Since we’ve landed on the idea that John Cena would have eventually ended up back in WWE regardless of his 2002 firing, we have to finish with arguably the most important question. If John Cena never became “The Doctor of Thuganomics,” what would his gimmick be?

The man who preaches Hustle, Loyalty, and Respect started out as an off-shoot of his “Thuganomics” gimmick so you can’t just automatically jump to the conclusion of “he would have been the same guy he is now.” Instead, you have to look at the gimmick he initially had when he signed with WWE all those years ago; The Prototype. A half man, half machine performer who spoke in a monotone voice, and when he cut a promo on you, just to get his point across, he would rewind everything he just said and repeat the promo word-for-word. Goofy and light-hearted as it may have been, even Cena has admitted that the gimmick stank up the place, so what would have he become?

It’s not hard to imagine him having some sort of rapping gimmick outside of WWE. After all, the whole reason why “The Doctor of Thuganomics” worked so well was because Cena is genuinely a fan of old school hip-hop, meaning that the gimmick was just an aspect of his personality with the volume cranked up as high as it could go, the key ingredient to any successful character. Whether he would have explored something like that in places like ROH or TNA is up for debate as ROH was so focused on the sporting aspect of wrestling that it might have gone down like a lead balloon, and TNA had an unnatural obsession with hiring Vince Russo who would have probably done unspeakable things to a “Thuganomics” type gimmick.

In the end, Cena would have been fine with a different style of gimmick. Perfecting a heel persona in front of a smaller crowd might have made him a more well-rounded performer later on life, or he could have thrived as babyface who knew he wasn’t as skilled as the people around him, but would do anything and everything to get the job done. He probably would have found another aspect of himself to amplify, whether that be his love of bodybuilding, his football background, his humble roots in Massachusetts, but whatever he would have landed on, John Cena would have been fine, or even more than fine, had he been fired in 2002 and not become “The Doctor of Thuganomics.”