John Cena Reveals The Origin of His ‘Doctor of Thuganomics’ Entrance Music

John Cena’s walkout theme is one of the most recognizable in WWE history, but according to the 16-time world champ, it never would’ve existed if he didn’t take control of the situation himself.

Speaking during his panel at FAN EXPO Denver 2025, Cena told fans that when he first started rapping on TV as the “Doctor of Thuganomics,” WWE handed him a generic track to match the gimmick. The problem? It was garbage.

“I started rapping on television and they put me with a guy called Bull Buchanan. I refer to him as B-Squared. That’s my homie. They gave me this like generic rap music, and boy, it was bad. Bad. So I’d walk out to it and I’d be like, ‘Sht, man. I could do better than this myself.’ Oh, sorry, man. I could do better than this myself.”

Rather than just complain, Cena actually did something about it—by calling in some family favors.

“So, I literally—my cousin is in the New England hip-hop circuit and he knew some friends who make music—and I’m like, ‘Man, I got the middle of the week off. Can we make a song?’ And that’s when we, like in three days, we recorded Basic Thuganomics. And I handed it to WWE at the time, and they were like, ‘Yeah, sure. We’ll use this. It’s a rap song. It’s your voice. This is great.’”

Once the track hit, fans got hooked—and Cena wasn’t done yet.

“And then after it was kind of successful and people dug it and the character took off, I’m like, ‘Okay, we’re going to do a whole album.’ And as soon as I heard the beat for The Time Is Now, I’m like, ‘Man, that’s the entrance music.’ ‘Cause it sounds like entrance music.”

What started as a gimmick fix turned into one of wrestling’s most iconic theme songs—and it all began with a bad beat and a few days off.

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