John Cena dreamed of becoming a bodybuilder when he was a poor college student at Springfield College in Massachusetts. With a degree in exercise physiology, two duffel bags and $500 in his pocket, Cena did what all aspiring bodybuilders talk about doing – he moved to the “mecca of bodybuilding” in Venice, California.
Cena arrived in Venice in the summer of 1999. Cena needed a job. His money was running out and he was forced to live and sleep out of his car, a 1991 Lincoln Continental. Cena jumped immediately into the local bodybuilding scene. He started training at the Venice Beach Gold’s Gym where many of the IFBB’s top professional bodybuilders congregated. He got a job cleaning toilets at the gym along with odd jobs such a driving a limousine to pay the bills.
Cena had the bodybuilding bug and his dream of a bodybuilding career compelled him to try his luck at competition. The problem with competitive bodybuilding has always been the pervasive use of anabolic steroids and ancillary drugs. The use of these drugs is often quite expensive. Cena was too poor to afford steroids even though Cena would later say he never would have used them anyway. So, Cena decided to compete in the so-called “natural” bodybuilding competitions.
One of Cena’s first bodybuilding competitions was the 1999 NPC Ironman Magazine Naturally contest in Los Angeles. Cena showed considerable promise as a young bodybuilder in his early 20s even though he only placed second at the contest. And thanks to Todd Smith (the bodybuilder who beat him), the video of John Cena the bodybuilder has been immortalized on YouTube.
Maybe Cena would have continued as a competitive bodybuilder. Maybe he would have had some success. Fortunately for Cena, his bodybuilding career were was quickly derailed when he was offered a chance to make money as a professional wrestler.
Cena joined the local Ultimate Pro Wrestling “Ultimate University” operated by Rick Bassman. Within a couple of years, Cena signed a developmental contract with Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation. (McMahon’s company became World Wrestling Entertainment after it lost a trademark dispute with the World Wildlife Federation.) Cena soon began his ascent to WWE superstardom. As they say, the rest is history.
Cena has never shied away from his bodybuilding roots. Yet Cena has struggled to distance himself from bodybuilding’s drug subculture.
Cena insists that he is a lifetime natural athlete who has never ever used anabolic steroids. This is no easy task for a former amateur bodybuilder turned professional wrestler to convince skeptics that he is not and has not used the muscle-building drugs. After all, performance-enhancing drugs like steroids and human growth hormone (hGH) are ubiquitous in both bodybuilding and pro wrestling.
No one really believes Cena is steroid-free. But with a net worth estimated at approximately $35 million, Cena probably doesn’t care so much what people think anymore.