John Cena is one of the greatest WWE Superstars of all time, and it seems he owes a bit of his success to former Global Force Wrestling (GFW) (formerly known as TNA and Impact Wrestling) star Samoa Joe.

Cena began his professional wrestling career back in 1999, where he worked for promotions such as Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW) and Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). He made his main roster debut in 2002 when he accepted an open challenge from Kurt Angle. Cena and Angle put on one heck of a match, however, "The Leader Of The Cenation" came up just shy of pulling off the upset over Angle.

Prior to making his WWE debut, however, Cena wrestled under the ring-name "The Prototype" and had matches against fellow future professional wrestling mega-stars. One of those stars was Samoa Joe. 

"The Destroyer" recently did an interview with 102.5 The Bone's Drew Garabo Live in Tampa Bay, Florida to talk about his professional wrestling career. Joe talked about how his match with Cena and how he gave the "Dr. Of Thuganomics" a highlight match that earned him interest from then-head of WWE Talent Relations Jim Ross.

He also revealed that Ross shot him down when he asked if the WWE was interested in him as well, seeing has he was only two years into the business (quotes via Wrestling Inc.):

"Actually, John Cena's match with me, the one that kind of got him hired with WWE, I remember they were there to look at John, obviously. He looked great, he was like the blue-chipper, and John was a good friend of mine, so I had no problem whatsoever helping him kind of highlight and do his thing.

"Hey man, he was a hard worker, man. He got it done, so after the match, I remember Jim Ross, head of Talent Relations at the time, I went up to him and I was like, 'is there any interest over here?' 'Ah, no, son. I don't think you're quite going to work out here.'

"Two years in, but it was cool because I was like, 'well, if I can't go there, I'm going to focus on all this other stuff. Where else can you make money? Oh, Japan!' So I focused on Japan, I got a contract over there, and the rest is history."

What are your thoughts on Cena getting signed to WWE after his epic match with Joe? Have YOUR say in the comments section below and the fourth episode of GiveMeSport’s WWE podcast is here!

Check it out via this link: https://soundcloud.com/user-818579649/gms-wwe-podcast-money-in-the-bank-fallout