John Cena recently reflected on his first ever appearance at WrestleMania: rap battle against two cardboard cutouts at WrestleMania XIX.

Every Superstar who has ever competed at WrestleMania will have a special bond with the biggest show in wrestling and will forever remember their personal WrestleMania moments. Sixteen time World Champion John Cena has a fair few WrestleMania moments to his name, appearing at thirteen of them and winning his first ever WWE Championship at WrestleMania 21.

It was the year before that when Cena had his first ever WrestleMania match. A bout against the Big Show in which The Franchise Player won the United States Championship, his first ever title as a WWE Superstar. A common misconception is that his US Title match was the first time Cena ever appeared at WrestleMania but that isn't technically true. That happened twelve months earlier.

It is often forgotten but Cena actually appeared in front of the crowd all the way back at WrestleMania XIX, but it wasn't in a match. Big Match John was supposed to take on Jay-Z and Fabolous in a rap battle but the two music stars didn't turn up. Instead Cena lyrically tore up cardboard cutouts of the two no-shows before making his way back to the locker room.

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While talking to ESPN recently Cena discussed his first time in front of a WrestleMania crowd and it might surprise you to hear that he described it as 'a great first experience'. The long tenured WWE Superstar believes that at the time the two rappers probably didn't realize how big a deal WrestleMania was or what it would become over the next fifteen years. At the time Cena was probably just happy to appear at WrestleMania at all.

"I had a rap off on the now-canceled show, Sunday Night Heat. I was supposed to challenge two rappers at WrestleMania, Jay-Z and Fabolous, and I ended up rapping to their cardboard cutouts, because neither one of them showed up.

"I don't think they had a realization of what WWE and WrestleMania are, [but] what a great first experience, because now 15 years later, everybody goes to WrestleMania."

Fifteen years later and Cena has more Mania memories than most. There is one thing that is the pinnacle for any WWE Superstar at WrestleMania that he hasn't yet achieved though and that is a match against The Undertaker. It seems almost certain that that is about to change however. Cena has called out The Undertaker for a match on April 8th and now all The Deadman needs to do is respond and accept.