The answer was suspected before the question was asked.

     “John Cena,” Jacob Parsons said in identifying his favorite professional wrestler.

     Parsons, an 11-year-old West Virginia boy who suffers from spinal astrocytoma, a malignant tumor inside his spinal cord, had been given a wrestling video game as a gift during his Catch-A-Dream wish fulfillment to Georgia-Pacific’s Monticello mill in January. A longtime wrestling fan myself, Jacob and I had found some common ground to talk about during the interview for my story on his outdoor adventure.

     Jacob came to mind the other day when I was reading about Cena’s granting his 300th wish to a child as part of his support for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

     With the milestone, Cena is the most popular celebrity granter in the organization’s history. According to an Associated Press story, by comparison, basketball legend Michael Jordan has granted around 200 wishes and current Lakers star Kobe Bryant’s total is in the range of 100.

     Make-A-Wish and Catch-A-Dream are not connected. In fact, Catch-A-Dream was founded by Brookhaven’s late Bruce Brady to help seriously ill children whose wishes involved outdoors adventures, something the Make-A-Wish organization has avoided.

     Both organizations, though, need people who will help out and support them in their efforts to grant wishes to children facing great challenges because of their illnesses.

     Catch-A-Dream enjoys an outstanding partnership with the folks at the Georgia-Pacific mill, which annually hosts an outdoor adventure wish granting, and is fortunate to have other partners who help with other wishes elsewhere in the country. I’ve been to several lunches held in connection with the Monticello area excursions, and moist eyes and tears are commonplace during the outpouring of love and support the children and their families receive.

     At Make-A-Wish events, I’m sure those same emotions are felt along with the child’s excitement at getting to meet his or her hero. On 300 occasions, and probably several more by now, that hero has been Cena.

     Like Hulk Hogan, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin or The Rock before him, Cena has become the “face” of World Wrestling Entertainment. Cena wears his patriotism on his sleeve and his expressions alternate between a huge smile or a look of determination to overcome his bad guy opponent.

     Cena seems to be a polarizing character among adults, who either love him or hate him. Children, though, overwhelmingly fall in the former category.

     It’s understandable then that so many Make-A-Wish children would want to meet him as part of having their wish granted. Cena shows no signs of slowing down in that department.

     “We’re just getting started,” he said in the AP story on the milestone wish fulfillment.

     Let’s be cynical here for a moment and acknowledge that stories like Cena and Make-A-Wish provide good publicity for the WWE. Stories like Cena’s are a welcome alternative to the more frequent professional wrestling tales involving drug use, domestic violence and the like.

     Also, I think it’s written in the rules somewhere that any mention of professional wrestling has to include an accusation that it’s “fake.”

     The only rebuttal you’ll get from me is that I prefer the term “choreographed,” with story lines and plot twists mixed in with the in-ring action. Let’s face it, it’s a soap opera for the men folk – and some women.

       What is real, however, is the overwhelming joy, excitement and momentary distraction from their daily battles against their illnesses that Cena brings to the children he meets through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. And at 300 wishes and counting, that’s more impressive and important than anything Cena will ever do in the squared circle.

     That’s all for now.

     Write to Managing Editor Matthew Coleman at P.O. Box 551, Brookhaven MS 39602, or send e-mail to mcoleman@dailyleader.com.