History Wrestling / JohnCena

* ShootTheShaggyDog: He fought hard to get Wrestling/TheAuthority out of power and his team eventually succeeded in doing so at Survivor Series...only to bring them back a month later on the final Raw of 2014 when SethRollins called his hand when he threatened to paralyze(and even ''murder'') Wrestling/{{Edge|Wrestler}} when the latter was a guest host.

Jonathan Felix Anthony Cena Jr. (born April 23, 1977) is an American {{professional wrestl|ing}}er currently working for the Wrestling/{{WWE}}. With a career spanning 20 years, he rose through the pits of the midcard to become a legitimate success story, and is widely regarded as one of the biggest superstars to ever grace WWE, if not ''the'' biggest, and the 21st-century equivalent of Wrestling/HulkHogan.

!!!The TROPES are HEEEEEEEEEERE!

* BleachedUnderpants: His album, ''You Can't See Me,'' came in two versions, one with a warning sticker, the other without one.

** His infamous 8-bit T-shirt introduced in 2008 is actually a parody of the cover of Pro Wrestling, a game from the {{UsefulNotes/NES}}.

Unusual for a career babyface, Cena maintained his top spot for an unprecedented 10 years, through no fault of his own: Wrestling/JeffHardy's merchandise outsold Cena's for three months straight, but WWE had to dump him after the Junk Squad raided his house. Wrestling/CMPunk surpassed him in late 2011 and early 2012, but [[ExecutiveMeddling had to]] turn heel and drop the title to [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]], [[OutOfFocus somehow]] never made it back into the main event picture even after turning face again, and finally quit the night after ''Royal Rumble 2014''. After fighting against it, the company finally gave [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] a push... just in time for his [[GameBreakingInjury forced retirement]]. Three contenders for the crown, and WWE has been burned three times. As a consequence, Cena is one of the most polarizing Superstars in [=WWE=] history, as older fans have [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks grown tired of him always winning]]. But he has also raised a child army of new fans, triggering a weekly shouting war of "LET'S GO, CENA!" and "CENA SUCKS!"

Now in his forties, he is starting to look his age, but Cena matches still pull bigger audiences than non-Cena shows, and he sells five times more merchandise than other stars (cunningly, WWE has begun selling "CENA SUCKS" t-shirts to [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity double their profits]]). He will continue to plod along with his wholesome, kid-friendly hero and--as long as he can still go--the company will always bet on a record like Cena’s.

It goes without saying that the Cenation holds claim to a lot of titles. To put into context: Wrestling/RicFlair had a career that spanned over thirty years; in that span of time, he won 16 world titles (or a few more depending on who you're asking). By comparison, Cena has matched Flair's record, yet has only been active for about a third of Flair's career. He's also a one time Wrestling/MoneyInTheBank winner, in which he became known as the first person to [[EpicFail unsuccessfully cash in.]] (Through no fault of his own, however. Wrestling/TheBigShow interfered in the match, so Cena won the match, but not the title. Coincidentally, Cena would later be responsible for causing Wrestling/DamienSandow and Wrestling/BaronCorbin to lose the match after cashing in, another first.)

Finally, showing that he really is the babyface he plays in the WWE, Cena holds the record with the Make A Wish Foundation having granted nearly ''seven hundred'' wishes, and he had to be pushed, hard, by manager Paul Heyman before he agreed to make that number public. The reason he caved? It would be good publicity for the foundation. Even though he's stepped back from wrestling and has become more mainstream as a top billing actor, he's still granting wishes.

[[caption-width-right:350: The champ is here! But you can't see him.]]

'''''[[BattleCry BRRRRRRRRRRRR]] [[MemeticMutation APPLEDOUGH!]]'''''

* CallBack: The 4/23/12 RAW with [=Edge=] returning to pretty much give Cena a [[WhatTheHellHero verbal]] [[{{Pun}} smackdown]] for letting Brock Lesnar push him around. Edge made a thinly veiled suggestion that Cena goes back to his old self. At the contract signing for his match with Brock at the end of the show. Cena appeared to be wearing the same attire as he always did. Except that, instead of the 'dog tag' necklace, [[ChainedByFashion he was wearing a chain...]]

** Also subverted with The Rock. They teamed against [[Wrestling/TheMiz Awesome]] [[Wrestling/RonKillings Truth]] and won...but the match ended up becoming a junk-measuring contest between the two, and ended with Cena catching a Rock Bottom.

** [[spoiler: In a promo leading up to his Firefly Funhouse Match against Bray Wyatt at Wrestlemania 36, Cena said, "This match will accomplish [[CallBack what should've happened 6 years ago]]. [[TakeThat Ending the existence of the most overhyped, overvalued, overprivileged WWE superstar."]] [[IronicEcho Unfortunately those same word would echo back at Cena while Bray pins him after a decisive match."]]]]

* GoodIsNotSoft: A consistent trait of his persona is that he openly welcomes any challenge for any reason. ("If you want some, come get some"). He will accept and he will fight you with just as much effort and motivation as if you are The Undertaker and Wrestling/ShawnMichaels (the 'Respect' part of [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Hustle. Loyalty. Respect]]). And if you do manage to beat him, he will sincerely congratulate you, and even [[DefeatMeansFriendship go to bat for you if needed]]. However, if you misjudged yourself or him and you're not up to task, he will have [[SinkOrSwimMentor no mercy or hesitation about steamrolling you]]. Now, this would be perfectly acceptable ... except this aspect of his gimmick is [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] if not outright ignored. So, he is often cast as [[TheCape fighting morally]] even when he doesn't have that. This leads to [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality the multiple]] [[{{DesignatedHero}} narrative]] [[MoralMyopia disconnects]] in his feuds, when simply going with this trope and {{SinkOrSwimMentor}} would be easier to take, even fresh and novel.

** Defended his decision to bring back The Authority by claiming that he was not willing to gamble with [[Wrestling/EdgeWrestler a man's]] [[GameBreakingInjury life]], not just acknowledging that bringing Wrestling/TheAuthority back was the lesser of the two evils, but also claiming that he would make the same decision every time if he had to do it over again.

** He's taken a DDT on concrete and gone on to recover minutes later and win the match, he was out for only a week (although clearly weakened) after Big Show chokeslammed him from the stage and into an industrial-sized searchlight, and JBL at one point ran his vehicle full-speed at Cena, whose back was literally against a wall. Oh yeah, and [[{{Kayfabe}} he got stabbed in a night club]] and recovered pretty quickly. [[HealingFactor With no]] [[OnlyAFleshWound visible scars]].

* {{Manchild}}: Cena has been criticized for cutting "Childish" promos in recent memory. But when Cena gets serious, prepare to be [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech attacked]] [[NoSell with]] [[BreakingTheFourthWall words]].

* MrFanservice: He's a blue-eyed, [[LanternJawOfJustice square-jawed,]] [[HeroicBuild well-built]] All-American Boy who has a hilarious sense of humor and likes working with Make-A-Wish kids. It's not just little kids that are cheering for Cena.

* SemperFi: As mentioned he played a Marine in... well, ''[[Film/TheMarine The]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Marine]]''. This had ebbed over into his wrestling gimmick and even been used for his ''[[VideoGame/WWEVideoGames [=SmackDown=] Vs [=Raw=]]]'' storyline.

** Since 2006 his title matches at ''[=WrestleMania=]'' were always at the main event or higher in the card despite his challenger or he himself didn't won the ''Royal Rumble''. Subverted in 2008, ironically, when he won the ''Rumble'', but his title match wasn't in the [[Wrestling/EdgeWrestler main]] [[Wrestling/TheUndertaker event]]. And in 2009, where the actual ''Rumble'' [[Wrestling/RandyOrton winner]] challenged [[Wrestling/TripleH the champion]] in that year's ''WM'' main event.

* ThisIsGonnaSuck: A talent of his is to give a look like this to the hard camera such as the debut of the Nexus and the return of Brock Lesnar. Recently, when he came out to receive the fan-voted 'Superstar of the Year' despite his [[TraumaCongaLine extremely bad year]], the look on his face was a mixture of this and OhCrap, only aided by the fact that show was in [[Wrestling/{{ECW}} Phila]][[XPacHeat delphia]].

** He was certainly going for this when he beat the crap out of [[JerkJock Jack]] [[{{Eagleland}} Swagger]]...and almost succeeded. [[labelnote:The Context]]After Kane injured Zack Ryder by chokeslamming him off a platform the week before, Ryder was put in a US Title match with Swagger despite not being medically cleared to complete. John Laurinaitis gave Cena the match against Swagger to calm him down.[[/labelnote]] Let's put it this way. Before [=Kane=]'s promo stopped him, Cena was about to give Swagger a one-man Con-chair-to...''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill with steel steps.]]''

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Wrestling/TheUndertaker, the first of the WWE Superstars Cena met at the start of his career. While Cena ''did'' beat Wrestling/BrockLesnar in two PPV events, he sees The Undertaker as this due to not getting a clean win in all of his matches against the Deadman, just like what Lesnar thinks of Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} prior to ''[=WrestleMania 33=]''.

* RedBaron: The "Doctor of Thuganomics" in his original gimmick. Doesn't usually use a RedBaron on TV nowadays, although vignettes and extra media will occasionally stick a [[TheMagnificent "The Incomparable"]] before his name or refer to him as "The Franchise."

[[caption-width-right:350: The champ is here! [[MemeticMutation AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA]]!]]