You can't see me! Hip-Hop Appreciation Week Write-Off review

JOHN CENA Word Life DVD

“Looking for a JohnCenaDVD review you’re in luck! If not I just don’t give a………….” When I saw Madtheory’s ‘Hip-Hop Appreciation Week Write-Off’ I had a good idea what to do! If you’re a current WWE or wrestling fan then there is a good chance you know about a wrestler by the name of John Cena. JC is a highly skilled and very entertaining wrestler who is red hot in popularity and (at the moment at least) the dude has already won several WWE championships. JC is not your typical 200 pound muscle head though; this guy is also well known for his opening raps where he likes to talk trash on his opponent. Hey, the guy even loves video game both new and old too and that’s definitely cool in my book. I and my brother were very surprised however, when a young guy like JC would already get his own official DVD when guys especially since other big WWE talents like Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, and Chris Benoit has yet to get one. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not a hater or nothin’ but it does put a little pressure on JC since he’s still fairly new to the business of wrestling. John Cena may always say “You can’t see me!” but let’s see if the John Cena DVD is worth seeing, uh?

The DVD begins in Cena’s hometown where he talks about how he grew up loving both wrestling and free-styling rapping. Cena was originally just a boring generic wrestler in tights when he first appeared in the WWE but then talks about how everything changed when he just became himself. His TV character finally started to come out when he dropped a killer rap at a 2002 WWE Halloween party. Cena’s rapping persona was born!

The next rap you’ll see on the video here is his cut on the former ‘Next big thing’ Brock Lesner. If you don’t who this Lesnar guy is then he is a huge 6ָ foot monster with deadly wrestling ability. Most people are very intimidated by Lesnar and rightfully so, but Cena would not back down from this machine and he was able to create this awesome verbally taunt before their first match:

”People think I’m crazy, that’s what everybody’s telling me, because me beating you is like you winning a spelling bee.

That’s OK, tonight I silence them all,
you a Neanderthal so I will use words that small,

(caveman voice)”Me Brock Lesner, here comes the pain,
God built me strong, forgot to give me brain. (end caveman voice)
You hop all day around like there are potato’s in your crack,
that’s a nice tattoo….. of your mother on your back! (the camera then cuts away to the hideous tattoo on Brock’s back, the crowd is stunned)

Yo! I’m untouchable, you can’t beat my ability,
I’m just like a basic math problem Brock, you can’t finish me!”

The scene then quickly fast-forwards where Cena is in wheel chair, funny stuff. Since Cena is ‘injured’ now he was able to cut even more killer promos on the Next big thing to set up another battle down the road. The people loved it. Over the course of the DVD here you’ll hear Cena free-styling and battle rapping on other current and former WWE talent like Spanky, Rikishi, the Big Show, Zach Gowen, and lots more.

If loving wrestling and rapping wasn’t enough, Cena’s also loves video games too! You’ll see tons of references to games here like when he playing some Sony Playstation2 with his buddies or when he’s wearing cool t-shirts with a classic Atari joystick on it. Cena’s is no fanboy either (a fanboy are these annoying punks who love only their favourite game or company and trash everything else), because I seen him wear retro throwbacks from the both the Atari and Nintendo eras. You have to respect that.

The DVD Throwbacks:

Wait, hold up! It’s not over yet. If you have the DVD edition of Word Life then you can see a collection of some of Cena’s biggest battles in 2003 like:

Vs. Chris Benoit
John Cena begins this final contest for the #1 contender tournament with another rap where he makes an ok rap by having fun with Benoit’s missing tooth and comparisons to former WWF superstar: the Dynamite Kid. You can see Cena actually try to match the highly technical Benoit move for move. Benoit was and this is the perfect performer to get anyone over because his shoot wrestling style. If Cena can win this fight then he’ll get the chance to fight the then WWE Champion: Brock Lesner.

Vs. Brock Lesnar
This extra bout here is easily one of Cena’s biggest matches of his career because this is his first shot at the ‘big one!’ Cena was supposed to be the heel but that’s hard to do in front of a hometown crowd. It didn’t take long for Cena chant to start up.

Vs. The Undertaker
This match takes place on a Smackdown event and it is about a few weeks after Cena got beaten by the Undertaker at Vengeance PPV. Cena was able to get revenge on the big man in this long and fun match.

Vs. Eddie Guerrero
When Eddie Guerrero was the United States Champion in 2003, he had a great feud with Cena. Unfortunately I wish they included that vicious parking lot brawl between Eddie and Cena but maybe that will be on the Guerrero DVD since he won that match, eh?

Vs. Kurt Angle
Here is another huge PPV fight as Kurt Angle finally gets his hands this young punk (Cena). The funny thing about this contest here is that the crowd was split on who to cheer for even though Cena was planned to be the heel.

Although I questioned why John Cena got his own video so quickly, there is no denying that with all his talent he is perfect for the WWE. The WWE can be a very strange business and you can have all the in-ring experience in the world (like Lance Storm) but that doesn’t mean you’ll become a huge star. Sometimes all it takes is a great gimmick to get your TV personality over and the wrestling then takes a back seat. Fortunately, Cena is not only a great wrestler that can fight an entertaining match for a good 20-30 minutes but he can also talk and rip a big game as well. Unfortunately with the FCC cracking down on television these days, Cena has been forced to censor his raps as of late so this watching this DVD here is great way to see and hear in his prime dirty self. The material can get pretty nasty at times so I recommend this for ages 13 and up. Sure, when Cena introduced his ‘White Rapper’ gimmick he was suppose to be this evil heel character but he was good at free-styling and reaching that hip-hop audience that you see the crowds of thousands in the arenas quickly getting behind him. Even other famous rappers like Method Man respect the guy now! John Cena Word Life comes packed with 3 hours of great raps, great matches, and great extras. “Word mutha-freaking Life!”

Also be sure to check out the reviews in the ‘Hip-Hop Appreciation Week Write-Off’

StarSoldier
(Ryan Genno) 2004
http://www.videogames101.com