John Cena made his WWE debut on the June 27, 2002 episode of WWE SmackDown, taking on Kurt Angle.

The match was the beginning of one of the greatest WWE careers of all time, but it wasn’t without a little backstage ribbing.

“In 2002, I went to Chicago as an extra talent–someone not to be used,” Cena said at a New York Q&A (via Undisputed). “I was then told I was going to have a match against an Olympic gold medalist. Randy Orton tied my boots together in a locker where I couldn’t even reach them, so I had to cut the laces and wrestle with half of my laces. I had to go off campus to get one of the worst haircuts that people watching on television had ever seen.”

He continued, “That was my welcome to the WWE, and it was better than I ever could have imagined. A moment that was supposed to be celebratory was also humbling. It was filled with tough love that belongs to our fraternity, and I was grateful to go through that.”

Orton would become one of Cena’s greatest rivals during his WWE career, which ended in December.

Cena is set to appear on Monday’s Raw and Tuesday’s NXT.