Hey, I'm John Cena, WWE superstar, in the cast of the upcoming movie Vacation Friends on Hulu.

And above all else, I am an internet meme.

In order to explain the origin of these memes,

I first need to explain how I got into sports entertainment.

This all started for me in 1989.

As Chuck D would say,

"You wouldn't guess it from how I dressed now, but I dress a little different as a kid."

Rap music was becoming extremely popular.

The Beastie Boys and Run-DMC, N.W.A.

I was from an area of the world that didn't care about that.

But I did, I loved the rebellious nature of the message.

I wasn't going through any of that struggle, but I really liked its loud brash approach,

and the music just spoke to me.

So I began to be immersed in rap and hip hop culture.

And for that, in an area of the world that wasn't so immersed,

I got my ass kicked every single day and the core of the abuse was just, hey, dressed like all of us.

And I think at a young age, instead of folding, I doubled down and went even more ridiculous to get even more of my ask kicked.

So as a way to defend myself, I asked my father for a home gym.

This was at 12 or 13, my grandfather convinced him and I got it for Christmas.

Began working out Christmas Day and here we are 32 years later and I haven't stopped.

I followed WWF in the eighties as a young kid

and I did not get into sports entertainment with any idea that I would ever make it to the WWE.

I just really wanted to do it.

So even doing small shows at flea markets in Los Angeles and Northern California, Tijuana.

If there were five people there in a ring, I was probably there.

It was a way for me to justify my 9 to 5 existence.

So I could enjoy a weekend hobby.

The toughest thing for anyone in entertainment is to somehow find a way to captivate an audience.

You have to create a personality for yourself and invest in that personality and hope people get it.

And my character was a prototype, half man, half machine and 100% rotten.

It was so bad, but I was invested in it and it was enough to catch the eye of a scout to send me to Kentucky.

So I got to be an understudy of one of their prominent performers.

And then I made it to WWE and the first thing they said was like drop the prototype, cut your hair and be a good guy.

So I debuted as John Cena, the most stale, unentertaining character you can imagine

and was just about to be fired after a year and a half of me trying to connect with the audience.

And on what was supposed to be one of my last tours,

when we go overseas, we all travel together and in the back of the bus, people were freestyling.

And I remember I just went back and joined in

and in the front of the bus, the creative department, a few people were like, hey, how did you remember all that?

I'm like, well, the concept behind freestyle rap is you just kind of think on your feet

and they're like, would you want to do that on TV?

Yes, I do.

And it really gave me a chance to invest in costuming, mannerisms, delivery personality.

I'm not the most technically proficient guy.

I'm not the biggest aerial performer, but I really love the make believe aspect.

I really genuinely do and the storytelling aspect, and being the rap guy I bought in all in.

And I mean, like did rap battles in the parking lots of arenas

and they bring in rappers for me to have freestyle battles with, and I didn't win 'em all.

Like, I'd get burned, I'd get scorched, and there was something that I would win and it was fun and interactive.

Imagine this, the one thing that I got my ask kicked for as a teenager,

dressing different and embracing hip hop culture was the catalyst to me connecting with the global WWE audience.

We were in production of new theme music for the John Cena rap identity.

So we recorded about like 85 songs.

Keep in mind there're only like 16 on the "You Can't See Me" album.

And I remember hearing this one beat and it was the beat for "My Time is Now."

Build up to the crescendo and the horns and the brass and the heavy hit of the base, like it had everything.

And we would always use my little brother as kind of our litmus test because he was a really harsh critic.

And if he enjoyed it, I knew we were okay and I remember him just going like this and like getting lost in it.

And I think he was doing, what was, I think, the Tony Yayo dance at the time where Tony Yayo would put his hand in front of the face and shake his head.

And I was like, dude, what are you doing?

And it was ridiculous.

And he's like, I'm doing the Yayo dance.

I'm like, okay, I'll do that on TV to pay homage to you liking the beat because I'm gonna go with this for the song.

And he dared me and on the dare, I was like, yo, I'm definitely doing it.

So instead of doing the dance, I kind of did the reverse because I figured it would be more visible to show my brother on TV.

Like, hey, I'm doing the thing that you dared me to do.

You can't see me is kind of a way to talk smack in hip hop culture of like, you're not on my level.

So I kind of put two and two together, just really trying to make one person in West Newbury, Massachusetts laugh.

Now we come to the internet and the internet was like, we can't see this guy.

I don't know why, like, I became invisible.

And the cool joke was either if I was in a picture, I wasn't,

it'd be like, okay, this is just a chair talking to you

or people would take their picture with John Cena, which is simply like pointing at nothing

or if nothing was there and be like, yo, I can't believe John Cena crashing our party.

I did an interview before this where the audio technician pinned the mic on me.

And when he's pinning the mic on me, he was like, I didn't know if I'd be able to see where to put it.

And I never get offended. I love hearing it.

I think it's extremely creative.

It's something that's been in the internet cycle for so long, but it still never gets old.

So as you can see, I am a veteran of memes and the internet, but fear not internet, I am far from finished.

My character Ron in Vacation Friends,

I have a feeling there will be some memes, some that will make me laugh, some that might make me cry, but all of which you will enjoy.

So I'll be checking your Hulu account and seeing if you're watching Vacation Friends because...

I got my eyes on you.