‘I was homeless by choice’: John Cena said he slept in his car until he got a $12,500/year contract from the WWE — but his rent was still $1,200/month. How he made ends meet

Choosing to ‘struggle’

When Cena decided to uproot from his hometown of West Newbury, Massachusetts, to pursue a career in wrestling in sunny California, he said his father wasn’t optimistic about his chances.

“‘You’ll never make it; you’ll be back in two weeks,’” he said his father told him. “So, I don't know if he's a genius or he's just an a–hole, but it worked: I didn't want to come home" — despite the struggle to get a career off the ground.

Cena claims he slept in the parking lot of the gym where he both worked and worked out, while occasionally getting a “five-finger discount” at the supplement store nearby for food.

Despite this, Cena said he knew he’d “always have a roof” over his head by moving back in with his parents if his career didn’t work out. He acknowledges that not everyone is as fortunate as him and many Americans are struggling without a choice or a backup plan.

Cena isn’t the only celebrity who has had this experience. A-listers such as Jim Carrey, Sylvester Stallone, and Halle Berry have also experienced homelessness, to varying degrees, before their careers took off.

According to an annual report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 653,104 Americans experienced homelessness in 2023 — up 12.1% from 2022, and at the highest rate since 2007.

Of that cohort, the data reveals that the majority of Americans facing homelessness were aged 55 or older. Experts claim this group makes up the fastest-growing segment of the unhoused population.

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Escaping homelessness

In an interview with the Harvard Gazette, Katherine Koh, a practicing psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, suggests that many factors cause homelessness — but poverty was a primary factor.

“Though we have grown anesthetized to seeing people living on the street in the U.S., homelessness is not inevitable,” she said. “There are a number of countries with more robust social services but similar prevalence of mental illness, for example, where homelessness rates are significantly lower.”

Meanwhile, research from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) economists found that a one-time monetary boost was enough to help many people escape the poverty trap.

Their field study, conducted in Bangladesh, found that “a one-time asset transfer of about $500” helped boost income by 37%, consumption by 10%, and household durables by 110% within four years.

Training provided by the MIT research team helped participants invest their $500 in income-producing assets, such as livestock, which eventually compounded in value.

As for Cena, he escaped homelessness when he got his “big break” — that one-time monetary boost cited by MIT — within the world of professional wrestling.

“When the WWE called… and said, ‘We'd like to give you a contract,’ that was when I went from working during the week, dressing up on the weekends, to being a professional,” he told Sharpe. “It was a break, but my contract was for $12,500 a year and my rent was $1,200 a month.”

Despite the lack of adequate compensation, this earnings boost was enough to help Cena build a successful career.

His experience, coupled with MIT’s research, suggests that a one-time income boost, whether from an employer, charity, or the government, could be enough to help many escape the cycle of poverty and homelessness.