- Nolan was 3 and had lost his father to suicide months before when he saw the John Cena action figure. He got Nolan through a lot of tough times
- Cena will do his 700th Make-A-Wish this weekend. His loyalty and kindness to children who are sick has been unmatched, bringing a light in their darkest times.
- I soon learned WWE was a magical product. Inside the ring, the everyday worries and fears in life dissipated.
INDIANAPOLIS — The flimsy cardboard box was dented and dusty and what was inside of it seemed ridiculously overpriced. But there it was on the floor of the toy aisle inside Wal-Mart, sticking out from beneath the bottom shelf, impossible to miss, almost as if the WWE gods had plotted what would become a 15-year, one-sided union between my son Nolan and John Cena.
The way the box was positioned, the only thing Nolan and his older brother Eli could see was a shirtless guy with massive muscles wearing light blue jorts. They yanked the box out, held it up and looks of disbelief spread across their faces.
Those faces were what I can only imagine Mattel execs had in mind when they crafted this $49.99 piece of childhood heaven.
The playset came with a WWE wrestling ring, a Big Show figure wearing a black singlet and black boots and that Cena figure. On the outside of the box was an image of Cena holding the Big Show over his head, ready to slam the 7-foot giant down flat.
The begging quickly began as we stood in that Wal-Mart aisle in 2010 and, admittedly, it didn’t take much.
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Nolan was 3 at the time and had lost his father to suicide months before. I was in one of those emotionally excruciating spots where I had no idea how to make it better. All I wanted to do was shield him from any pain then, any future pain, any doubts that kids have as they get older when they wonder why a father would leave them by choice.
Eli and Nolan walked out of Wal-Mart that day with the playset and a couple oversized blue raspberry lollipops. They spent hour upon hour playing WWE entrance music for the characters, turning off the lights and shining a spotlight on center ring.
Every move those figures made were because of their little hands. Cena won every single time.
As the days passed, Eli, a lover of all things sports played with a ball, lost interest. He’d had enough of making plastic, miniature-sized grown men move at will for fake victories.
But Nolan could not get enough. He had latched onto this handsome, strong, WWE figure named Cena. And all of us around him helped fuel the obsession, which meant going everywhere, seeing everything and buying anything that had any Cena connection.
“From there on, I began watching him on YouTube and learned to love him,” said Nolan. “He would always preach about standing for hustle, loyalty and respect. He was such a good guy who also was so great at what he did.”
With the help of his grandparents and countless more trips to Wal-Mart’s WWE aisle, Nolan amassed more than 400 WWE figures and nearly 30 rings. He has been to virtually every WWE event there is to attend, sometimes more than once — WrestleMania, Smackdown, Summer Slam, Raw, Fast Lane, Hell in a Cell.
And now, this weekend, he is getting ready to attend the one WWE event that will, arguably, mean the most to him.
Nolan, 17, will be inside Lucas Oil Stadium Saturday night for the Royal Rumble, and it will be emotional for him. Cena — the guy who, without ever knowing it, got Nolan through a lot of tough times — is on his retirement tour. This will be Cena’s final Royal Rumble.
The 16-time WWE Champion and one of the biggest stars of the franchise’s history announced his time wrestling in WWE was nearing its end in July. It came during a surprise appearance in Toronto during Money in the Bank as the crowd erupted as Cena’s signature, “The Time Is Now” theme song began to blare.
Cena held up his signature towel that read, “The last time is now,” foreshadowing his announcement.
This weekend in Indy is one of Cena’s final stops. It may be the last time Nolan gets to see him wrestle live. Cena has hinted that WrestleMania in April will be the last time he steps into a ring to fight.
There was no way Nolan would miss the chance to see the man who became an inspiring, strong, role model to him when he needed it most. He spent $400 of the savings he had from making pizzas at Papa Murphy’s to secure a ticket as soon as they went on sale.
“When I lost my dad at a young age, he was like a father figure to me. I wanted to be like him in every way possible,” Nolan wrote in a tribute to Cena last week. “There will never be another John Cena.”
In the WWE ring, life could be anything Nolan wanted it to be
Neither Nolan nor I have any illusion that our story with Cena is special. There have been millions of kids and adults who have made deep connections with him, become obsessed with him, traveled the country to see him.
This weekend in Indy, Cena will be there for his 700th Make-A-Wish Foundation grant. Through the years, his loyalty and care for children who have serious illnesses has been unmatched, shining a light in their darkest times.
There is something about Cena, the wholesome face of WWE who entered the ring at just the right time in professional wrestling history that catapulted him to mega stardom.
After the WWE’s popular Attitude Era, Cena came on the scene and kickstarted what would be the Ruthless Aggression Era. He continued wrestling as the PG Era launched.
“He was in one of his primes, and he was the face of the business. He was carrying them through a rough patch known as the PG Era where wrestling was dull to many,” said Nolan. “To me, he reinvented the concept of pro wrestling and put the company on his back.”
PG stood for “parental guidance.” “And who’s the most PG guy you can think of?” Nolan said. “John Cena appeals to the kids, parents, everyone.”
To be honest, before a 3-year-old Nolan introduced me to Cena back in 2010, I scoffed at the WWE. I thought it was a cheesy “sport” reserved for guys who drank beer and grunted as they lived vicariously through these oversized, often outrageously dressed warriors of the ring.
I soon learned WWE was a magical product. Inside the ring, the everyday worries and fears in life dissipated. Life could be anything Nolan wanted it to be. His favorite wrestler could win every time if he wanted him to.
And most of the time, that was Cena.
Nolan has entered every contest, watched for any chance he might meet Cena. Both of us knew that would never happen. Cena is a worldwide superstar who only grew bigger as he began acting and doing commercials and showing up to host national morning news shows.
So, throughout the last 15 years, Nolan has found other ways to feel connected to Cena. And that meant going overboard on everything WWE.
Cena: ‘Such a dedicated superstar’ to fans
When he was in elementary school and went to Great Clips for a haircut, Nolan would have me show the hairdresser a photo of Cena so he could get the same cut. When he found out Cena was born in West Newbury, Mass., just 53 miles from Foxborough where the New England Patriots play, he became a diehard Patriots fan.
When I covered the AFC Championship between the Colts and the Patriots at Gillette Stadium in 2015, the infamous Deflategate scandal, I came back with Colts souvenirs for two of my boys and Patriots gear for Nolan.
Even in Colts country where every classmate around him hated New England, Nolan wore his Tom Brady jersey proudly and told anyone who would listen he was a Patriots fan because of Cena.
When his fifth-grade school year hit, the WWE gods conspired for Nolan again.
It was tradition for me to take my three sons on a trip of their choosing during spring break of their fifth-grade year as they were set to graduate elementary. My oldest, Davis, went to Boston to see a Celtics game. My middle son, Eli, went to Orlando to see the Magic and former IU star Victor Oladipo.
When it came time for Nolan’s trip, it just so happened that WrestleMania was taking place in New Orleans during his spring break, one day before Nolan’s 11th birthday, and Cena would be there. We piled into a huge SUV and headed to the wrestling land Nolan had always dreamed of.
He spent a day on Bourbon Street wearing a lime green Cena shirt with matching wristbands. He went to all the meet-and-greets he could, just to come face to face with a wrestler who might have touched the arm of Cena.
As Cena’s theme song blared inside the Superdome in 2018, Nolan wore a red faux leather Shinsuke Nakamura jacket, who had won the Royal Rumble earlier that year. But beneath that jacket was a Cena T-shirt.
Among the many escapades Nolan has gone on through the years in search of all things WWE, really all things Cena, he has gone to Kentucky, Chicago, Nashville, Detroit and New Orleans.
He met Jeff Hardy after buying tickets for his music concert in Indy. He went on assignment with me for a former Colts player working in Davenport, Iowa, the hometown of Seth Rollins, just hoping to catch a glimpse of him somewhere.
For Nolan, Saturday will mark the end of an era. The end of a very personal era, watching his larger-than-life hero take to the ring for one of his final matches. But this isn’t just huge for Nolan. It’s huge for all Cena fans.
“People don’t realize how big a deal it is that Cena has chosen this Rumble to start his retirement tour,” said Patrick Talty, president of Indiana Sports Corp and a former WWE exec, who, from 2012 to 2105, was in charge of the brand’s more than 400 live events each year. “He has been such a dedicated superstar for them. He is a special individual.”
Cena is special not just because he was a monstrous wrestling champion, but because he did it all humbly, smiling, with a force and a strength in the ring mixed with kindness outside of it.
I will forever hold dear that trip to Wal-Mart in 2010 when a little boy’s obsession began. Cena was a wonderful distraction when Nolan needed it most and a wonderful role model as he navigated life the next 15 years.
Nolan has made his predictions for the Royal Rumble, as he always does. Charlotte Flair for the women. And Cena for the men.
In reality, Cena doesn’t need to prove anything or win anything for Nolan to walk away from Lucas Oil smiling Saturday night. Seeing his hero one last time is enough for him.
Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X:@DanaBenbow. Reach her via email:[email protected]
