John Cena's retirement

Happy New Years to all my readers! I know it's been a while. I do apologize and I want to start writing again. I promise I'll try my best, so here we go. It's been quite a while since John Cena's final match. Truthfully I'm still in denial that it's finally over. As a friendly reminder, like all kids around my age John Cena was one of my favorite wrestlers growing up. Batista was my absolute favorite but John was definitely up there. I had stopped watching wrestling once the PG era started, but deep down and as I'd gotten older I've always had an affinity for wrestling. But when John announced his retirement. I decided to follow a little more closely, as shown by my previous articles both simply thanking Cena and my 2024 prediction as to how it would go down and what I'd like to see from his retirement tour.

So my initial reaction he finally did it. Not only did John accomplish the seemingly inaccessible (for him) Grand Slam status, but John became a 17 time WWE World Champion. At least I got that right with my prediction article. And of course, the extremely long overdue heel turn. So much did go right, honestly. I think so much did go right. So let's start with sending him on the high notes. If anyone deserved the "unseen 17", it was and will always be John Cena. I hope WWE doesn't let anyone touch that record for a very, very long time. For all he's done for over 2 decades, John Cena 1000% deserves to have an accolade that's 100% his. Taking it from Cody was great. It really came full circle of from when John helped Cody finish his story. Now it's Cody who will make Cena unseen 17, great long-term story telling. But don't worry, we'll come back to Cody. Then there's becoming a Grand Slam champion. It was honestly still shocking that it took SO long for John to be a part of that company. I understand he was launched to the moon when he became the face of WWE. But it's still weird to think it took so long. Truthfully I don't have any other reaction then, finally. Took long enough.

Speaking of taking long enough, that mythical heel turn. Yes I'm being semi sarcastic. Was the heel turn long overdue, absolutely. Did we all crave the heel turn, once again obviously. Where do I stand? I'm obviously in agreement that this heel turn overall was terrible. The whole Rock and Travis Scott involvement, obviously terrible. Cena's "motivation" or lack thereof. Now the good, I kind of liked the anti heel turn. It wasn't a complete 180 like most turns are. The black screen not appearing right away, John NOT changing his music nor his attire. Also the slow burn into becoming a heel, where we saw cracks in the usual John after the new year. Weirdly refreshing. Yes the official turn was a low-blow. Pretty common, but as mentioned there were hints which I appreciated. Then of course finally seeing face Randy vs heel Cena after so many times seeing the opposite for nearly 20 years. Also Punk, R-Truth, Cody they were all great opponents for John during his heel run. Lastly the slowly but surely turn back to face was great. Especially when we saw the cracks with R-Truth, the facial expressions alone from both Truth and Cena. It was great.

So, here's how I would have booked in instead. Let's start with motivation. I actually didn't mind John losing the Royal Rumble as a catalyst for his heel turn. I feel like a good build up of John losing again and again, getting more and more desperate to achieve 17. Desperate to separate himself and become the undisputed goat of WWE by any means necessary would have been just fine. I'm torn between this being out of ego or even out of fear of being forgotten or overlooked once he's gone from the WWE. Either way the obvious of taking the Rock and Travis out of the equation when they were dropped off almost immediately anyways. The decision to turn heel was his and his alone, for him and only him. Now that I think about it I want to take a page out of Mark Henry's book. He mentioned "what made me different was you weren't allowed to celebrate my victories with me. They were mine alone". For over 20 years John (the character) and for the most part the person was nothing but a company man. Finally he does something for himself and now he's the bad guy? playing into that would have been great. Now in terms of crowd work, he did honestly mention that the unfortunate truth about the WWE and wrestling culture as a whole. Once you're gone, the fans are on to their next new shiny toy. I would have loved to see that worked in to his heel work. He's being honest and it's truthfully something that the fans need to be better with. So many legends that were immediately disregarded once they were gone and were nearly never talked about ever again. Bringing that honesty to light would have been incredible to see. And as mentioned above that for 20 years, John has been incredibly loyal to everybody else but himself. But when he does it for himself, it's a bad thing?? Because he's not competing on the fans' terms now he's a villian? No, not to John. We are the heels for using an abusing superstars with no regard to them. And that way now the "none of you son's of bitches ever asked me how I felt" suddenly has way more impact. Now the rest of the heel turn and subsequent turn back to face was fine with me. There are a few opponents I would have loved to see as faces come back to fight heel Cena. Edge of course is one. Interestingly I would have loved to see JBL come back as just Bradshaw, trying to break through to John about the error of his ways. Bradshaw is the ultimate bad guy, not John. Cena was always the good John. For a multitude of reasons not only these superstars and many others we wish we could have seen during John's last run couldn't be there. So it is what it is.

So now we fast forward to the retirement match. Previously I had predicted Bron but now that Gunther is the new unofficial legend killer (WWE fans please don't rip me apart in the comments). I actually love that and John putting Gunther over on his way out, upholding tradition is perfectly fine with me. The only small change which I mentioned in a discord with some friends I was watching with, the tapping I did not agree with. I would have taken it one step further, which a lot of my buddies agreed with. John should have gone to sleep. The storytelling arc of "yes, John held true until the end. Never give up. John did not give up, unfortunately his body did though. This is no longer 2005 John, this is 2025 John". You hold true to the character, you still make Gunther look strong, you still shock the world, and you really cement for the fans that this is the end. Plus, having John go to sleep helps the slow burn for the fans in attendance and watching live to come to terms with John's goodbye. The rest of the match and his goodbye are exactly the same. But going to sleep verse tapping would have been perfect for me.

My final thoughts: what hurts the most is even leading up to the final match. John kept mentioning how the WWE fans will completely forget about him come WrestleMania 2026. It's weird how he kept bringing that up throughout the year, but I hate to admit how true it is. So many fans will move on so quickly. I know John is not going to turn his back on the WWE, he won't just up and leave. I know John will continue to be an ambassador for the WWE and keep up his work with the make-a-wish foundation. But at least at every PLE he can make it to, I want John to continue to be honored by the WWE so the fans don't forget John as easily as he thinks.

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