Tag: john cena sr.

John Cena Sr. praises Gunther, Dominik Mysterio after son’s final WWE matches

Posted on by Joseph Currier

John Cena Sr. has a “tremendous amount of respect” for Gunther and believes The Ring General did a great job in his son’s retirement match.

Ahead of the December 13 Saturday Night’s Main Event special, Cena Sr. made headlines by expressing that he did not want Gunther to be his son’s final opponent. He ideally would have liked to see someone like Kurt Angle, Adam Copeland, Chris Jericho, or JBL in that spot, but Cena Sr. ended up loving the match his son and Gunther had.

“That match was excellent,” the elder Cena told Undisputed. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for Gunther. He and John wrestled a great match together. They had people on the edge of their seats that entire match.”

The finish saw Cena submit while Gunther had him locked in a sleeper. With Cena flashing a smile across his face, the moment was supposed to feel like him going out peacefully as he ended his time in the ring. Cena Sr. reacted to the controversial finish and told Undisputed he would have liked to have seen a different ending. He does not necessarily think his son had to lose the match.

“I’m not one of those guys who thinks you have to go down when you go out,” Cena Sr. said. “When you look at the faces of people at the end of that match, with grown men and women in tears, I think we could have achieved the same result with a different finish.”

Before the Gunther match, Cena worked a series of bouts against Dominik Mysterio that saw them trade the Intercontinental Championship back and forth. Cena Sr. told Undisputed that he’s a big believer in Dominik’s potential.

“Dom is spectacular,” Cena Sr. said. “People like him hold a lot of promise for the future of pro wrestling.”

Cena Sr. noted that his son is a man of his word, so he knows this is truly it and Cena will never wrestle again. Cena will still remain part of WWE, though, with him signing a five-year ambassador contract with the company.

John Cena Sr. reacts to son’s loss at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event

Posted on by Ian Carey

John Cena Sr. says he thinks things could have been handled differently at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event.

The father of John Cena spoke with Bill Apter following his son tapping out to Gunther in his last ever match.

Cena Sr. said during the interview:

“Bill, the only thing I can say is I saw a lot of people cry. Do I believe that’s the way it should have ended? I might have done it differently. I think it might have been better for everyone had it ended differently.“

“But you and I have been in the business for a while, and I guess the unwritten rule is when you’re going out, you’re going down. So I guess the only thing I can say is they did what they had to do, what’s best for business.”

Cena Sr. continued to say that he didn’t expect his son to tap out during the match, believing him passing out from Gunther’s hold was more likely. Apter added that he felt this was the likely finish as well.

“Did I expect a tap out? I’ll be real honest with you, Bill. I would have expected a pass out, with Gunther still being the winner.”

Cena Sr. later added:

“It’s kind of sad to see a lot of people cry. In the business, and I don’t know how you feel, but in the business, I would think you’d want to send him home happy.”

Apter then compared Cena’s loss to Gunther at Saturday Night’s Main Event to Bruno Sammartino losing the championship to Ivan Koloff in Madison Square Garden back in 1971.

Apter said, “It brought me back to way, way, way back when Bruno Sammartino lost his title to Ivan Koloff in front of 22,000 people at Madison Square Garden, and there was barely a dry eye in the house. I haven’t seen that until tonight. Your son was so beloved.”

Cena Sr.’s interview with Bill Apter is available below:

John Cena Sr. recalls encouraging Mercedes Mone on indies

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Before she made it to national television, John Cena Sr. saw big potential in Mercedes Mone.

The father of John Cena appeared on the Best For Business podcast and discussed his own experiences as a manager, authority figure, and promoter on the New England indies. Cena Sr. named Kofi Kingston, Ivar of the War Raiders, Tommaso Ciampa, and Fred Rosser as some of the people he worked with who were destined to succeed. Mone — then known as Mercedes KV — was also someone that he believed in. He recalled encouraging Mone not to give up on wrestling.

“I’ll give you another one that was one that I picked: Sasha Banks,” Cena Sr. said. “Where she is now? We can have a different story about that. Where she is now and where she was — I remember doing a show with her for Chris Setaro and Powerhouse Wrestling. And her mom was there and she said, ‘You know, I don’t know, maybe, I don’t know, I think I might give it up.’

“I said, ‘No! Don’t. You don’t realize what you have.’ She had so much ability, but, you know, it’s awful hard on the indies. It’s not an easy fight out there. And it’s very easy to get depressed. It’s very easy to be defeated. I used to tell everybody, and I still do, ‘Don’t do that. Only one person’s going to defeat you in this business — it’s you. Stay with it. You know what? You may never ever make the WWF or WWE or AEW or TNA, but you’re part of a profession on the other side that’s just as good and just as great.’ And that’s what they need to hear.”

Only a few years into her career, Mone was signed to NXT. She became a star in WWE as Sasha Banks and is now a champion for AEW.

Cena Sr. has been making some media appearances recently ahead of his son’s final match. John Cena will wrestle for the final time this weekend when he battles Gunther at Saturday Night’s Main Event.

John Cena Sr. doesn’t think Gunther should be son’s final WWE opponent

Posted on by Joseph Currier

John Cena Sr. isn’t a fan of Gunther potentially being his son’s final WWE opponent.

For months now, Gunther has been considered the most likely option to face John Cena in his final match. That could become official on SmackDown this Friday when Gunther takes on LA Knight in the Last Time is Now tournament finals. The winner advances to face Cena in his retirement match at Saturday Night’s Main Event in Washington, D.C. on December 13.

Cena Sr. recently appeared on the All Axxess Podcast and addressed who he thinks his son’s final opponent should be. He isn’t a fan of the Gunther idea, with Cena Sr. saying his ideal choice would be Kurt Angle if Angle were still physically able to compete. His other choices would be Adam Copeland, Edge, or JBL.

“Well, it certainly wouldn’t be Gunther, that’s for sure,” Cena Sr. said. “I don’t think that that’s a wise move. I don’t think the fans would enjoy that move. Myself personally, Gunther does not need the rub. By the way, I’m not a fan of [the idea that] on the way out, you’ve got to push somebody over the top, you’re supposed to pass quote-unquote ‘the torch.’ I don’t know where that’s written anywhere in professional wrestling. If we have to use that as an analogy, then he’s already done that with Cody Rhodes. He beat him for the title, he gave the title back, they embraced as you saw, Cody was teary eyed, the torch was passed.

“So my thought is — is there anybody that needs the rub? I think he’s given the rub along the way, especially with Dominik Mysterio… Who else do I think he should face? I really wish that Kurt Angle was able to get back in the ring, because that would be an outstanding last match for Cena and Angle. And I say this all the time, I really truly believe that [Baron] Corbin should not have been Angle’s opponent for his retirement match — it should have been Cena.

“Who would I like to see John face? Obviously I just kind of emphasized that. I would say Kurt Angle number one. I would say Adam Copeland number two. I would say Chris Jericho number three. And a wildcard on my part, I’d love to see John Cena face JBL. Those would be my four choices.”

Neither Copeland nor Jericho could actually compete for WWE at the moment due to both being with AEW. There are rumors that Jericho could return to WWE soon, but his AEW contract is not up until the end of 2025.

While some fans would like to see Cena wrestle an emerging WWE star like Bron Breakker, Cena Sr. said young prospects like that are already being built up and have big things coming their way. He doesn’t think they need the rub of being Cena’s last opponent.

Cena won the Intercontinental Championship from Dominik on Raw last month but dropped the title back to Dominik at Survivor Series this past weekend. Now that Survivor Series is over, the December 13 Saturday Night’s Main Event is the only date remaining on Cena’s retirement tour. The show is taking place at Capital One Arena and will stream live on Peacock.

John Cena Sr. praises son’s WWE Crown Jewel match against AJ Styles

Posted on by Joseph Currier

John Cena Sr. was a huge fan of the match his son had against AJ Styles at Crown Jewel: Perth.

While speaking with Sportskeeda WrestleBinge, Cena Sr. heaped praise on the October 11 bout, calling it something that all up-and-coming wrestlers should watch. He did not think much of the build WWE had for Cena vs. Styles, but that did not have any affect on the match quality.

“It wasn’t much,” Cena Sr. said about the build. “It was a very poor buildup to what I consider to be a phenomenal match. Forget about [it being] John Cena Jr. That was an outstanding match. And any of the young people coming up ought to take a good look at that match, because that’s the way it ought to be in pro wrestling. That was phenomenal.”

The build to Cena vs. Styles was done on social media with Cena calling for WWE to give the fans what they want. Cena’s WWE schedule did not have any appearances between Wrestlepalooza and Crown Jewel, which is why the build happened that way.

Cena Sr. told Sportskeeda WrestleBinge that his son and Styles showed a high level of ring psychology in how they performed. Renewing the Cena-Styles rivalry one last time, the match went nearly 30 minutes with Cena getting the victory.

“The one that they learned, and that young people need to learn in this business, is ring psychology,” Cena Sr. said. “They read their crowd and they performed to what the crowd wanted. You notice, they didn’t stop — they listened. And when they did, they just went ‘bang, bang, bang.’ They worked so well together. So well together. And I think that’s so important in this business.”

After the bell rang, Cena Sr. sent his son a text telling him how much he loved it. The younger Cena replied that he was breathing hard following the match but had a lot of fun.

“I said, ‘John, it was phenomenal.’ He said, ‘I’m glad you enjoyed it, dad. It was a lot of fun.'”

Both Cena and Styles are nearing the end of their in-ring careers. Cena’s last match will take place at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13 against a yet-to-be-announced opponent, with Gunther believed to be the most likely option. Styles will have his last match at some point in 2026 but has not set an exact date.

Cena Sr. said it’s sad that the industry is losing two great competitors, but he believes both are making the right choice by making room for younger talent to take the spotlight and stepping away before their bodies break down.

John Cena Sr. says he’s disappointed with handling of son’s WWE heel turn

Posted on by Ian Carey

John Cena Sr. says there are some aspects of his son’s WWE retirement tour that have disappointed him.

The father of the 17-time World Champion appeared as a guest on UnSKripted with Dr. Chris Featherstone recently. Cena Sr. spoke about the handling of Cena’s heel turn and his match against Brock Lesnar at WWE Wrestlepalooza.

Cena Sr. called his son’s match against Lesnar a “squash” and said the images of crying children shown during the event were “not how you want business to go.”

“That was a squash match,” Cena Sr. said.

“A smart thing would have been at some point maybe we had an outside interference. Maybe we had a – I don’t like countouts – but the outside interference setting up the next match with Cena, whomever that might have been.“

“When I saw those kids crying, that is not the way you want to have business go,” he added.

Earlier in the interview, Cena Sr. discussed his son’s heel turn, saying the start of the angle was great but was hurt when The Rock and Travis Scott seemingly disappeared after.

“Turning John Cena heel was a great idea. The shock factor was great. But I think the storyline was destroyed. And that was a very poor move in my opinion because it was a big gamble for everyone that was involved. And to see how it started and then to see the characters who were involved no longer be present, well, the heel turn almost became non-essential.“

“That was something I really wasn’t too hyped up on,” he added.

However, Cena Sr. said there have been several positive aspects of Cena’s WWE retirement tour. He noted that turning him back babyface just before SummerSlam was done well.

“I think the positive aspects of this is the face turn. I think that was a real positive move. I think they did it at the right time. I just think that what he’s done and what he’s doing and the legacy he will leave behind is really positive because if you listen to what he has to say, it’s not about John Cena. Part of it is he’s thanking the fans and he said it’s my turn to leave so some of the great young talent in the back can come forward.”

Other than the negatives he mentioned, Cena Sr. feels his son’s WWE retirement tour has gone well.

“I think it’s been a good tour. I think it’s been well done except for those instances that I mentioned.”

Cena Sr’s full appearance on the show is available below.

John Cena Sr. on son’s retirement: ‘I get a tear in my eye thinking it’s coming to an end’

Posted on by Joseph Currier

John Cena Sr. is sad to see his son’s wrestling career winding down, but he’s excited for what’s to come in these next several months.

“I get a tear in my eye thinking it’s coming to an end,” the elder Cena said in an interview with Undisputed. “I don’t think people really believe it, but I know my son. If he says this is the end, then this is it. We’re only a few months away from the last time we see John in jorts in a wrestling ring. So enjoy what you’re seeing: you’ll never see him in a wrestling ring again.”

Cena’s retirement tour began this January and will finish up in December. On the road to WrestleMania 41, there was a surprising twist with him turning heel on Cody Rhodes and aligning with The Rock. Cena Sr. told Undisputed that, while even he was surprised by the turn, it’s a move that he approves of.

“It was very, very well done,” Cena Sr. said. “I’m a big fan of Cody Rhodes, and I think everyone knows how I feel about John. I can’t wait for their match at WrestleMania.”

Cena Sr. is a lifelong wrestling fan and has been a manager on the New England indies. In his interview with Undisputed, he expressed how proud he is of everything his son has done in the ring and outside of it.

“John’s done so much to give back,” Cena Sr. said. “There is Make-A-Wish and there is a lot more no one knows about it. I’m very proud of what he’s accomplished and how he’s accomplished it.”

The build to WrestleMania 41 will continue when Cena and Rhodes both appear on Raw in Glasgow, Scotland next Monday. Their Undisputed WWE Championship match at WrestleMania is now just one month away.