John Cena, the WWE superstar turned actor, is known for one motto which has followed him on his journey to success.
Whether he stars in massive DC films, Fast and the Furious movies with The Rock, or raunchy comedies with Amy Schumer, the phrase ‘you can’t see me’ has accompanied Cena everywhere.
It has spawned numerous (incredibly repetitive) memes where every video of him is sure to be followed by hundreds of comments asking why someone took a video of nothing.
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This is due to the fact that, in his time as a WWE superstar, Cena’s debut and only rap album was titled You Can’t See Me.
An accompanying hand movement in which he waved his hand in front of his face became famous, and the motto was born.
With Cena returning to WWE recently, this time as a villainous heel for the first time ever, interest in the wrestler-cum-actor is at an all-time high, and many will be wondering where his iconic catchphrase came from.
The answer is that it was born out of a dare while recording his debut rap album.
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While many will associate Cena’s WWE character with hustle, loyalty, respect, and jorts, for a time he was actually centred around a rap-based character called the ‘Doctor of Thuganomics’.
Cena revealed that this actually saved his career after Stephanie McMahon overheard him freestyle rapping with over WWE wrestlers.
This led him to record an album, which Cena explained during an interview with Jimmy Fallon while promoting Peacemaker is where ‘you can’t see me’ came from.
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He said: “The reason I did [his iconic taunt] is because, while we were making the album to which my theme music is on, my younger brother Sean was always our litmus test.
“He kind of liked the same music, and he would never go to the studio with us, so we'd come home with our tracks and we'd play it for him and he was ruthless man.
“He would never be satisfied with any song. And he heard [Cena’s theme music] The Time is Now, and just did this dance that Tony Yayo did in one of the G Unit videos.”
Cena then mimed doing an incredibly similar dance to his eventual taunt, putting his hand over his face and shimmying from side to side.
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He then revealed it clicked for him that he would do that dance on TV, leading his brother to say ‘I dare you to do it on TV’.
The star then stated that, since the dance in its original form ‘wasn’t visible enough’ he added in the move in which he shifted his hand from side to side while saying it, and so history was born.
Cena went on to explain the meaning behind it, saying that it was him telling other wrestlers they ‘weren't even on his level’.
The WWE superstar joked that it then hit ‘meme culture’ and now he can’t do interviews without people commenting asking why the interviewer is speaking to nobody.
Cena’s recent return to the WWE marks his final stint as a wrestler, according to the Peacemaker actor.
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In the lead up to his final ever Wrestlemania, the biggest WWE event of the year, Cena has ‘turned heel’, in which he plays a villainous version of his normal character.
The actor, who is returning for the first time since turning heel, will appear on tonight’s Monday Night Raw show, which will be shown on Netflix.
Topics: John Cena, WWE, Music, TV and Film, Celebrity
Michael Slavin