In the world of professional wrestling perception is everything. Back in the day announcers used to exaggerate the heights and weights of the wrestlers to get that over the top reaction from the crowd and the listening audience.
They still do so today. But every now and again, you had that larger than life character that didn’t need much in the realm of exaggeration, and all because they had the whole package…they were big, they were in epic shape and they didn’t have to lie or have anyone else lie on their behalf about what they brought to the table physique-wise.
Enter the likes of Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, Triple H, Ken Shamrock, The British Bulldog and of course John Cena. Of course I’ve overlooked a few outstanding physiques from the annals of time here, but only for the sake of brevity folks.
John Cena specifically has always been serious about keeping his physique impressive. With multiple weekly workouts and diet, he has stayed on top of the game, changing his program to meet the needs and requirements of whatever he’d involved in…even now that he’s making films. Even after every injury he suffered in the ring he adapted, and all for the sake of coming to every event in tip-top shape, all the while maximizing strength and functionality to boot.
via Muscle Madness on YouTube
In the end an impressive physique captivates the audience and especially in earlier eras, had the audience not only impressed, but a tad more likely to be on your side per se.
Well, as it turns out John Cena did do one thing that kind of played with the whole perception vs. reality thing a tad, and he had the likes of Kevin Nash to thank for the idea apparently.
It was on recent episode of the “Kliq This” Podcast that Nash went into some advice he had for John Cena back in the day about using oversized t-shirts…a practice he himself dabbled in during his own career. Here’s some of what he had to say:
“When they would hand out the nWo shirts, guys would be like ‘give me a medium,’ because they’d want it skin f***ing tight…I’d always tell them to give me a 3X or the biggest I could get because I told John (Cena) and he asked me for advice and I said…
‘Always wear a baggy t-shirt, especially if you’re not going to work in it because when you take it off, there’s that ‘holy f*** (from the crowd), that guys got a good physique,’ as opposed to f***ing having a t-shirt sprayed on you….
If you look, throughout his career, he always wore the oversized t-shirt. I think when you really look at his entire career, that’s probably the most important thing. That big f***ing t-shirt.”
