'''John Felix Anthony Cena, Jr.''' (born April 23 1977 in West Newbury, Massachusetts), is an American professional wrestler, rap music artist and actor who currently wrestles on the ''RAW'' brand of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
Career
Early career
Cena first started training to become a wrestler in 2000 at the California-based Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW) where he created the character, ''The Prototype''. After UPW he was signed to a World Wrestling Entertainment developmental contract and assigned to "farm territory" Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW).
During his time in OVW, he also appeared on the UPN reality show ''Manhunt'' under the pseudonym "Big Tim Kingman", the "lead hunter" in a team "hunting" contestant with paint ball guns. The show was produced in association with WWE. It was later revealed that many of the scenes in the show were re-shot or staged to enhance the drama, contests were rigged to eliminate contestants, and other contestants read from scripts. As a result of the controversy, WWE has never referenced the show or Cena's part in it.
World Wrestling Entertainment
=2002-2003
=
Cena's first televised WWE match was in answer to an open challenge by Kurt Angle on June 27, 2002. Inspired by Vince McMahon's (kayfabe) speech to WWE's rising stars, exhorting them to show "ruthless aggression" to earn a place among the legends, Cena took advantage of the opportunity and almost beat Kurt Angle kicking out of the Angle Slam and enduring the Ankle Lock submission hold, but ultimately lost to a hard, amateur-style pin.
Cena then played the role of a typical underdog face in each match. After losing, along side Billy Kidman, in a tournament match for the WWE Tag Team Championships, Cena turned heel, blaming Kidman for the loss. Shortly after his heel turn, on a Halloween episode of ''SmackDown!'', he performed a freestyle rap for Stephanie McMahon while wearing a Vanilla Ice costume prompting a gimmick change to a white rapper. At first, this gimmick got Cena heel heat from the fans, but his frequent comical "freestyles" about other wrestlers helped to gain him a following. One of Cena's signature symbols during this time was the classic WWF logo (without the "F") along with the slogan "Word Life".
Cena eventually had a long running feud with Brock Lesnar over the WWE Championship. During the feud he unveiled a new signature finishing maneuver, the F-U, as a counterpart to Lesnar's similar F-5 (the name being derived from a combination of "F-5" and the shorthand for "'''F'''uck Yo'''u'''"). The two eventually joined forces when Lesnar also turned heel and together feuded with Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero before Cena turned face
