No matter the fun nor the excitement it is to watch a certain WWE superstar, all great things must come to an end. Earlier this year in July, during the Money in the Bank PLE live from Toronto, Canada, John Cena returned home to the WWE to announce that he’ll officially retire from professional wrestling at the end of 2025. This announcement brought shockwaves to the entire world of professional wrestling as it’ll see the “franchise player” turn in his jean shorts and sneakers for good. A retirement tour is now in the works for the 16-time WWE Champion and it starts in January 2025 as WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night Raw, enters its new home at Netflix.
Cena is calling it quits after an amazing 20 plus year career with the company, which fans saw coming with his part time scheduling, losing match after match when he was wrestling, him pushing the age of 50, and he’s a bonafide star in Hollywood now. Fast & Furious 9 and 10, Jackpot, Vacation Friends, Argyle, Peacemaker and many other great projects Cena has done are keeping him away from the ring. Fans just have to understand the time is up for the man who was a hated superstar but now a beloved legend.
When talking about the greatest of all time in WWE’s history, Cena’s name has to be in that conversation. He was the personification of a true leader, champion, brought excellence to the WWE locker room and sports entertained the audience for decades. Whether booed or cheered, when Cena’s music hit, people were and still are on their feet giving a true and genuine reaction to him. Cena first came into the WWE scene around 2003 as Kurt Angle was calling any superstar in the back out for a match. No one would have ever thought that a guy from West Newbury, Massachusetts will be the one to answer the call. In the words of Cena himself, “Ruthless Aggression,” as he takes a shot at the legend leading into their match. Even in defeat, Cena showed that he can hang with the absolute best and got the nod from Angle and then WWE Champion, The Undertaker. The change of the guard at this particular time was needed.
As WWE was moving away from the Attitude Era, Stone Cold nearing retirement and The Rock heading to Hollywood, something needed to change for the company. Vince McMahon took a chance on 5 incredible athletes that were in OVW (Ohio Valley Wrestling) at the time to develop their own craft and when it was time to show the world the next generation of stars, they all didn’t disappoint. Probably the greatest class of all time, filled with Hall of Famers. Randy Orton, Shelton Benjamin, Brock Lesnar, Batista and of course, John Cena.
From being the prototype character that was just happy to have a contract with the company, to the Doctor of Thuganomics that rapped his way into stardom and to Super Cena that could seemingly never lose a match no matter the obstacles that were in front of him, John Cena had a hell of a run. Similarly to Roman Reigns, as Cena was getting that push to be the guy of the company, the fans rejected him as well. It’s up for debate which superstar had the worse crowd boos and negative reactions, but nonetheless, Cena continued to work his tail off, put on great matches and rivalries with Edge, JBL, AJ Styles, Chris Jericho, Bray Wyatt, and countless others. As much as most fans don’t want to see or just can’t see Cena retiring from the ring, the time is now to appreciate every bit of this tour and witness the aura of arguably the greatest to ever do it.
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