True Story Behind WWE Star John Cena’s Childhood Photo Revealed

John Cena has discussed the true story behind his famous paper belt childhood photo, opening up about what that photo means to him nowadays.

With this childhood photo showing up in numerous video packages over the years, many wrestling fans are familiar with this now-iconic photo of young John Cena holding a paper title belt.

While there has been some debate about which title Cena had replicated, John Cena has now confirmed that he had actually created the championship of the universe.

During his interview on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, John Cena recalled:

“I’ve got to be 6 to 8. The cool thing about this is these are made with the old printer paper that had the seams.

“You can see the electrical tape that holds the seams of paper because we would crayon the belts, but I learned early that if you mess with the seams, the belts rip.

“This is, I believe the championship of the universe, the most coveted championship we had.”

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John Cena went on to note that he admires the imagination on his face in the photo, and that he has tried to maintain this authenticity throughout his career.

When asked what current-him would tell this younger version of him, Cena honestly responded:

“That’s a common question, right? What would you say to your younger self?

“I don’t know if I can ride with that perspective because, what if – even if the person doesn’t look like me, what if a person interacts with this young man’s life and says ‘Hey, stick with it, you’re going to do this one day.’

“I’m glad I thought it wasn’t a job, because the imagination in this kid’s face is real. I always thought I could hit a home run to win the World Series, then you get to an age where you’re like, I don’t know if my talents, strengths and gifts are going to get me that far, but the imagination was there.

“I think maybe, just maybe, if a ghost of Christmas future interrupts this young man, regardless of who it looks like, and says ‘One day you’re going to hold the real thing,’ maybe they work differently. Maybe they make different choices.

“What I think what the me now is happy for when I look at this picture is the imagination in that person’s face, like I’m holding the f**king championship of the universe for real. I’ve never lost that any time I’ve held a piece of leather and gold.”

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John Cena will wrestle his final match at this weekend’s WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event special, against GUNTHER.

Cena has now reacted to a top AEW star’s tribute to him, which you can read more about right here.

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