John Cena Started Pro Wrestling Training As A ‘Sick Ass Hobby’

John Cena has become one of the greatest WWE superstars in history and has found success in Hollywood as well.

Cena initially wanted to pursue a career as a bodybuilder when he started training in pro wrestling, eventually joining Ohio Valley Wrestling.

Speaking to PEOPLE, Cena reflected on his early workouts and how he discovered the wrestling ring.

“[After college] I headed out to Los Angeles not because of the entertainment allure, but because that’s where the hub of fitness equipment, fitness manufacturing, fitness distribution, everything that applied to my degree was there,” he explained. “I got in working at Gold’s Gym and that was the best I could do. I worked in the protein shop. I worked on the floor. I knew every member and a bunch of the members would talk about wrestling and WWE specifically. This is right when two companies were jockeying for supremacy, the company owned by Turner and the company owned by Vince McMahon. One of my friends in a casual conversation was like, ‘Hey, we’re training down in Orange County to be wrestlers. Do you want to join?’ It wasn’t like, ‘Yeah, this is my chance to make it big in the WWE,’ it was like, ‘Yo, this would be a sick ass hobby, so when I worked my ass off during the week, I can go be a personality on the weekends, I’ll try it.’ I paid the promoter a bunch of money to get in the ring and learn how to fall down and the rest is history. So if we had never had that conversation, I’d never found a ring, and I’d never been talking to you right now.”

And the rest is history.

Cena would make his WWE main roster debut in 2002, quickly rising up the ranks to become a 16-time WWE Champion.

Cena returned to WWE at Money in the Bank and is angling for a showdown with WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns. However, Reigns turned down Cena’s challenge to accept the challenge of Finn Balor.