John Cena bought 86 pairs of boots after his first WWE match

It seems like the current version of John Cena has been around forever, but before the 15-time WWE champion was dropping five-knuckle shuffles and living by the motto of "hustle, loyalty, respect," he was a generic bodybuilder who didn't look like a wrestler, according to WWE veteran William Regal.

In a Q&A to promote his new show, CenterStage, Cena recalled his WWE debut in a dark match on Superstars in 2000. At the time, Cena was wrestling as "The Prototype," which was kind of an American version of Ivan Drago.

Cena lost to Mikey Richardson, and after the match took some sage advice from William Regal a little too seriously. 

Cena went on to wrestle in Ohio for the next year and a half, and eventually made his official WWE debut in 2002 on an episode of SmackDown. Cena, who hadn't yet become the doctor of thuganomics, accepted an open challenge from Kurt Angle (and lost).

Cena would continue with the character for a few months and wore a stunning variety of garish shorts, and eventually was reborn as a rapper from West Newbury, Massachusetts. 

Cena also revealed that he compulsively eats a potentially dangerous amount of Tic-Tacs before every match.