It’s often so easy to become lost in the 24/7 nature of the professional wrestling news cycle and the corresponding storm of crazy that inevitably encompasses it on social media. I think it’s important to remember the reason we all started watching this wild and wonderful thing of ours in the first place as well. Because whether in large ways or small, it simply makes us happy. With each column, I’ll shine a light on something or someone in the wide world of professional wrestling that is creating smiles out of thin air. Care to join me?
Professional wrestling is many things to many people. For a large portion, it provides an outlet to escape into for a few hours every week. For more, it’s an obsession that never quite fades with time. For a lucky few, it’s something much more – something that can make you not just feel but feel seen.
For hundreds of children across a career spanning two incredible decades, the original wordsmith himself, John Cena, has taken action and made literal wishes come true for those who need them most. It’s a reality and an accomplishment that one cannot really even explain the gravity of. The only ones who can are those who have had their lives touched in such genuinely positive ways by the Peacemaker.
It is not a prerequisite of fame to possess a heart like John’s. It’s not a requirement to create smiles on faces that otherwise might not have much to smile about. No one forces professional wrestlers to make dreams come true. An epic career can be had by simply existing in the ring and on screen. And that’s just fine.
But to do more is to be more than epic. To do more is to mix fame and humanity into something truly great – something that transcends this thing of ours.
Professional wrestling already makes us all smile. It has to or we wouldn’t care as much as we do. We wouldn’t consume the staggeringly unhealthy amount of it we do week after week.
To go beyond making millions smile, and to dedicate valuable personal time to focus on one child – one heart – and to do that 650 times and counting over one of the greatest careers in wrestling history and one of the brightest in Hollywood, well that’s just something I don’t know if I can even describe. Let’s just call it…beautiful.
The example that John has set is one to be marveled. A man who has lived so large in the ring that his rivals couldn’t see him has made it so some of the smallest, yet bravest and strongest, of us all can not just see him but feel seen as well. For many of these warriors, to have their hero to hug and talk to for even a moment is a dream.
He makes those dreams come true. He doesn’t have to; he chooses to.
I’m certain John Cena doesn’t want to be known as a hero. I’m sure he would forgo that title and place it upon the heads of those 650 lives he’s touched and all those who fight battles most of us cannot comprehend, day after grueling day. There is honor in that, and there is truth in that. But John doesn’t have to call himself a hero to be one. Those children know him to be one and that’s enough.
He has had many nicknames over the course of his career. Some earned. Some given. Some have stuck more than others.
The Champ. The Doctor of Thuganomics. Mr. Hustle, Loyalty, and Respect. Peacemaker.
Wish Granter.
650 wishes granted to those who deserve them most. It’s truly an unbelievably heartwarming reality. I can’t seem him slowing down any time soon, and while this accomplishment is something we should all acknowledge, it isn’t about an accomplishment. It’s about the kids. It’s about their families. Its about their smiles, for that day and all the days after.
While granting his 500th wish, John Cena had this to say about why he continues to choose to be there for these children battling critical illnesses:
“There is no more humbling experience than a child who could ask for anything in the world asking to meet me. It is inspiring to see the impact that granting wishes can have, and I look forward to granting 500 more.”
Like I said…beautiful.
I like to end these special columns as graciously and as simply as possible.
So, to John Cena. To the ultimate Wish Granter. Thank you for the smiles this week and those you have given so graciously across your entire career to those who desired them most of all. Here’s to many more.
