John Cena Reveals the Real Origin of ‘You Can’t See Me’ as WWE Retirement Nears

John Cena wrestled in Madison Square Garden this week for the final time as his retirement tour nears its emotional climax, but while you won’t be able to see Cena compete after Dec. 14, the WWE icon recently shared the origins of his popular hand gesture and “You Can’t See Me” taunt on ESPN’s First Take. Just never call it a catchphrase!

While Cena, who is the current Intercontinental Champion, has shared this legendary tale before, his explanation on Nov. 17, 2025, the same day as his last competitive WWE Monday Night Raw, seemed all the more poignant because the grappler-tuned-movie-star was about to fight for the last time in “The Garden.”

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John Cena Explains the Origins of ‘You Can’t See Me’

“Where did this come from?” asked ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky while replicating the famous hand gesture that leads to the popular verbiage. Apparently, the iconic sequence was more by “happy accident” than design explained the WWE great.

When Cena was making his studio album “You Can’t See Me” back in 2005, he played some inspirational cuts to his younger brother, Sean, who responded to the beats by waving his hand across his face. “And I’m like, man you look stupid,” joked the king of the jorts. In retaliation, Sean challenged his older sibling to do the same move on television. “And I was wrestling in matches that no one cared about, I was on an obscure Saturday program called ‘Velocity,’ no one ever watched it, so I’m like oh fine, nobody’s watching.” Cena then gave his ESPN hosts a rendition of the famous hand gesture. “You guys can’t see me,” he said. “It stuck, and here I am, the invisible man, 23 years later.”

In the WWE Superstar’s own book, Hustle, Loyalty & Respect: The World of John Cena, the Peacemaker explained how he put his own stamp on the sequence. “I just had to modify it a little bit,” wrote Cena. “Instead of shaking my head around my hand, I shook my hand around my head.”

As pro wrestling fans became familiar with the gesture and taunt, they began to imitate it right back at him but never call it a catchphrase! “Let me state for the record that I hate the word ‘catchphrase,’” wrote Cena. “It’s like ‘think outside the box’ or any of those other marketing terms. It’s just ugly. “Well, it may have been a happy accident, “but that’s how the great things are born,” concluded ESPN’s Shea Cornette.

John Cena is set to defend his WWE Intercontinental Championship against Dominik Mysterio on Nov. 29 at Survivor Series: Wargames airing on ESPN in the United States and Netflix internationally. He’ll then officially retire on Dec. 14 with a final match on WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event to be simulcast on NBC and Peacock in the United States and via YouTube internationally. So, if you want to say a fond farewell to the John Cena’s in-ring career, the time is now.

In terms of WWE post-Cena, the pro wrestling juggernaut just announced that starting Friday, Nov. 28 at 9 a.m. ET/6 a.m. PT, fans can be the first in line to secure individual event tickets to the 2026 WrestleMania exclusively at Ticketmaster.

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