John Cena, 47, had a bullied childhood, was unemployed, lived in his car, and ate free pizza before becoming famous.
The actress attracted attention when she presented the award for Best Costume Design while almost naked on the Oscar stage on March 11 (Hanoi time). The video recording the humorous moment attracted more than three million views on YouTube and thousands of interactions on the X platform.
Cena was born in 1977 in Massachusetts (USA), the second of five children. Before becoming a Hollywood star, John Cena was a famous name in the American wrestling world. He won 25 championships including 16 WWE World Championships, five United States Championships, and four Tag Team Championships. He was the face of WWE from 2000-2010.
According to The Street , John Cena receives an annual salary of $8.5 million from his contract with WWE, pocketing $500,000 for each appearance at major events. He is still among the highest paid athletes in WWE despite his inactivity, and is among the individuals who sell the most merch (artist-related products) in the company. Artists receive 5% of the profits from sales. In 2016, Forbes announced that John Cena topped the list of highest-earning wrestlers, with a total income of $9.5 million.
In an interview with People in July 2021, the artist said he trained to protect himself because he was a victim of school violence. “Because I was so tired of being beaten, I asked my dad to buy me a set of dumbbells to work out by myself when I was 13. Since then, I have been training myself,” John Cena said.
In a conversation with comedian Kevin Hart on Hart to Heart in August 2023, John Cena said that he lived in his car and garage for months when he first moved to Los Angeles, and sometimes drove a limo to make ends meet. Cena said: “A local restaurant where I lived had a challenge for customers. If you finished a giant pizza, you didn’t have to pay. I ate that every night.” Cena kept winning until the owner agreed that if he stopped coming, they would give him free pizza.
According to John Cena, during difficult times, he could have returned to Massachusetts with the help of his family, but he refused to give up. A year after moving to the new city, he joined the professional wrestling company Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW), debuted under the name The Prototype and won the UPW Heavyweight Championship. The new wrestler’s achievements caught the attention of WWE. They decided to recruit John Cena in 2002, turning him into one of the American wrestling legends.
John Cena’s career took a turn when WWE executives wanted him to star in the 2006 action film The Marine , produced by the company. The plot revolves around the main character John Triton (played by John Cena) fighting a gang of diamond thieves to rescue his kidnapped wife. The project cost $15 million and grossed $30 million. Money Nation reported that John Ceno received about $280,000 for the role.
After The Marine , he continued to participate in many large and small projects such as Bumblebee (2018), The Suicide Squad (2021), Fast & Furrious 9 (2021), Peacemaker (2022), Freelance (2023). There is currently no official information about the artist’s salary, but many sources say he received 500,000 USD for the main role of Peacemaker .
Currently, John Cena has 18 years of experience, becoming a familiar face in the action comedy genre. Mashable highly appreciates his ability to play roles in this genre, commenting that the actor reveals his inherent humor with roles that challenge the rules, proving that his ability is not just in muscles. Pierre Morel – director of Freelance (2023) told Bleacher Report, John Cena is a natural comedian.
John Cena’s latest work is the comedy Ricky Stanicky (2024) produced by Amazon, co-starring with actor Zac Efron. CNN commented that Ricky Stanicky is not as good as expected, but at least Cena’s role is suitable for a wrestler turned actor.
Along with his acting and wrestling career, the 47-year-old actor used to be a rapper. He released his first album, You Can’t See Me, in 2005, which reached number 15 on the US Billboard 200 chart. John Cena is the only wrestler to have performed on BBC Two’s Top of the Pops .
The actor is also an active philanthropist. In 2022, he set a Guinness World Record after granting 650 wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses through the Make-A-Wish Foundation since 2002. He joined the Love Has No Labels movement, which promotes diversity, equality, and inclusion for people of all races, religions, genders, sexual orientations, ages, and abilities, in 2016.
According to Celebrity Net Worth , John Cena is a millionaire with a fortune of $80 million, owning many supercars and valuable real estate. He married Shay Shariatzadeh, 35, an engineer of Iranian origin in 2020. Before that, he had a four-year marriage with his college girlfriend Elizabeth Huberdeau, from 2009 to 2012. After the divorce, he dated WWE beauty Nikki Bella for six years before marrying his current wife.
Phuong Thao
