John Cena's WrestleMania XIX Rap Changed My Fandom Forever

I was 17 years old when John Cena made me a huge fan.

It was March 30, 2003. WrestleMania XIX was taking place in Safeco Field in Seattle, WA. As a wrestling obsessed teenager, I was completely tuned into the Ruthless Aggression era of WWE, watching both Raw and SmackDown with reckless abandon. My old man, Big Norm, was in the process of ordering the pay-per-view, so while we waited, I turned on MTV and watched Sunday Night Heat.

The final episode of the program on MTV was a barnburner. Hosted by Jonathan Coachman and Lita, I was zoned in, hyped up for the World Tag Team Title match between champions Lance Storm and Chief Morley and challengers Kane and Rob Van Dam. However, before that match took place, a segment took place in front of the fans at Safeco: A planned John Cena “rap battle”.

A few months earlier, after an auspicious start on SmackDown, Cena found himself in the hip hop game. Unlike all the other stereotypical rap gimmicks that have taken place over the years, Cena took it to a different place, channeling Eminem and the other hip hop artists of the day.

Quickly, his biting freestyles took a different level, especially after Brock Lesnar took him out with a F-5 into the ringpost in February 2003. For a month, Cena, in different locales, began rapping about “The Next Big Thing”, promising to dominate and destroy when he came back.

A few days before WrestleMania XIX, it was announced that Cena would be challenging Fabolous in the previously mentioned “rap battle”. (LINK) However, early on in the week, Fabolous was arrested for the third time in less than three months, so he had to back out. (LINK) Then, WWE tried to get Jay-Z, which would have been incredible, but the future hip–hop mogul and the company were unable to come to terms.

Instead, “the Doctor of Thuganmonics” walked out on Sunday Night Heat, with a Washington Bullets red, white, and blue hat backwards, a WrestleMania XIX sweatsuit, and his padlock & chain and proceeded to unleash a tirade in rap form.

In fact, here are the lyrics to said rap, thanks to Genius: https://genius.com/John-cena-wrestlemania-19-rap-lyrics

Yo, I asked hip hop for a simple MC

They said they'd send me 2; Fabolous and Jay-Z

But these gangsters didn't wanna come up and be on TV

I'ma tell all of y'all why they wouldn't battle with me

[As Jay-Z:]

Yo man, it's Jay-Z man

I'm fully focused, Rocafella man

I've got my girlfriend man

I don't need to come to Seattle, I'm the king of New York

All I need in this life of sin, is me and my girlfriend

Rocafella

[As John Cena:]

Okay then Bonnie, where the hell is Clyde at?

He ducked me like a bitch for a little battle rap

What you want me to do man, call out your fiancé?

I'd have better competition battle rapping with Beyonce

He's the king of New York, I'm a kid from the cellar

Only way he stays hard is by rocking another fella

Sorry that I didn't have that much time to diss you

I'm focused on Fabolous, he's my real issue

Dude, you need to stick to doing Reebok commercials

He showed up and tapped out after hearing me in rehearsal

They didn't arrest you for your guns, it's because your raps suck

Cops charged him with illegally possessing two nuts

Trade your throwback shirts for a skirt, you little whiner

And hike up your skirt, I can see your man-gina

You wanna black ball me? Well at least I got a ballsack

If they lived at the sperm bank, they couldn't get their cum back

They talk about their ice, and all the girls loving you

The only Bush he's seen is by watching George W

I'm a main event player, these fools is in the background

I take over you, and then I take over Smackdown

They could do a show in their living room and still not sell out

This is the WWE, get the F out

Yo, it's John Cena

Thuganomics hot as hell

He's just a bad idea, like the XFL

I main event Wrestlemania 20

You see me, you out of luck

You don't like what I'm saying?

Well I just don't give a

To me, I was hooked.

The next day at school, I remember going up to Ed Scanlon in the senior hallway and straight up ranting and raving, as I was prone to do, about the Cena rap. I distinctly remember telling him that day the following quote (and Ed can confirm it):

“John Cena will be World Champion in two years.”

Everything changed that day. I began recording on VHS every John Cena rap. His stuff was literally top notch entertainment. It was compelling television. It compelled me so much that I even started expanding my horizons and listening to more hip hop. I can honestly say that had it not been for John Cena, I don’t think I would have learned about hip hop greats like KRS-One, Capone and Noreaga, Papoose and others.

In fact, I remembered I got so inspired that I created a rap song called “Ghetto Free”, which was the worst piece of garbage ever recorded (and trust me, the South River High School football team made my brother relive that every day in the team room by playing it), and I ACTUALLY HAD SENT IT to Cena’s cousin and underground rapper Tha Trademarc through AOL Instant Messenger.

Trademarc, if you ever read this, and I know you might never, I apologize thoroughly.

The peak of my Cena rap fandom came from later on in the year when my brother, alongside with his friend Mike, went backstage to a SmackDown at Continental Airlines Arena. I remember giving my brother a cheap Philadelphia Phillies knockoff cap I had and asked him to see if Cena would sign it.

John Cena did, and in return for “ruining” my hat, gave my brother a new WrestleMania XX cap.

My prediction was ultimately right, as two years from the rap song at WrestleMania XXI, John Cena beat JBL to become WWE Champion. It felt so good to be spot on with my theory.

—--

Saturday night will be John Cena’s last match. I hope all the eyes in media will be watching. No one has been more dedicated, more hands-on, and more passionate about the beautiful industry of professional wrestling quite like Cena.

Although this Saturday will be “the end of an era”, for me, I can proudly say I was there when the era truly began: the Sunday Night Heat before WrestleMania XIX on MTV. The rap that changed my fandom, my wrestling trajectory, and, in a way, my life.

Thank you John Cena. Word Life.

Jon Harder

Jon@HardwayHQ.com