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Building an impactful character in professional wrestling is often correlated to arresting catchphrases. Every wrestler, from old-school to the modern era, has had attention-grabbing catchphrases throughout their careers.
While some wrestlers keep the same catchphrase throughout their careers, some evolve alongside their TV characters. John Cena is one such notable name who is renowned for his captivating catchphrases.
Across Cena’s two-decades-long career, he used different catchphrases, helping in the rise of his fame, with the iconic ‘You can’t see me’ emerging as one of the recognized lines in professional wrestling and beyond.
With this article, we look at the best and most used John Cena Catchphrases from his WWE career.
5) “If You Want Some, Come Get Some”
John Cena’s whole career was packed with title reigns. His impressive 16 world championships reign a compromise of 13 as the WWE Champion and 3 as the World Heavyweight Champion. On the other hand, he enjoyed five United States Championships and two tag team reigns.
Cena was a fighting champion regardless of the gold he had possession of. He would frequently defend his titles. From the early to mid-2010s, John would challenge his opponent with the tagline, “If you want some, come get some”
If his opponents wanted a piece of the championship, they must step up and get it. John, however, refrained from using the catchphrase when he wasn’t a champion because it wouldn’t make sense.
4) “The Champ Is Here”
It is another notable John Cena catchphrase emerging from his days as a champion. The popularity of the line surged around 2014-15, particularly during his remarkable United States Championship Reigns and the feud with Rusev.
During his time as the US title holder, Cena would throw open challenges to other competitors, leading to impromptu championship matches in the squared circle. Whenever he entered the ring wearing the prestigious belt, he would say,” The Champ is here,” and hoist the belt in the air with pride.
3) ” Word Life”
Before morphing into the good guy John Cena who would fight against injustice and rise above hate, he had a completely different personality. While he had an explosive debut against Kurt Angle showing ruthless aggression, he gradually started fading away like another rookie until coming up with the popular rapper gimmick.
Cena’s rapper character was called Doctor of Thuganomics, who would belittle his adversaries with freestyle rap. Fans were easily drawn towards the one-of-a-kind gimmick. The character was innovative. Such a character had never been witnessed before.
Wearing a rapper-style outfit, Cena was unerring for that role besides his rapping talent. During this period, John’s one of the well-known line was ‘Word Life’. He would say those two words during his entrance as well as before dissing his rivals in the free flow of rapping.
2) “Oh Kayy”
The true Ruthless Aggression fans remember the OG John Cena’s quote, ” Oh, Kayy.” Apart from the line “Word Life”, it was another line that captured the audience’s attention.
When the heel would cut a promo, he would abruptly pause and say, “Oh Kayy,” while shrugging both his shoulders. The line helped him get an edge in the Doctor of Thuganomics character. He stopped using it around 2005 when he stepped away from the character.
1) ” You Can’t See Me”
“You can’t see me” is arguably the most iconic John Cena catchphrase from his career as well as across the entire WWE. The popularity surged to such an extent that it got mainstream exposure, and people often connected to the former WWE Champion with the tagline.
During his peak years in WWE, the line ‘You can see me’ blew up on the internet, turning into one of the most well-known memes of the past decade. There are still memes flooding the internet with hilarious pictures of the wrestler turned movie-star.
The origin of the catchphrase took place during his Doctor Thuganomics days. While rivaling with other wrestlers, he would tell them that they couldn’t see him while placing his right hand in front of his face.
As it was an arresting catchphrase from the beginning of his career, he has been using it throughout his career. Besides promos, it is usual to see him launching those words in the middle of his matches, especially before performing his finisher.
Avik Das is an English Literature graduate with an experience of over six years as a professional writer. He has written for renowned publications such as The Sportster, Sportskeeda, Pinkvilla, and The Things
