Nunzio Says Stephanie McMahon Turned John Cena’s Bus Rap Into a WWE Character

By Jitu Jangir

August 26, 2026 at 7:34 AM IST

11.6K

2 min read

Nunzio Says Stephanie McMahon Turned John Cena’s Bus Rap Into a WWE Character

Nunzio has recalled how Stephanie McMahon hearing John Cena freestyle on a WWE tour bus helped create the rapper character that changed Cena’s career.

Cena made his WWE television debut against Kurt Angle on the June 27, 2002 episode of SmackDown. His “ruthless aggression” introduction gave him an early opportunity, but WWE had yet to find a character that allowed his personality to connect with the audience. Nunzio was travelling with Cena during that period and remembered him entertaining other wrestlers by creating freestyle raps at the back of the bus.

“The whole rap gimmick came because he used to rap in the back of the buses when we were doing tours and stuff,” Nunzio told Chris Van Vliet. “One day Stephanie McMahon was on the bus, and John was rapping on all of us, just out of his head, going down all the guys that were there.”

Stephanie initially believed Cena had memorized the words. She became more interested when she learned he had created the entire rap in the moment.

“Stephanie heard it, supposedly, and all of a sudden they started giving him the rapper gimmick,” Nunzio said. “She came up to him and said, ‘How did you remember all that? How did you memorize all those words?’ He said, ‘That was freestyle.’ She asked, ‘You think you could do that for us?’”

WWE tested the idea on its Halloween edition of SmackDown, where Cena dressed as Vanilla Ice and performed a freestyle. The company then made rapping a regular part of his television character.

Cena became known as the Doctor of Thuganomics, wearing sports jerseys, backward caps and a chain while using his freestyle promos to insult opponents. The character gave him a clear identity and eventually helped move him toward the WWE Championship. Nunzio believes Cena’s ability could not simply be taught.

“He never memorized anything. That was his thing,” Nunzio said. “I don’t know how you do that. That’s a talent. You can’t learn how to do that. You’ve got to be able to do that.”

Cena has also credited Stephanie with recognizing his freestyle ability at a time when his original WWE presentation was not working. What began as entertainment between wrestlers on a tour bus became the character that prevented him from being lost among WWE’s newer arrivals.