- I've explored a lot of new places while making this show,
but few have impacted Sports Entertainment
like my destination today.
Thank you.
- Welcome to a place of accomplishment and integrity.
Welcome to Hard Nocks South.
- This is the gym of the one and only John Cena.
John Cena is here.
The champ is here.
There is no longer a debate.
John Cena is the GOAT.
- John Cena's life has been a series of twists and turns.
From his humble beginnings as an outcast in West Newbury,
Massachusetts, to a record setting 17 time WWE World
Champion and Hollywood star.
- Please welcome everybody's favorite-
John Cena.
You can't see me.
Oh, I'm a delicate flower.
- John has truly done it all with one constant throughout.
An iron paradise to call home.
- This place has been a functioning part
of my life for 20 years.
Mhm.
- It's evolved just as I have through the 25 years of WWE,
but as it evolves, it still is a very functional part of my life.
- An important part of your life?
Very much so.
- I'm Stephanie McMahon and I love WWE.
Stephanie McMahon.
- I'm on a quest to hear the stories behind the biggest
superstars and legends in WWE history.
Here we go.
So come join me on the trip of a lifetime.
You picked this location?
Yeah.
- So tell me about where we are and why it means so much to you.
- So we are in the halls of Hard Nocks South.
We open the doors here in 2008.
- What made you want to start this gym?
Uh, believe it or not,
I was just sick of working out at [bleep] places.
This building came up, and uh-
bought it.
- The name Hard Nocks South is taken from the original location
in Amesbury, Massachusetts, where John trained during
his formative years.
- This is a very safe space for conversation to be kicked
around, for you to have a bad day but not stay in a bad day.
Like in here, we right the ship.
- I've never trained even when I didn't want to and ever said,
"Man, I wish I didn't do that."
No kidding, right?
- Hearing John talk about his gym,
it's obvious how much he cares about it.
And it's not just important to him.
It's important to a particular part of WWE history.
Before the creation of the WWE Performance Center in 2013.
Many up and coming WWE superstars
trained right here as they look to follow in John's footsteps.
- You had our golden years, so to speak,
from like 2009 to 2015.
Right next to the huge American flag is the top ten
of all time list.
These are all time bests of the gym.
It is Ettore's world and we're all just living in it.
[laughing]
This is a 575 raw bench.
That puts him in a very elite class world actually.
[yelling]
- It's been really cool to see it evolve from the weightlifting
competitions that we used to have in, like the Camelot era of
'09 to 1'5, to like, it's kind of a place where the families
all get together now.
Here we are sitting in the gym,
one of us dressed for the occasion.
[laughing]
You know
it's like a big thing to figure out what to wear, right?
Especially as a woman, and so-
- We both should have communicated.
- And, you know, I thought about that.
I'm like, "I should have texted him last night and-"
- We should have, we should have planned this out.
- Well, I didn't know-
I didn't know if you were going to try to make me do something.
So I came ready.
- Now that I know I should have dressed more professionally,
I was eager to learn more about John
and how he first discovered WWE.
Do you remember your first exposure to WWE?
- Yeah, you guys did something in conjunction with MTV to build
up WrestleMania 1.
- I'm the Incredible Hulk Hogan, the main man in your rock
wrestling connection around MTV.
- MTV showed the entire match of Hogan Shiek-
MSG where Hogan won the championship.
He got him.
We have a new champion.
- I'm 7 to 8 years old and now I'm like,
"Yo, this is the coolest thing ever."
Oh, they're at it.
It's underway.
Look at this.
Back and forth.
Hulk raking the eyes of "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.
It was so larger than life.
It was so incredible.
Especially to a young mind of, like, "Man superheroes are real.
Can you believe this is happening?"
- It was the rock wrestling connection.
Everything we stand for.
- I was around for the rock and wrestling connection, and I was
a huge fan of MTV.
That's all I ever watched.
Of course.
- So for me to also see it-
- We're the same-
Yeah, yeah.
I'm a little older than you are.
By like a few months.
I'm still older.
- Well, children of the same generation.
Mhm.
Because wrestling was on MTV.
I got to watch MTV.
I watched that in my next door neighbor acres away.
You had to go through a path in the woods
to get to this kid's house.
My parents wouldn't let us watch MTV.
Okay.
- And we could always watch MTV at this other kid's house.
- Who's the first artist you fell in love with?
- I remember specifically all the stuff that
I wasn't supposed to listen to.
2 Live Crew from Miami,
N.W.A. From the West Coast.
And because I was the one kid in an area who really connected
with this as a rebellious way to say [bleep] you to my parents,
I embraced everything.
The high top fade, the airbrushed overalls.
I was wearing my jerseys backwards.
- One-one strap.
One strap, of course.
Strap down.
[laughing]
Yes, of course, of course.
Come on.
Compounding interest.
My brother Steve was a nerd, and he was in high school.
And, like, it's a small town.
So, like, the junior high's here.
The high school is here.
They lined the busses up.
My bus happened to be here.
So I have to walk through all the high school kids.
Boy, am I an easy target.
There's the kid in turquoise polka dots
with the high top fade-
"[Bleep] off kid."
I was getting bullied.
And how did you handle that?
- So I was like, "Man, I don't want to learn how to fight.
But if I make myself stronger, maybe they'll leave me alone."
And then my grandfather finally convinced my dad to get me a
weight set for my 12th Christmas gift.
My parents gave me, like, my own corner of the house.
It was very small, but it was like a nice little space
where I could go and be me.
I could play my rap music and no one would mess around with me.
So that became a part of the routine.
Well, when we got to high school and I was a freshman,
I'd already been lifting weights for like two and
a half years-
Mhm.
- -and that helped me gain a little bit of
fluency in football, which, "Oh man, you can help our team win.
You're all right.
You're pretty cool."
I-
- You became a part-
Yes.
Part of the team.
Yes.
- John succeeded on the gridiron, earning a spot on the
Springfield College football team,
where he became an NCAA All-American.
- So I was in like, what did I want out of life?
I just graduated with a degree in Ex/Phys.
This was just after the year 2000.
The base of health and fitness was certainly
in Southern California.
Mhm.
- Kind of all roads led through Los Angeles.
I landed with two duffel bags full of clothes and 500 bucks.
You have quite a story.
Right?
I mean, when you first started off,
you were living out of your car.
- And by choice, though, I don't I don't want to paint that as,
like, a "Woe is me."
- But what's it like living out of your car?
It was dope.
Yeah?
- It was a 91 Lincoln Continental.
I was 20 years old, so I felt bulletproof every day.
I didn't know what joint pain felt like.
[laughing]
I had a nice big back seat,
and the front seat, reclined.
I mean, those those cars were big.
And you had a radio.
I had a radio.
I had AC.
No satellite.
No satellite at the time.
- But like, I got to sleep in the parking lot
of Gold's wake up.
Use the locker room to shower, clock in, get paid to be there,
and then train after hours.
- So I did not know that you wanted to be a Marine before
you got into WWE.
- So I chose the Marines because I failed at everything else.
I tried to apply my degree and no strength company
would take me or fitness company would take me.
I tried to be a cop.
I failed the CHP exam.
Like I was like, man, I kind of just working the front desk at
Gold's Venice and that's enough.
Like, I get to train every day.
It's cool.
I'm well fed, I'm good.
But I got to I got to think more long term, like,
"What's the next play?"
And I wanted to remain physical.
I wanted to to keep myself at a top level of performance.
And I'm like "The Marines, they they pretty much seem
like they would do that."
So I was just gonna drive down and sign up and like,
literally the weekend I was going to go, um, my buddy was
like, "Man, we're training over in Orange County."
Would you ever want to do that?
I was like, "I'll take a look at it."
And I remember driving into LA Boxing.
It's a one story glass building, and I could see the ring through
the glass and I was like, I will deal with the suck.
Monday through Friday, because on the weekends
I'll be a superhero.
And that's how I approached it.
- John dove head first into the wrestling business and became
known as The Pprototype.
Oh Protobomb.
Wait a minute.
Two, three.
That's it folks.
Catching the attention of WWE.
John Cena made his official WWE debut in 2002 against one of the
biggest legends in the history of amateur and professional
wrestling, Hall of Famer Kurt Angle.
- What is the one quality that you possess that makes you think
that you can walk out here and come into the ring and face the
very best in the business?
Ruthless aggression.
Oh.
Oh, man.
- You see, the kid's taking Angle down.
- I remember being fortunate enough to get my first contract
and then being like, I have made it in life because I have a
chance to do this as a vocation, and I'm never going
to have to wear a suit.
I have beat the system.
- With John's initial impact waning, his excitement for the
business soon turned sour.
Frustration by John Cena.
- He needs to keep his cool a little bit,
but John Cena is still a rookie.
He's got tons of skills, though in that ring.
- He felt his on screen character was too generic and
the audience wasn't connecting with him.
- This is another thing I love about Sports Entertainment.
You know, if you sucked right away and there
are many nights I have sucked.
I wasn't stressed to be like, got to be perfect.
I was more stressed in the fact that I didn't know who I was.
- Often times when someone is looking to find themselves,
all they need to do is focus on what they love.
For John Cena, he realized there was a lifestyle and a soundtrack
that had been with him all along-
Inside is a jump off.
- -Hip-hop.
One day John was freestyling on the WWE bus.
I was blown away when he impromptu rapped for me about
the tuna fish sandwich I was eating.
I was part of the WWE creative team at the time, and thought
"This talent could be exactly what he needed."
- You happen to overhear me like and then you being like,
"Yeah, you want to do this on TV?"
- Welcome to the SmackDown Halloween party.
- I learned from not standing out to stand out.
I gotta go.
It's been a blast.
Came out the locker room, stole Rey Mysterio mask.
Tried to get Taker's cast, but it was blasted on too tight.
Peace.
I got to go.
About to hotwire this bike.
Oh.
- John had finally discovered his character.
- John Cena, the Dr. of Thuganomics.
As the Dr. of Thuganomics,
Cena's notoriety grew by going after superstars
like The Undertaker.
Fans won't even miss you.
You ain't a dead man.
You just a dead issue.
- And over the next few years, his career flourished.
His character evolved.
He became a multi-time world champion and ultimately a hero
to fans all over the world.
As John stardom grew, he found even more ways to connect with
the WWE universe.
John Cena.
Oh how you hurt my hand.
You are the number one
Make-A-Wish granter of all time.
One.
Two.
Three.
You can't see me.
You are strong.
"The champ is here."
I like that one the best.
It's a charity that I've come to know and love.
I admire the fact that we can bring people into our world who
are going through somewhat of a difficult time, give them a
day's worth of escape, or give them an experience
that they'll never forget.
I beg your pardon?
- If I get stuck, I may have to ask you.
And then you get immediate suspension of disbelief.
You get a true day off.
- Ladies and gentlemen, this is KJ-
And the champ is here.
Anytime,
it's like, "Oh, Make-A-Wish wants you to do this.
No problem.
Let's do it."
People who have setbacks and they have one wish is to, uh,
to spend some time with you.
I mean, that's it.
- Now, John Cena has granted over 600 wishes in his career.
This is it.
Say hi to everybody at home.
Hi Willy.
We're at WrestleMania.
- It's not just about meeting the person, right-
The Superstar-
But then it's about the ultimate distraction.
Perfecto.
Aww.
- That child doesn't have to think about being sick or what
medications they're going to take.
And those parents are watching their child be free of all of
that and hopefully free of pain for a few moments.
So just thank you for making such a difference in providing
so much hope to so many kids and their families
throughout all these years.
- The cool thing about those moments is I can tell because of
how emotional you are, that it's an absolute boomerang.
Whatever you think you give to somebody,
they give back to you exponentially.
But I don't need to thank you because I was there.
That's enough.
- John's natural charisma shined through both in and out of the
ring, and this time it was Hollywood that took notice.
- Right now we have the John Cena
Fun Day.
We're premiering Fast X.
It's a great movie.
We got a great crowd out there.
[crowd cheers]
- As his star continued to rise, John began to split his time
between WWE and the big screen.
And his blossoming film career
led him to the love of his life.
Here's a big question.
Yeah.
How did you meet your wife?
Your bride?
- Uh, so this goes in line with kind of my whole
life by accident.
It was a Super Bowl about six years ago.
Patriots are playing, and I didn't want to leave my
apartment in Vancouver.
I just got there.
I was starting to film a movie because
I didn't want to jinx the team.
A friend of mine convinced me to go out to a hole in the wall.
I got to watch the game.
In walks a group of four and I can't take my eyes off of Shay.
They're in the booth right across from us.
So I'm watching their TV.
They're watching mine, and I'm just doing this.
[laughing]
- And like, my team is winning and I don't give a [bleep]
And I don't have the bravery to break the ice.
And her friend comes up, she's like,
"Hey, can I have a picture with you?"
I'm like, "Only if I can get a picture with her."
And she's "Well, to be honest, I didn't want a picture with you.
I was asking for her anyway."
I'm like, "You're kidding me."
So we get together and I'm like, "Hey, um, could I, could I give
you my phone number or could I have yours?"
And she said yes.
I was ten steps out of that joint.
I stopped, went into a back alley in Vancouver and was like,
"I need to spend more time with you."
And she said, "Sure, is Wednesday cool?"
I said, "I'll make it happen, man."
We met back at that same place and we sat down at 6:00,
and they kicked us out at 1:00 in the morning.
Just me and her.
Man, she's-
I met her by accident.
I always just kind of, like, let life deal me the cards.
And then knowing that this could be something and it's time to
push some chips in.
I was willing to, like, see the energy and be like,
"Man, push in on this.
See where it takes you."
- As John's personal life continued to flourish,
he made a major decision about his in-ring career.
- Tonight, I officially announce my retirement from the WWE.
[crowd yells]
WrestleMania will be my last WrestleMania,
but hopefully if everything goes according to plan,
we're going straight through from January to December,
and that'll be the end of my in-ring competition.
How did you get there?
- By continuously coming here and being disappointed and then
asking myself the question of
"This place usually makes me feel good.
Why do I feel bad?"
And it was because I'm surrounded by pictures,
by numbers.
That's a 600 pound squat.
Or that's a clean and jerk with 330 pounds,
or that's a 300 pound snatch.
I can't even do those lifts anymore
because my body is so beat up.
So as soon as I got through that jagged pill of like,
"Oh man, I am never going to overhead press
374 pounds ever again.
But let's work to see what the best I can for today is."
You know, it's it it's a very similar course to WWE.
My skills are on the regress.
If I continue at a full time physical capability or
involvement, I'm not going to run right and my partner is not
going to run right and our relationship
isn't going to run right.
Sorry, kid.
It's time-
It's time to to close this chapter.
I wish I was 18.
I wish I felt great because I don't feel more at home,
besides in the arms of my wife, than I do on a canvas.
I had to pitch this idea a real wrestling farewell
and hoping that they would see the business in it.
And they were like, "Ah, yes, this is-
this is going to be good."
- As John embarked on his farewell tour,
he wanted to change things up in a big way.
After nearly 20 years of being the biggest hero in WWE,
John Cena shocked the world by becoming a heinous villain.
- What the-
Oh my God, John, what the hell are you doing?
- I don't need to single out anyone here
because you are all horrible people.
We're not going to talk about anything.
- Can I just say I love you as a heel?
And I tried to get you to be heel for a very long time,
but man, I love it, I love it, I love it.
- Can I just say I had some some really good
people to learn from.
And you are in a very short list of names that that falls into.
I flat out steal a lot from you.
Ha, wow.
Well, that's, uh.
- So thanks for helping me through this.
Get her out of here.
She's pathetic.
Loser.
- You used me as an excuse for your pathetic failure of a life.
- I think you give me way too much credit.
Like, way too much credit.
- You never know how you affect people.
- While John didn't want to talk about
what he's currently doing as a character,
I wanted to delve into his mindset as a person,
while his WWE career nears its end.
Now you're almost at the end, right,
this is- this is the last year, 2025.
Yeah, I know.
Right.
- How have you changed in your perspective even of John Cena in
the business from when you first started to
now here you are at the end of your wrestling career-
Your farewell tour.
What are your biggest lessons along that that journey?
That's a great question.
It is an absolute fictitious dream job
that I'm so lucky that it exists.
It is something that I never knew how much
I needed in my life.
And still to this day, is something
that I can't live without.
Also, it ends for everyone.
If this is the most important thing in your life,
if this is the tip of your spear, it's going to be
all of your decisions are based off of that.
And for a good 15 to 16 years, the tip of my spear
was making the town.
It's a little finesse, that's all.
That's why ten years ago, if you asked me,
I would have said "I'd been put on this Earth
to be a WWE Superstar."
And now, at 48, I know I'm not.
When people lean into concepts like immortality and like
legacy, a lot of the retirement questions like,
"What do you want your legacy to be?"
I don't care.
I don't.
What I'm grateful for is I had a chance
to be the man in the [bleep] arena.
That is beautiful.
- I think you are such a massive part of this company's
evolution, and I know you will continue to leave your mark,
even well beyond your in-ring years.
And I know that's not your goal.
It's not your goal to be a legacy persona, so to speak,
but you can't help but be.
I love the WWE.
I'm always gonna try to get people to experience and get
invested in because man, it is-
It's made my life this crazy [bleep] roller coaster.
Regardless of what hangs on the walls or lies on the floor,
this has been a place of mental stability and growth
for me over the past 20 years.
And this conversation is absolutely
what this place is about.
You've been very important and instrumental in my life,
and I meant what I said in the moments
that I needed you there.
Without you even knowing you were guiding light.
That was unbelievably effective.
And I know that's not over.
Thanks for that.
I'm always here.
I know, I know.
All right, we hug it out.
Yep.
You know, I was gonna tease you about the mic, and I was, like
looking at it, hoping you didn't hit your head.
And then I did.
[laughing]
- Hard Nocks South was the perfect place
to reflect on John's career.
So much can be learned from his journey and his perspective on a
life that was fueled between these walls.
And I can't wait to see what the future holds for John Cena.
Have you worked with this crew?
- Uh, we we were, uh, we did some work when I was in
elementary school together.
We've come up together.
Oh, yeah?
Yeah.
These are all Florida guys.
Um, little Timmy over there.
Big Jake and, uh, Lazy Mitch.
He's on camera.
A it's one of those reverse nicknames.
He's a hard worker.
No, I've never worked with him.
[laughing]
- I'm like, I know you didn't grow up in Florida.
I did not.
[laughing]
Omaha.