"He struggled to connect with the wrestling audience despite being identified as the future of WWE during the mid-2000s. Expecting to be released from WWE, Cena had one last hurrah at trying to stand out as a personality and found it on a bus during a European tour when other wrestlers were freestyling. Cena joined in. His freestyle left his colleagues in awe and helped give birth to a new character: "The Doctor of Thuganomics.""
"The persona breathed life into Cena's wrestling career, catapulting him to stardom. But his freestyling on WWE "SmackDown" wasn't just a gimmick; it was a byproduct of who Cena was before wearing the jorts and throwback jerseys. "He was a kid that liked to rap, and then he became a wrestler," longtime friend and rapper Esoteric (aka Seamus Ryan) told ESPN. Those freestyles eventually turned into the full-length album "You Can't See Me," which was released May 10, 2005."
John Cena struggled to connect with wrestling fans in the mid-2000s and nearly faced release from WWE. During a European tour bus freestyle session he discovered a rap persona, The Doctor of Thuganomics, which revitalized his character and propelled him to stardom. The persona reflected Cena's pre-wrestling interest in rap and led to recorded freestyles evolving into the full-length album You Can't See Me, released May 10, 2005. The album combined witty punchlines with underground production, debuted at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, and produced his enduring entrance theme, The Time Is Now.
Read at ESPN.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]