John Cena made his WWE in-ring TV debut 15 years ago today, on June 27, 2002, accepting an open challenge by Kurt Angle on WWE SmackDown. Cena “gave Angle a run for his money” but ultimately lost the match via a Kurt Angle rollup. Cena tried to shake Angle’s hand after the match, but heel Angle blew him off.
In October of 2002, Cena dressed as Vanilla Ice on a Halloween-themed episode of SmackDown. The next week, he debuted his new “rapper” gimmick and “the rest was history” I guess…
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