John Cena says Randy Orton ribbed him on his first night in WWE.
Speaking at a Q&A event in New York, Cena recalled arriving in Chicago in 2002 as an extra before learning he would wrestle Kurt Angle. Cena made his debut against Angle on the June 27, 2002, episode of SmackDown.
“In 2002, I went to Chicago as an extra talent, someone not to be used. I was then told I was going to have a match against an Olympic gold medalist. Randy Orton tied my boots together in a locker where I couldn’t even reach them, so I had to cut the laces and wrestle with half of my laces. I had to go off campus to get one of the worst haircuts that people watching on television had ever seen,” Cena said.
“That was my welcome to the WWE, and it was better than I ever could have imagined. A moment that was supposed to be celebratory was also humbling. It was filled with tough love that belongs to our fraternity, and I was grateful to go through that.”