WWE Almost Fired John Cena In 2002

[nadimmania]

Source: Comicbook.com (WWE Section)
Over the past fourteen years, John Cena has inarguably become one of the greatest WWE superstars of all-time. The sixteen time World Champion has carried the WWE on his back for the better part of the past decade, headlining WrestleMania after WrestleMania, blowing merchandise sales through the roof and rarely missing any time due to injury.

Amazingly enough, it almost never happened. Dave Meltzer revealed that the WWE nearly fired their biggest star before he ever became the Cenation leader we've all come to know and respect.

Meltzer says that John Cena's early call-up in 2002 nearly cost him his career. Apparently the WWE was very close to letting him go, but one very influential WWE superstar changed their mind.

<blockquote class='quote\\_blockquote'><dl><dt>Quote:</dt><dd> </dd></dl><div>“[John Cena] worked OVW for a while which is where he really learned his craft. He was called up too soon, which everyone knew, and there’s political reasons why that happened, and it nearly cost him his career. If it wasn’t for Stephanie McMahon taking a liking to him after they’d just about decided to let him go, he could’ve been gone.”[/quote]
Cena debuted as a fairly generic character in 2002 under his "Prototype" gimmick, which basically meant he looked like a prototypical wrestler. Unfortunately that was about all Cena had going for him at the time, but Stephanie McMahon saw enough potential in the young superstar to keep him around and Cena was reborn as a rapper from West Newbury, Massachusetts.

Meltzer also speculated on how different the WWE would look today had Stephanie not made the save.

<blockquote class='quote\\_blockquote'><dl><dt>Quote:</dt><dd> </dd></dl><div>“Imagine that. Imagine this business in the last 11 years without John Cena as the top guy and John being out of the picture. Obviously, they would’ve gone with Batista as the top guy, and Batista wouldn’t have been as good in that situation as John Cena, and he wasn’t as versatile as John Cena. He would’ve been okay, and it’s not like the business would’ve collapsed, but it would’ve been a lot worse off.”[/quote]