Thanks to Ed From Queens for this report:
John Cena was on Hot 97, a hip-hop station in NYC this morning. He was promoting the show at the Garden, where he’ll be facing Eddie Guerrero and Rhyno in a 3-way cage match. They obviously had him on for his hip-hop character, and it was just funny hearing the host Sway, of MTV fame, constantly talk about “Thugonomics.” They set up a challenge for a battle rap against one of their morning show guys. Cena said he has only been rapping 5 months, while his opponent had been rapping since 1986. They also had a guy challenge him in an arm wrestle, allegedly this guy was pretty big too. (There was a lot of noise and confusion, plus I was arriving at work listening on my walkman, so it is possible the rap contestant and arm wrestler were the same, not sure). Cena’s rap was actually decent, you could tell he was nervous, and when he left they actually said it was better than they thought it would be. The arm wrestle went on for a long time in an even match-up, but then one of the studio guys jumped on Cena’s neck and was choking him from behind, causing him to lose (I couldn’t make this up if I tried!). Cena was somewhat perplexed from that attack but good-natured about it and actually said he was truly honored to appear on the best hip-hop station and with Sway, and admitted to be really nervous freestyling, especially against someone doing it for so long. It was a funny appearance to me, only because the hosts seemed to take his “rap character” too seriously, thinking he is a bonafide rapper and being somewhat upset he portrays a “hip-hop character” and that he had to back that up with skills. Too funny.
