At a tender age of 28, John Cena won his first WWE Championship by defeating then-holder John Bradshaw Layfield. He has since proceeded to win 14 more world titles, besides lifting the United States Championship and tag team gold every now and then. Despite his success, he has seemingly made more haters than supporters although even his most religious detractors always admit that he makes the product instantly better with his charisma and insane microphone skills. As the World Wrestling Entertainment loves putting it, he remains the most polarizing figure in the history of sports entertainment.
Almost every adult fan of the WWE — especially those who claim to love Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and other independent promotions — loathes him for being atop the WWE ladder and for never attempting to reinvent his character that has been the same for over a decade now. Their hatred is partially thanks to their favorite superstars such as Cesaro, Dolph Ziggler, Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose, and even Zack Ryder being held down in favor of saving The Champ's status. However, in real life, he is regarded as a role model and is widely acclaimed for being the first celebrity to grant 500 wishes for Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Although most stories have come directly from the mouths of his colleagues and friends, a few, especially the one you will be reading first, are speculative, and the writer insists on taking stories that might sound derogatory with a pinch of salt, accordingly. The writer respects the accomplishments of the 39-year-old sports entertainer and does not intend to inflict harm upon his reputation. As usual, if we had failed to mention any of his insane real life stories, feel free to mention those in the comments section. Without further ado, let the writer take you through the 12 most insane real life stories of the face of WWE.
13 13. Sleeping with Kendra Lust
Vince McMahon drools over mainstream media attention, but he would certainly have never preferred this one. Shortly after the news outlets started linking him with adult film star Kendra Lust, he filed for a divorce from Elizabeth Huberdeau, thus adding more fuel to the speculation. She uploaded a series of raunchy pictures with a replica of the WWE Championship title to her Twitter account, fueling more speculation regarding their affair.
Being the businessperson she is, she capitalized on the media attention she was receiving and made a wrestling parody with a Cena lookalike. Since the release of her movie, however, she has been denying the reports linking her with him, but the internet had known far too much already.
12 12. Impressing The Nature Boy
The launch of WWE 2K14 stole the headlines for all the wrong reasons. A drunken Ric Flair interrupted every single pre-planned segment by telling real life stories involving his former and current colleagues. Of the many stories he told, one revolved around The Champ and booze.
With the Champ lifting his first ever world title in 2005, The Nature Boy asked him if he fancied a drink with him. Much to the surprise of the Rolex wearing, limousine riding, jet flying, kiss stealing, wheeling and dealing son of a gun's surprise, he replied that he did not have the habit of drinking. However, years later, The Champ now drinks a 6-pack a night.
11 11. Tucking in Chris Jericho
As mentioned in the previous slide, Cena picked up the habit of partying like a champ. Even then, nobody could beat him, not even a seasoned veteran of Chris Jericho.
Jericho wrote in his third autobiography how Cena put him to shame and remained sober while Y2J passed out in their hotel room. Jericho woke up hours later to find himself under the sheets, not remembering how he got there. Across the room, he saw Cena listening to tunes on Jericho's iPod, wide awake and still drinking.
The underdog apparently started from the bottom but is undisputed now.
10 10. Sleeping with Victoria
Many insiders allege that the ability to outdrink the entire roster and being able to get it on with any Diva are the stuff of a champion in the WWE. Although The Champ started his WWE career as a non-drinker and a loyal partner to his high school sweetheart, the longer he stayed with the company, the more he changed as a person. He has slept with a many women, and one of his most controversial acquisitions was a married Victoria.
Victoria tied the knot with outsider Lee Veron in 1999, and during Cena's run as the Doctor of Thuganomics, she served as his go-to chick for relations on the road. Kenny Dykstra has confirmed the authenticity of this particular story on many occasions; he maintains that they had a long-lasting affair that spanned between 2002 and 2007.
9 9. Inventing the YCSM taunt
As mentioned above, Vinnie Mac feels as happy as a cat in an aquarium whenever the company garners mainstream media attention. The Cenation leader has been able to manage just that since his rise to superstardom, especially with his 'You Can't See Me' taunt. Despite the taunt being an integral part of his character, he apparently did not invent that on his own. The Cenation leader wrote in his book Hustle, Loyalty & Respect: The World of John Cena how his folks' buffoonery helped him come up with the YCSM taunt.
With the Cenation leader and his little brother checking out random hip-hop beats for his album, his brother suddenly started dancing by moving his head around his hands. He tweaked his bizarre dance move and used it on Velocity as he shook his hand around his head. Although it took him years to get the chant over with the WWE Universe, the YCSM chant has already made it to the history books.
8 8. Sleeping with Mickie James
As long as a woman chooses wrestling as the choice of career, it does not matter whether she is already in a relationship because most top dogs cherish hitting on taken women. Shawn Michaels fornicated with Chris Candido's girlfriend Sunny. Batista slept with John Morrison's lover Melina. The Champ is no saint as he has been rumored to have been in numerous short-term relationships and flings. His most reported controversial fling remains the one that revolved around Mickie James and her former boyfriend Kenny Dykstra.
Despite the both widely known as a couple backstage, the Champ slept with her and even went to engineer his release when he became aware of it. Despite his ex-boyfriend being unjustly treated by the Champ and the company, she stuck to him. When she asked him to enter a serious relationship with her, however, the Champ ensured she was drafted to SmackDown and manipulated the creative team into creating the Piggie James storyline for her. She was released shortly after her feud with Michelle McCool and Layla ended.
7 7. Burying the Nexus
Wrestlers boasting booking power has been mooted as one of the major reasons for the demise of World Championship Wrestling. Although Vinnie Mac has everything in check, the WWE is not immune to top dogs making poor decisions and not complying with other veterans. Nothing proves that more than the burial of The Nexus.
Wanting The Nexus to capitalize on the momentum, Edge and Chris Jericho suggested that they should emerge as victors against Team Cena at SummerSlam in 2010, but The Champ did not lend an ear to their idea. He proceeded to inflict a defeat that ruined all the momentum the so-called rookies had built. Knowing that he was wrong all along, The Champ ate humble pie, but enough damage had been done already.
6 6. Saving a fan's marriage
Chris Jericho has already penned three autobiographies, and by the looks of things, even if he doubles the count, the WWE Universe will still be pumped to read those as his books give interesting insights into the world of wrestling. In his latest book The Best in the World: At What I Have No Idea, he wrote about how good a counselor The Cenation leader is.
When the WWE toured Alaska during winter, Y2J cherry-picked the perfect clothing that would keep him warm, but The Champ just wore jean shorts and hardly complained about it. The duo then hit a bar when The Champ, after outdrinking the Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla, started giving advice to a couple who were on the brink of parting ways. After a few minutes of intense counseling, the couple agreed to live with each other and even promised to call off their impending divorce. After saving the marriage, they both returned to their hotel room, where The Champ tucked Y2J into his bed after the latter had passed out.
5 5. Literally fighting to push Carlito
In another drinking session, The Champ told Carlito that he should be "at a higher level" and that she should be applying himself. Drunk as Carlito was, he misunderstood it and reckoned that he was bullying him. Shortly afterward, they got into a fight, which The Champ greatly dominated. Carlito could only defend himself as The Champ was too strong for him to handle. They had to be separated not once, but thrice.
Despite getting into an ugly bar fight, Carlito maintained that the Champ loved seeing other deserving talents climb up the ladder fast and added that he never held rookies down. While several former employees of the WWE badmouth Cena, Carlito was full of praise for him.
4 4. Intimidating the NXT Rookies
Most veterans have a tendency to look down upon rookies; even Christian slightly belittled then-rookie Daivari for trying to rib him. The Champ is no exception, but the number of wrestlers who have voiced their frustration over his tyrannical attitude is quite high. Many have come forward to shed light on the Champ's dark side though a few like Trent Baretta and Derrick Bateman have spoken highly of him.
Colt Cabana revealed that the Champ would give him death stares even if he tried to greet him. Tyler Reks told that he humiliated him in front of the entire roster and threatened to get him fired if he used Burning Hammer just because it looked similar to Attitude Adjustment. After being released by the WWE, Michael Tarver told the press that the Champ deliberately injured him by throwing a steel chair at him only because he failed to sell stiff chairshots he was not penciled in to receive in the first place. Legend has it that the major reason why Alex Riley was depushed to oblivion was Cena's personal hatred for him.
3 3. Rapping in front of WWE Creative
After doing a couple of shows in Manchester and Sheffield in 2002, the entire WWE roster was traveling by bus to the airport. In order to kill time, hip-hop enthusiasts in Rikishi, Rey Mysterio, and Chuck Palumbo started rhyming, and when it was Cena's turn to rap, he freestyled for about 10 minutes straight, thereby garnering the attention of the creative team, who were also sharing the bus with the in-ring talents. They then decided to carve a gimmick out of his freestyling ability, and the Doctor of Thuganomics was born. The Champ had freestyled at Raw before that day, but he believes those 10 minutes helped him launch his career more than anything else he had done before.
2 2. Turning down Nikki's request
Since his divorce, The Champ has been maintaining that he might not make a good father and that he might not be able to take care of their child thanks to his demanding schedule. He and Nikki Bella recently celebrated their three-year relationship anniversary at a fancy romantic restaurant, and the former Divas Champion asked him if he was still against marriage and children. Much to her dismay, he reiterated his decision not to have kids although he stated that they would love to be hitched to her. Despite his claims, he has not proposed her yet.
Throughout that Total Divas segment, she sounded like a leech, but she acknowledged the same, thankfully.
1 1. Sleeping with fans
The Champ appeared on Howard Stern Show in a bid to promote his movie The Marine, but the host of the show chose to ask him sex-related questions. Much to the surprise of the audience, The Champ gave surprisingly honest replies and even admitted to having had intercourse with a 280-pound woman just because the roster challenged him to do so. However, that was not the most bizarre revelation he made during the show.
The host enquired the 15-time WWE World Heavyweight Championship holder whether he had had intercourse with more than one woman at a time. He replied that he had slept with six of his fans on a single night and added that his best sexual experience involved two Louisville strippers.
Considering Nikki's history, one can only shed crocodile tears for the former Divas Champion.