The Social Media Sensation, Explained
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When it comes to social media trends and memes, even the smallest of things can inconceivably become popular hits – even when it is just a singular photo or a one-second piece of video. The professional wrestling world has seen a wide variety of memes and sensations, whether it be Randy Orton’s RKO or John Cena’s theme song. In fact, Cena himself has been the product of various viral videos, edits, and memes. For example, an infamous prank call made the phrase “And his name is John Cena” notable, in addition to Cena’s green screen “Are you sure about that?”. One of the more recent additions to wrestling’s social media sensation list is ‘Black John Cena’.
A Fitness Coach From Brighton Became ‘Black John Cena’ Overnight
The ‘Black John Cena’ meme all stemmed from one singular post on Twitter from an unsuspecting user. Coming from Brighton in the United Kingdom, fitness coach, Brendan Cobbina, innocently posted a cropped photo of himself onto the social media platform, stating that it was a ‘Throwback to a photo’. It didn’t take long until the internet took notice of this post, making light of his startling resemblance to WWE superstar, John Cena.
It is easy to see why people online dubbed him as ‘Black John Cena’ because, within the photo, everything about him screamed of John Cena’s features. The shape of his head, the style of haircut, the shape of his nose, and the slight grin on his face, all looked remarkably close to that of the 16-time World Champion and WWE legend. As of today, the post itself has over 62,000 likes and nearly 10,000 retweets. The viral photo also pushed him to receive over 8,000 followers on Twitter too. Cobbina himself has played into the fun, with his bio stating, “You may know me as Brendan Cobbina or ‘Black John Cena’”.
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John Cena himself has made reference to the meme too, with him posting a picture of Cobbina on his Instagram account, which is notoriously full of uncaptioned photos, making light of recent trends, rumors, or simply other completely random things.
Memes Within The Wrestling World Are Commonplace On Social Media
Although this became more of a widespread phenomenon for a short time, with it exiting the realms of solely just professional wrestling fans on Twitter, memes have been something that has boosted the popularity of certain wrestlers, especially in more recent times. In WWE, Veer Mahan is someone whose momentum benefitted from a running joke on Twitter, prompted by the never-ending “Veer is Coming to Raw” video packages, with fans running with that and creating a whole new narrative for the character before he’d even made his main roster return.
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This has also been the case in other promotions, such as AEW. Orange Cassidy is a notable name who benefitted from internet fame, Keith Lee is also another wrestler whose diction and vocabulary used during his promos caused fans to make several jokes, all in a light-hearted manner. AEW’s Hook may be one of the biggest benefactors to memes online, with AEW’s online fanbase making him into somewhat of a hero during his early days with the company, which led to one of the most highly anticipated and successful debuts in recent memory, with his popularity unwavering ever since.
The internet and social media can certainly be a decent and wholesome place at times – even when it comes to professional wrestling, which may be hard to believe, especially since the wars between rival fans get ridiculously out of hand on a daily basis – but the ‘Black John Cena’ meme is a clear example of when harmless fun can be had, especially when everyone plays along with the trend, with all parties seemingly happy to make the most out of what is a small joke.
