John Cena Says His ‘You Can’t See Me’ Gesture Was Inspired By G-Unit’s Tony Yayo

Actor and former WWE wrestler John Cena says his famous “You can’t see me” line and gesture came from G-Unit’s Tony Yayo. 

Wrestling fans will love this origin story of Cena’s famous “You can’t see me” line. Cena, 44, visited The Tonight Show, Starring Jimmy Fallon, to promote his new HBO Max series Peacemaker. While there, he ended up giving up the insight into how he came up with the iconic line and gesture, which he says started as a dare between him and his little brother. 

“The reason I did this is cause while we were making the album to which my theme music is on, my younger brother, Sean, was always our litmus test,” said Cena. “He kinda liked the same music and he would never go to the studio with us and we’d come home with our tracks and play it for him and he was ruthless man. He would never be satisfied with any song.”

He continued: “He heard ‘My Time Is Now’ and just did this dance that Tony Yayo did in one of the G-Unit videos. It was like, he put his hand over his head and just kind of bobbed his head… and I was like, ‘Man, what are you doing? That looked just ridiculous.’ He said, ‘No, no, it’s Tony Yayo, he’s doing this thing.’”

Cena then said he would make the move the next time he was on T.V. Then, his brother challenged him with the dare. Cena ended up living up to his promise, and it ultimately became his signature gesture. Years later, it just overcame the meme culture and now, literally, I’m invisible,” Cena went on. “People are like, ‘Why is Jimmy Fallon talking to an empty chair?’ So many people are going to say that. So I’m invisible now. On a dare, by accident.”

In a tweet, Yayo applauded Cena’s story. “Shout out to John Cena,” the rapper wrote. 

Shout out to John Cena 💪🏿💪🏿 pic.twitter.com/dhfNgEi0bU

— Tony Yayo (@TonyYayo) January 12, 2022