WWE's John Cena Gets Candid About His Scary Diagnosis

It's arguably the most interesting time of John Cena's wrestling career, as Cena has gone heel for the first time in two decades in the lead up to his WrestleMania 41 match with Cody Rhodes. But it's also a time that Cena is deciding to share a story no one was previously aware of, one he's choosing to tell as he becomes the face of Neutrogena's sun care campaign for their new Ultra Sheer Mineral Face Liquid Sunscreen.

In an interview with "People" about the campaign, Cena revealed he hopes to use this campaign to make people aware of the importance of skin care. That's a lesson Cena learned the hard way several years ago, when he learned during a routine skin check up that he had skin cancer.

"I was very lucky to have a great dermatologist who kind of, I guess for lack of a better term, held me by the hand and let me know that I wasn't alone," Cena said. "The stats on this are overwhelming, but as much as I learn about them, those numbers don't mean anything. I think the best way to hammer home a point is human-to-human connection. 

"And I as a human can tell you; Man, that phone call's not what you want to get because it is unpredictable and you don't know how bad it's going to be. A year later I went back and had another spot removed close to my right shoulder. It shows up like a white polka dot on the side of my chest and on my shoulder. If you watch WWE, you'll be able to see them."

Cena noted that, prior to this diagnosis, he had never taken to using sunscreen, attributing that to it being new when he was a child in the late 70s. The scare gave Cena a new mindset, and made it a no brainer when Neutrogena approached him about being a spokesperson. According to Cena, however, Neutrogena's pitch to him had nothing to do with his skin cancer scare, and was instead related to a part of his wrestling persona.

"The crazy thing is that's not why Neutrogena came to me in the first place," Cena said. "Neutrogena came to me because they developed this Ultra Sheer sunscreen that goes on easily and is invisible and they wanted somebody who the world knows as invisible. They were like 'Hey, would you mind leaning into the "You Can't See Me" joke?'

"And I'm like 'Would I?!' I'm already doing it anyway and the world kind of understands it. I'm in Budapest, and I walk the streets here and people put their hands in front of their face. So it's something that has global reach. And I really appreciate Neutrogena wanting to lean into it. The spots are very funny, and if you can make people laugh and send a message at the same time, that's great...I'm very fortunate to hopefully be a mouthpiece to get people to use sunscreen."