John Cena On Ex-WWE Gimmick: “It Sucked”

In a new interview, John Cena shares his opinion on his original wrestling gimmick.

All great stories begin somewhere, and with WWE legend John Cena, it was with a gimmick that he did not like but went with anyway.

The Champ, who is well known by wrestling fans for his iconic bright colors, Never Give Up mantra, hustle, loyalty, and respect principles, and even for his Doctor of Thuganomics heel rapper gimmick, was once booked as a half-man half-robot wrestler.

When Cena was an up-and-comer in the developmentals, he was a hard-working and disciplined wrestler. This led some in the creative team to come up with an idea of a robot-like character who was perfectly toned, disciplined, and a well-oiled machine.

Cena knew the limitations of the gimmick but went ahead with it anyway. He opened up about it in a recent interview.

John Cena Says His Original Gimmick Sucked

Speaking on an episode of No-Contest Wrestling, Cena talks about how the WWE’s Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPO) developmental creative team came up with the idea for The Prototype.

Chris was locked in with Creative for Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPO), and he came in with The Prototype, because those guys used to train with me, and I would never take a day off, would always over-train brought my meals like… I was a robot.

People were like ‘This guy’s not real’ like even bodybuilder guys were like ‘Man, this discipline is levels up on this guy.

So they were like, ‘You should be half man, half machine, and real easy to make that connection.

Just, it sucked. (21:09 onwards)

Cena goes on to say that just like everything else in his life, he took it as an opportunity and went all in with it at the time.

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Also read: John Cena Asked AEW Star For Help During WWE Retirement Tour