to get Cena over with the smark crowd again.
** It's not as poison oak as you might think. This is ''exactly'' what Wrestling/HulkHogan used to do in WCW - coincide his absences with special events (like NBA finals on TNT and the Westminster Dog Show on USA) to make it seem like ratings changes were entirely due to him being there or not being there.

* VindicatedByHistory: After Cena took time off in late 2015, the quality of ''Raw'' tanked as Wrestling/RomanReigns became the focus of the show. By ''Survivor Series 2015'', several smarks stated that they actively ''missed'' Cena, and many began to look at his rise to the top more objectively. Unlike Reigns, whose entire push has been manufactured since his debut with the rest of Wrestling/TheShield, Cena actually got over organically. Of the famous OVW class that debuted in the company in 2002 (Orton, Batista, Lesnar, and Cena), Cena had the least amount of help from the company -- Orton and Batista were both placed in Wrestling/{{Evolution}} with Wrestling/TripleH, while Lesnar got Heyman and was hotshotted to the main event within his first ''four months'' with the company. Cena floundered, and stood the chance of getting fired if Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon hadn't heard him rapping and helped him develop the "Doctor of Thuganomics" gimmick. After that, he got so popular that the company had no choice but to push him, especially as two others from his class didn't have their pushes pan out well (Lesnar left for eight years; Orton got the title way too early and ended up losing it to Triple H himself, and had to wait another three years before he got it again; and Batista was briefly more over than Cena for a while but he got moved to ''[=SmackDown=]'' to carry that show). It was the booking of his character ''after'' the title that ruined him for the fans (along with the company's outright refusal to turn him heel), but to Cena's credit, he at least tried to make the gimmick bearable and improved his wrestling to the point where he was considered one of the best workers in the company. When he left and the much more green Reigns had the spotlight, many began to realize that Cena was a much better performer than the fans ever gave him credit for. Nowadays, he's viewed far more favorably by fans; it's actually quite telling that the above "John Cena sucks!" chants which were originally done as an ironic show of respect towards the man have been replaced with straight up cheers

** Cena has also applied this trope to his resurgent movie career thanks to a scene-stealing performance in Amy Schumer's ''Trainwreck.''

** John Xina / Zhong Xi Na / Jiang Xi Na[[note]]John Cena called Taiwan a country when promoting his new movie in 2021 which led to an uproar in China social media. Soon, John Cena made an apology video saying that he was sorry for his mistake in calling Taiwan a country as a damage control. Many of John Cena's Western fans are left disappointed by Cena's apology and "support of CCP", while his detractors are happy to find one more reason to dislike him and going as far as disowning him as an American and calling him "Zhong Xi Na" or "Jiang Xi Na", while other people use this nickname to poke fun at him and the increasing influence of China over the world.[[/note]]

* ArcFatigue: His neverending feud with Wrestling/RandyOrton. While they generally have great matches together, there's a general belief that the feuds between the two aren't build up besides the premise of [[BlackAndWhiteMorality one being a goody two-shoes and the other being a psycho.]] That doesn't stop the company from trying to make them feud as if they were Stone Cold and The Rock. It doesn't really help either that neither guy has done much to evolve his character in ''years.''

* CommonKnowledge: Despite his use of imagery like dogtags, salutes and camoflauge, and his MemeticMutation stating that he was, John Cena was never actually in the United States Military, but those who know him for his out of wrestling endeavours seem to think he was.

* CreatorBacklash: Very, very downplayed, but Cena is a little rueful of the fact that he became known under his real name instead of a flashy and colorful stage name like he wanted.

* ArcFatigue: His neverending feud with Wrestling/RandyOrton. While they generally have great matches together, there's a general belief that the feuds between the two aren't build up besides [[BlackAndWhiteMorality one being a goody two-shoes and the other being a psycho.]] That doesn't stop the company from trying to make them feud as if they were Stone Cold and The Rock. It doesn't really help either that neither guy has done much to evolve his character in ''years.''

* ArcFatigue: His neverending feud with Wrestling/RandyOrton. While they generally have great matches together, there's a general belief that the feuds between the two build up other than [[BlackAndWhiteMorality one being a goody two-shoes and the other being a psycho.]] That doesn't stop the company from trying to make them feud as if they were Stone Cold and The Rock. It doesn't really help either that neither guy has done much to evolve his character in ''years.''

* ArcFatigue: His neverending feud with Wrestling/RandyOrton. While they generally have great matches together, there's a general belief that the two don't really have chemistry when it comes to feud-building other than [[BlackAndWhiteMorality one being a goody two-shoes and the other being a psycho.]] That doesn't stop the company from trying to make them feud as if they were Stone Cold and the Rock. It doesn't really help either that neither guy has done much to evolve his character in ''years.''

* FountainOfMemes: Since Hulk Hogan was UnPerson by the WWE for his racist remarks, Cena has enjoyed a huge surge in memes. Cena ''himself'' has become a meme - or at least his appearance in unexpected and sometimes inappropriate places.[[note]]Specifically, moments being suddenly interrupted with the aforementioned "AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA" meme.[[/note]]

** There's a very special little meme I'd like to bring attention to...AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA! [[note]]A radio show did a prank call using John Cena's theme as a way to troll a wrestling fan's wife. During the call, a BaitAndSwitch was pulled where it seemed like a lady was calling about the Marines, but just as she said a former decorated Marine needs her support, they use the line.[[/note]]

* EpilepticTrees: [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]] once jokingly theorised that Cena was the result of genetic experiment to create the perfect wrestler, meaning his character in OVW was literally a "Prototype"- the original iteration of John Cena. He also suggested that there is a cloning lab beneath WWE headquarters containing dozens of John Cenas at various stages of development from fetus to adult, and whenever a John Cena is injured, they simply kill the current clone and activate a new one, explaining Cena's miraculous on- and offscreen healing abilities.
** The WMG page for John Cena on this wiki suggests that Cena is actually a cyborg created in an air force testing base for the purpose of destroying the WWE at the behest of former rival WCW's Billionaire Ted.

** Cena's feud with Wrestling/{{Edge}} in 2006. Edge was the first heel challenger to Cena since JBL to consistently get enough heat to put the crowd on Cena's side; at the same time, Cena's in-ring execution improved tremendously. He continued to get mixed reactions afterward, but that feud (along with a concurrent side-feud with Rob Van Dam) convinced many fans that Cena deserved respect, if not cheers.

** "Are you sure about that?" [[note]]In a hidden-camera prank done with Cricket Wireless, members of the Cenation were instructed to give their best introduction for John Cena right before he himself bursts through his picture in the background, re-enacting the "Unexpected Cena" meme. Among these lucky Cenation members was one little girl who claimed that Cena would be a tiger if he was an animal. Cena then pulled away the face on his picture, stuck his head in the hole, [[https://youtu.be/t6m6g5y1bQs?t=2m14s and asked the question that later turned into a meme.]] That's right; while making an AscendedMeme, John Cena inadvertently created ''another meme''.[[/note]]

** On the February 5, 2004 ''[=SmackDown=]'', which was held in UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}}, OH, Cena did a rap about Wrestling/PaulHeyman excluding him from the #1 contender to the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-h.html WWE Championship]] match between Wrestling/KurtAngle and Wrestling/TheBigShow at ''[[Wrestling/NoWayOutWrestling No Way Out]]''. Cena said, "Yo! You see, leavin' Cena outta this match is completely insane/That's like cutting ([[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation then-Cleveland Cavaliers]] basketball sensation) UsefulNotes/{{LeBron James}} from ''The All Star Game''." 6 years later, on July 28, 2010, Creator/{{ESPN}} aired an overblown TV special called ''The Decision'' where James announced that he would be ''leaving'' Cleveland to join the Miami Heat, drawing ''very'' negative reactions from Cleveland fans, who likely would not have minded if James was left out of any future All-Star Games.

** A big part of the backlash Cena suffered was also the WWE's obsession with having all fans (not just his own fanbase) accepting Cena as their undisputed hero. From having more popular wrestlers endorse him, to having the announce team flat out lecture the fans on why they "should" cheer Cena. Notice that once they eased up on this(mostly due to moving on to do the same to Roman Reigns), the backlash started to wane as well.

* RootingForTheEmpire: It had to take a wrestler with nuclear XPacHeat to cause the crowd to root for Cena over his opponent but it has happened. During the height of his feud with Roman Reigns there were more people that cheered Cena over Reigns.

* VindicatedByHistory: After Cena took time off in late 2015, the quality of ''Raw'' tanked as Wrestling/RomanReigns became the focus of the show. By ''Survivor Series 2015'', several smarks stated that they actively ''missed'' Cena, and many began to look at his rise to the top more objectively. Unlike Reigns, whose entire push has been manufactured since his debut with the rest of Wrestling/TheShield, Cena actually got over organically. Of the famous OVW class that debuted in the company in 2002 (Orton, Batista, Lesnar, and Cena), Cena had the least amount of help from the company -- Orton and Batista were both placed in Wrestling/{{Evolution}} with Wrestling/TripleH, while Lesnar got Heyman and was hotshotted to the main event within his first ''four months'' with the company. Cena floundered, and stood the chance of getting fired if Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon hadn't heard him rapping and helped him develop the "Doctor of Thuganomics" gimmick. After that, he got so popular that the company had no choice but to push him, especially as two others from his class didn't have their pushes pan out well (Lesnar left for eight years; Orton got the title way too early and ended up losing it to Triple H himself, and had to wait another three years before he got it again; and Batista was briefly more over than Cena for a while but he got moved to ''[=SmackDown=]'' to carry that show). It was the booking of his character ''after'' the title that ruined him for the fans (along with the company's outright refusal to turn him heel), but to Cena's credit, he at least tried to make the gimmick bearable and improved his wrestling to the point where he was considered one of the best workers in the company. When he left and the much more green Reigns had the spotlight, many began to realize that Cena was a much better performer than the fans ever gave him credit for.

** The US Chanpionship Open Challenge. Considering the lackluster quality of ''Raw'' the past year and Cena's improved ring work, it was one of the few things that makes post-''[=WrestleMania=]'' season worth watching, partially from the excitement of wondering who was going to answer the challenge next. In particular, it really elevated what was normally a midcard championship and the men who were fighting for it.

** JOHN CENA SUUUUUUUUCKS! JOHN CENA SUUUUUUUUCKS! [[note]]Sung to the tune of his entrance theme, this chant was heard about two or three times over the years (recorded on Website/YouTube) before getting heard live and loud on the 2014 Night After [=WrestleMania=] show, then became a thing done once in awhile over the following year before the 2015 Night After [=WrestleMania=] show. Since then it's become practically mandatory, much like the "YOU SUCK!" chants at Kurt Angle.[[/note]]

** While certain criticisms laid towards him are pretty firmly Cena's fault, his fans insist that he is ''not'' to blame for burying guys on the roster, based on the fact that storylines involving him tend to portray him as a big supporter of guys like [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], Wrestling/EvanBourne, and Wrestling/CMPunk as well as the lack of concrete evidence that John Cena actually politicked against others (the closest thing to an evidence is his admission before ''[=WrestleMania=] 29'' that he does have enough creative control to avoid turning heel). It especially became debunked in the case of Punk, as an interview with at Starrcast III had Punk reveal that he loved working with Cena and they got on extremely well.

** While certain criticisms laid towards him are pretty firmly Cena's fault, his fans insist that he is ''not'' to blame for burying guys on the roster, based on the fact that storylines involving him tend to portray him as a big supporter of guys like [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], Wrestling/EvanBourne, and Wrestling/CMPunk as well as the lack of concrete evidence that John Cena actually politicked against others (the closest thing to an evidence is his admission before ''[=WrestleMania=] 29'' that he does have enough creative control to avoid turning heel).

** To demonstrate this further: one of South Africa's rising superstars in music and performing has a domestic and international hit called "John Cena." It has gotten so popular that it was featured on both Ellen and The Kelly Clarkson Show, the latter also being a heartwarming moment since he actually surprises her during her live performance of the song.

** His performance as Peacemaker in ''Film/TheSuicideSquad'' plays this straight, going from a parody of Cena's usual characters to nearly breaking down in tears after [[spoiler: being forced to kill one of his teammates]]. This continues in ''Series/{{Peacemaker}}'' when he [[spoiler:has a mental breakdown about having to kill Rick Flagg and berating how he hates himself.]]

** His performance as Peacemaker in ''Film/TheSuicideSquad'' plays this straight, going from a parody of Cena's usual characters to nearly breaking down in tears after [[spoiler: being forced to kill one of his teammates]].

** Zhong Xi Na / Jiang Xi Na[[note]]John Cena called Taiwan a country when promoting his new movie in 2021 which led to an uproar in China social media. Soon, John Cena made an apology video saying that he was sorry for his mistake in calling Taiwan a country as a damage control. Many of John Cena's Western fans are left disappointed by Cena's apology and "support of CCP", while his detractors are happy to find one more reason to dislike him and going as far as disowning him as an American and calling him "Zhong Xi Na" or "Jiang Xi Na", while other people use this nickname to poke fun at him and the increasing influence of China over the world.[[/note]]