Certain celebrities manage to live multifaceted lives. Maybe you know them for their acting skills, but perhaps they are also just as well-known for their philanthropy, musical talent or chat show hosting. Angelina Jolie, Justin Timberlake, that Slater guy from Saved by the Bell, the list goes on.
But let’s talk about John Cena. Most of us would just think of John Cena the wrestler, muscle man and thanks to the internet, meme machine and gif giant. Without a doubt, he is one of the biggest personalities in the wrestling world, with a reported net worth of $55 million (£42 million) and more fans than muscles. All you have to do is Google him. It’s okay, I’ll wait… see what I mean.
If you don’t know him for his wrestling, you may have seen him in a film or two, or maybe you’ve heard of his heart-warming work with the Make-A-Wish campaign. In fact, he has granted the most wishes ever in the campaign's history.
I bet you didn't know he’s a secret car guru though.
Diehard John Cena fans may already know that, just like they know his full name is John Felix Anthony Cena Jr. and he wore the number 54 for his college football team, but I bet the general petrolhead population doesn’t know that Cena is car obsessed.
I mean take funny men Jay Leno and Rowan Atkinson for example, undeniably famous for their comedy chops, but popular in their own right for their love of cars. Even musicians like Jay Kay and Brian Johnson have managed to carve their own unique identity in the automotive world. Cena on the other hand – well, WWE is certainly tattooed onto his career clearer than anything else.
We recently came across a video of John Cena on YouTube, stood in front of a sports car wearing a ‘Tapout’ t-shirt. Naively, we thought this was going to be a sort of ‘Cribs – Check out my Wheels’ special, with vague car terms layered over mid-afternoon wrestling trash talk. Oh, how we were wrong.
Surprised, impressed and endeared by Cena’s acquaintance with automation, we wanted to put something together to show just how car mad Cena really is.
John Cena: Auto Geek – An Awesome Car Presenter
Cena has featured in multiple videos on The Bella Twins YouTube channel under the name ‘John Cena: Auto Geek’.
After watching a few videos of Cena excitedly drooling over his car collection, we couldn’t help but feel he should be doing this type of thing more often.
When you watch him talk about his cars, you can tell that he has a genuine passion for them. What he says on-screen doesn’t feel contrived or forced - he’s a natural. His Auto Geek persona doesn’t feel like a hapless spin-off of his wrestling career. He comes across like a giddy car fan that can’t help but talk about his beloved collection, and we salute that.
He Owns a S**t Ton of Rare Muscle Cars
Cena is a muscle car fan. Sure, he’s got a Rolls Royce Phantom, the pinnacle of automotive luxury, but on the other side of his garage he has his muscle cars… over 20 of them. But they’re not just any old muscle cars. Cena is very particular about what makes it into his collection, with many of his cars being incredibly rare examples.
These include the likes of a 1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator, 1971 Plymouth Road Runner, 1969 COPO Chevrolet Camaro, 1969 Dodge Daytona, 2007 Dodge Charger SRT-8 Super Bee and a 2007 Saleen Parnelli Jones Limited Edition Ford Mustang.
And he’s Got a Ford GT
Aside to his double-parked muscle cars, Cena also owns a 2006 Ford GT. In the video below, Cena tells of how he likes the slick six-speed manual gearbox, saying that “you’ve actually got to drive the car” – and to see that he appreciates the man and machine connection is commendable.
Cena says he specifically opted for a GT without the overt racing stripes plastered over the paint job because he likes the unassuming appearance of the car from a distance, and he likes surprising people when driving past them in the street.
At the end of the video, Cena even hints that he has his name down for a new 2017 Ford GT.
Cena Came Second in a NASCAR Racing Show
You may or may not have heard of the TV show “Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race”.
If not, it doesn’t matter, all you need to know is that it saw Cena go head-to-head with celebrity personalities including Tony Hawk, Serena Williams and William Shatner (who was disqualified).
Cena only ended up claiming third place out of the 12 celebrities featured - former NFL star John Elway came out on top – but still, it proves Cena has some skills behind the wheel of a car.
He Taught NASCAR Drivers to Wrestle
Following on from his stint as a NASCAR driver, Cena then went on to shoot a Gillette Razor advert with NASCAR aficionados Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne and Clint Bowyer amongst others.
The advert showed Cena executing some of his trademark wrestling moves, before being flung about the place by his NASCAR pupils.
