What If John Cena Never Became WWE's Doctor Of Thuganomics?

It will always be baffling to think that the arguably the greatest WWE star of all time is only in the position he's in because of a can of tuna. John Cena's freestyle rap about Stephanie McMahon's lunch in 2002 was not only the moment where Cena saved himself from being cut, but it was also the genesis for his breakthrough character, "The Doctor of Thuganomics."

Originally a heel who would verbally destroy members of the WWE locker room, as well as insulting whatever crowd he was in front of, Cena took his genuine love for hip-hop and rap music and turned it into one of the most popular gimmicks of the 2000s, if not all time. The gimmick even spawned a 2005 rap album called "You Can't See Me," with the album's opening track "The Time is Now" becoming Cena's entrance music for 20 years.

The gimmick propelled Cena to his first WWE Championship at WrestleMania 21 in 2005, and from there he has gone to win a total of 17 world titles in WWE, more than anyone else in history. Which begs the question — what if John Cena never became "The Doctor of Thuganomics?" What if he kept his rapping abilities to himself and let McMahon get on with her lunch? Join Wrestling Inc. on a journey through an alternate wrestling timeline in which the "Doctor of Thuganomics" never was.

Let's start off with the event that absolutely would have happened had John Cena not become "The Doctor of Thuganomics." It's been well documented that after his initial breakthrough on the "WWE SmackDown" roster, Cena struggled to establish any sort of real character or identity other than wearing gear that matched the colors of the local sports teams. For all the "Ruthless Aggression" that he had in his debut against Kurt Angle, the endorsements from the likes of The Undertaker and Chris Jericho, and the fact that he genuinely felt like he had found a place for himself in the world, Cena was on the chopping block come the end of 2002.

Cena himself has admitted that he would have been fired from WWE less than six months after his televised debut, and that the rapping gimmick was what saved his job. Had Cena not joined in on the freestyling session at the back of the tour bus with the likes of Rikishi and Rey Mysterio, it's very likely that you wouldn't be reading any of this right now, as there would be nothing to write about. Cena wouldn't have been in WWE, the "Doctor of Thuganomics" wouldn't have been conceived, and the landscape of WWE would have looked very different.

There is every chance that in a post-WCW and ECW world, Cena being let go would have spelled the end for him in terms of wrestling — he might have gone back to working odd jobs in whatever town he was living in at the time. However, the wrestling world outside of WWE was rapidly changing, and there would have been some other avenues that Cena could have taken that may have turned him into a much different wrestler.

As the 2000s went on, being a non-WWE wrestler became a sustainable career path. Ring of Honor and TNA had just started out in 2002 and were both avenues that Cena could have easily gone down. Getting a former WWE star as young as Cena to potentially mold into something special could have been a big deal for either company; Cena would have had connections in ROH especially, as he already had a friendship with Samoa Joe, who became a face of both ROH and TNA at the time. Paul Heyman, the man who was writing "SmackDown" around the time Cena would have been released, could also have put in a good word with Gabe Sapolsky, the head booker of ROH in its formative years who was Heyman's primary understudy in ECW.

Of course, wrestling does exist outside of North America, and in places like Japan and Mexico wrestling is treated very differently. In the 2000s, Japan was going through an MMA phase that put wrestling on the backburner, but companies like NOAH were still routinely putting more than 60,000 people in the Tokyo Dome, and if Cena was serious about wanting to broaden his horizons, a few tours with NOAH, New Japan Pro Wrestling, or All Japan Pro Wrestling wouldn't have hurt. In Mexico, it was a little tougher to break into CMLL and AAA, but if someone like Mark Jindrak can uproot his life, move south of the border and become a huge star, who's to say that Cena couldn't have been in that role too?

Had Cena been a part of the 2000s independent generation, his in-ring style would be dramatically different, he would be a wildly different wrestler, and he would have crossed paths with some of his greatest opponents much earlier on. CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, AJ Styles — the list goes on, and with sparring partners like that, there's no way Cena would have been out of WWE for long.

Let's say Cena spends the 2000s in ROH, TNA, and PWG and becomes a beloved part of the indie generation that is now at the forefront of the two biggest companies in the world in 2025. He shakes off the over-produced vibe that got him hated by the internet audience in WWE and becomes an "indie darling." Eventually WWE would have to take notice. By the start of the 2010s, WWE had already signed Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness, and the "WWE NXT" brand would quickly become the WWE version of Ring of Honor once that show found its footing in 2012/2013. Cena's track record with WWE would already be in the vault, and a second chance would have certainly been on the cards.

That then begs the question of whether or not Cena would have reached the heights that he has reached in our timeline. It's unlikely WWE would have given Cena 17 WWE Championship runs, as he wasn't a homegrown star who stayed with the company through thick and thin. However, that doesn't mean he wouldn't have succeeded. Seth Rollins and CM Punk cut their teeth in ROH and are now mainstream celebrities. The likes of Danielson, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn have all won WrestleMania main events, and AJ Styles is being placed alongside the likes of Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle by the powers that be in the conversation of the greatest in-ring performers WWE has ever seen.

Had Cena been a product of the 2000s indie scene thanks to his departure in 2002, he would have easily succeeded in WWE if his journey started off a little later. There would have probably been more of a natural groundswell of support from the hardcore fan base as they would be familiar with his previous work, and considering how critically acclaimed Cena's work would become when he did eventually cross paths with those who made a name for themselves elsewhere, he could have been an even better wrestler than the one he is today

Back in early 2000s WWE, Cena's absence leaves a gaping void to fill. He became the "Doctor of Thuganomics" in 2003, when the company was in desperate need of new stars. The Rock and Steve Austin were both gone, the novelty of Hulk Hogan's nostalgia run had worn off, and the main event stars from WCW that eventually made the jump after the Invasion storyline hadn't worked out as much some would have hoped. WWE needed a complete refresh and Cena was a huge part of that — but if he had been fired, what would have happened in the "Ruthless Aggression" era?

On the "SmackDown" brand where Cena was based at the time, it would have been a lot more noticeable. Brock Lesnar was far and away the earliest success story of those who came out of OVW in 2002, but by WrestleMania 20 in 2004, he was burnt out both physically and mentally and ended up leaving WWE completely. This accelerated the need for WWE to push new stars, but Kurt Angle's neck couldn't hold up forever, neither could Rey Mysterio's knees, and experiments with the likes of Eddie Guerrero and JBL, while fans have fondness for them now, didn't do great business.

For "WWE Raw," both Randy Orton and Batista were blossoming into natural main event guys thanks to their spots in the Evolution stable with Triple H and Ric Flair, but if there was such a gaping hole over on the blue side of WWE, potentially moving Orton and Batista over there might have been the play. Of course, Batista would be the face of "SmackDown" eventually, but that was only after Cena was drafted to "Raw" in 2005, so shuffling the roster around earlier would have been considered to even things out. WWE would eventually bring other guys through OVW over the years, but a "Ruthless Aggression" era where someone other than Cena is at the forefront of it would have been strange and worrying for WWE at the time. The company would have been fine, but the landscape of it would have resulted in a lot of small changes that caused big outcomes.

Since we've landed on the idea that John Cena would have eventually ended up back in WWE regardless of his 2002 firing, we have to finish with arguably the most important question. If John Cena never became "The Doctor of Thuganomics," what would his gimmick be?

The man who preaches Hustle, Loyalty, and Respect started out as an off-shoot of his "Thuganomics" gimmick so you can't just automatically jump to the conclusion of "he would have been the same guy he is now." Instead, you have to look at the gimmick he initially had when he signed with WWE all those years ago; The Prototype. A half man, half machine performer who spoke in a monotone voice, and when he cut a promo on you, just to get his point across, he would rewind everything he just said and repeat the promo word-for-word. Goofy and light-hearted as it may have been, even Cena has admitted that the gimmick stank up the place, so what would have he become?

It's not hard to imagine him having some sort of rapping gimmick outside of WWE. After all, the whole reason why "The Doctor of Thuganomics" worked so well was because Cena is genuinely a fan of old school hip-hop, meaning that the gimmick was just an aspect of his personality with the volume cranked up as high as it could go, the key ingredient to any successful character. Whether he would have explored something like that in places like ROH or TNA is up for debate as ROH was so focused on the sporting aspect of wrestling that it might have gone down like a lead balloon, and TNA had an unnatural obsession with hiring Vince Russo who would have probably done unspeakable things to a "Thuganomics" type gimmick.

In the end, Cena would have been fine with a different style of gimmick. Perfecting a heel persona in front of a smaller crowd might have made him a more well-rounded performer later on life, or he could have thrived as babyface who knew he wasn't as skilled as the people around him, but would do anything and everything to get the job done. He probably would have found another aspect of himself to amplify, whether that be his love of bodybuilding, his football background, his humble roots in Massachusetts, but whatever he would have landed on, John Cena would have been fine, or even more than fine, had he been fired in 2002 and not become "The Doctor of Thuganomics."