With the wrestling world now coming to terms withJohn Cena's last matchafter focusing on it for more than a year now, few have peeked back well before his very first match, as in when he was just a kid growing up in West Newbury, Massachusetts. Yes, "The Never Seen 17" was once a child just like the rest of us. And he who has, for years, preached to "never give up," seems to have been practicing just that, overcoming adversity from the very start.
Born John Felix Anthony Cena on April 23, 1977 to parents Carol and the unabashedly opinionated John Cena Sr, "The Greatest of All Time" had quite the obstacle to get past right away, with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck three times. Fortunately, Little Cena would be just fine and thus began his path toward life, and a Hall of Fame wrestling career. With an older brother named Dan and three younger than him in Matt, Steve, and Sean, as brothers tend to do, the Cena boys squabbled often growing up, whether it was playing football or wrestling each other in makeshift mattress rings in their basement for the prestigious reward of a cardboard championship belt. That likely toughened John up from the jump, as his younger brother Matt revealed once in saying, "Let's just say John didn't always come out on top."
With his father already a fan before their arrival, professional wrestling was a staple in House Cena all the while, and the boys would watch wrestling together and even get excused for excessive roughhousing as long as the excuse was that they were just practicing wrestling moves. Healthy in-house competition such as this early on, and maybe even a scrap at a family wedding, can be a boon toward greatness and with his wrestling career now a wrap, with 17 world championships in the fold, it's hard to really critique the sort of tough brotherly love that Cena experienced as a youngster.
