John Cena’s Father Recalls What Vince McMahon Thought Of Young Cena

The father of John Cena has revealed what WWE’s Vince McMahon thought of the man who is now billed as the “Greatest Of All Time.”

When it comes to John Cena, fans know that Vince McMahon thinks highly of a man who is considered by many people to be the greatest of all time or certainly one of the greatest of all time at least when it comes to WWE history.

It wasn’t always easy for Cena because in his first six months on the main WWE roster in 2002, he really wasn’t connecting well as a generic, muscular good guy.

As the story goes, WWE was on a European tour where the superstars were together on a bus and Cena showed off his freestyle rapping skills. The right people in management were on the bus, so they encouraged Cena to do it on television. That led to Cena getting a chance to grow as a personality on TV and the rest is history.

Vince McMahon thought John Cena was a “steroid freak” early in WWE career

John Cena Sr. is John Cena’s beloved father who appeared many times on WWE TV over the years. was interviewed on the Pancakes & Powerslams show, who sent us these comments.

“I think they were coming back from a show, and he was rapping on the bus. And, Stephanie [McMahon] heard that, and asked if he could do it on TV. And, of course! You know? So, we did it on TV, and I think you saw it. I saw it. It was the Thanksgiving Day thing, where the gimmick was Vanilla Ice. And, from there it just seemed to take off.”

As he continued, Cena Sr. revealed how Vince McMahon viewed Cena in those days.

“[Bruce Prichard] and Vince [McMahon] were standing [in the locker room] and John walked by. Vince said, ‘we gotta get rid of this dude. I can’t have a steroid freak walking around here.’ [And others said], ‘The guy’s legal. We test him every day, you know, he’s there.’ That’s how it all became, and then, I guess they got down, they sat down, and they worked out the Doctor of Thuganomics.”

Cena Sr. got confused a bit there because he said Thanksgiving Day when it was actually the Halloween episode of Smackdown in 2002 with Cena dressed as rapper Vanilla Ice, who was a famous rapper about a decade earlier.

As Cena Sr. said, John Cena is legal in terms of drug testing. There have been no reports of Cena ever failing a drug test or using performance-enhancing drugs in his career.