Stephanie McMahon shared the story of how John Cena’s Doctor of Thuganomics persona began and it all started with a freestyle rap about tuna fish.
Stephanie McMahon spoke with Megan Morant and reflected on the early days of John Cena’s career. Morant asked about the famous story involving McMahon hearing Cena rap on a bus in 2002 when she was working behind the scene for WWE SmackDown.
McMahon explained that Cena’s first gimmick wasn’t connecting with the fans, even though everyone backstage knew he had a lot of potential. She said, “It just really wasn’t resonating… he had so much to offer, so much potential. But it wasn’t clicking.”
Then someone told McMahon that Cena could freestyle rap not just rap, but freestyle on the spot. She said that level of talent is rare and immediately caught her interest. “I remember he tells the story that we were on a bus. I remember being on a plane, so whether we were on a bus or on a plane, we were in Europe, and I had a packet of tuna fish.”
She recalled, “I said, ‘John, I was told that you can rap.’ And he goes, ‘I can.’ And I said, ‘Well, do it.’ And he goes, ‘What, right now?’ And I said, ‘Yes.'” And right there, Cena started freestyling about her tuna fish. She said the rap was “so good and clever and smart… it was so impressive.”
After hearing him freestyle, she asked him, “John, have you ever thought about doing this on television?” McMahon made it clear it wasn’t an overnight transformation, nor was it solely her idea.
“I was the first person to support him actually doing that on television,” Stephanie explained. “And yeah, it was all him from there.”
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