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John Cena's incredible six figure spending spree has been disclosed by a WWE superstar who was in a secret WhatsApp group chat with the 16-time world champion.
The WWE legend, who has successfully transitioned into a huge star in Hollywood, reportedly has a net worth of $80 million and is one of the highest-paid talents in wrestling history.
Cena wasn't always making big bucks though as he struggled to make ends meet while earning a mere $12,000 a year on his first WWE contract.
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After working hard to become the face of the company and take home a handsome salary every month, the Peacemaker star has quite rightly treated himself to plenty of expensive purchases over the years - specifically splashing out on an incredible car collection.
But a former WWE champion has shared details of a surprise way in which Cena spent his cash. In an exclusive interview with SPORTbible ahead of WrestleMania, Big E has revealed that back in the day, Cena was an avid player of the Clash of Clans, the mobile game which has over two billion lifetime downloads.
Described as "the captain" of the ship, Cena forced a host of his peers to join him in his clan - which was named after the person who runs his social media accounts.
John Cena spent six figures on surprise hobby
His WrestleMania 41 main event opponent Cody Rhodes, fellow WWE talent Xavier Woods and actor Stephen Amell of Suits and Arrow fame, were recruited and strategy was discussed in a WhatsApp chat.
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The 47-year-old treated it with such seriousness and forked out a whopping six figures on gems to improve his village and 'E', a former powerlifter who trained at Cena's gym in Florida, admitted he would purposely avoid Cena in hallways if performances in Clash had not been strong.
“Essentially John Cena kind of bullied us all into playing," Big E explained.
"The name of our clan and we had a group chat on WhatsApp for years and years, is the ‘Nicky clan’ - named after the dude who runs his social media - a good friend of mine called Nicky Sampogna. He wasn’t even in the clan, we just named it after him in his honour.
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“We would have times where if we had a bad attack and it was the day of a Raw or Smackdown and Cena was there, I would walk down the hallway and I would see Cena from afar and I would turn and walk the other way because you knew he was going to berate you for being bad at war.
“It was a lot of pressure to be good. Billy Kidman spent at least $20,000, Cena spent I’m sure six figures and I know Cody spent a ton of money.
“Me, I did it the old fashioned way. I just worked hard every single day and built my stuff up. I got to town hall 14.
“There were signs the evil was deep within him [Cena] all this time. There was so many of us involved. Woods played for a bit and I think Stephen Amell, the actor, he was in the clan. He’s a good friend of Cody’s.
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“We had a group chat for quite some time and that was a big part of our backstage life.”
The two worlds have collided as eight superstars have been re-imagined in Clash of Clans as part of a major partnership which also sees sponsorship of the WrestleMania match between Big E's former New Day brothers Woods and Kofi Kingston against world tag team champions the War Raiders.
Big E has racked up a whopping 150 days of playing time in Clash of Clans but hasn't enjoyed a session for quite some time after getting booted out of his account with no explanation.
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“Somehow I got logged out of my account," he added.
"I emailed Supercell, I tried to figure it out. I have no idea how to get back in. I can’t access my account and haven’t played in at least a couple of years.”
Download Clash of Clans now to use the epic line-up of WWE Superstars, including Cody Rhodes as the iconic Barbarian King, as well as Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, Becky Lynch, Jey Uso, The Undertaker, Kane and Rey Mysterio.
Topics: John Cena, WWE, WrestleMania
Josh Lawless