Tag: John Cena

John Cena believes WWE roster is going through ‘transformation’

Posted on by Joseph Currier

The current WWE landscape reminds John Cena of the “transformative” period the company went through in 2004-2005.

While speaking with The Takedown on SI, Cena said that — with so many new additions to the roster — he believes WWE is currently setting its foundation for the next 15-20 years. It reminds him of the time between WrestleMania 20 and WrestleMania 21, where Cena himself was elevated from United States Champion to World Champion.

“Gosh, we have called up a whole bunch of new superstars,” Cena said. “The program is going through a transformation I haven’t seen since WrestleMania 20, at Madison Square Garden, and then WrestleMania goes Hollywood a year later. I think we’re in a period of transition like that, pouring the foundations for the next 15-20 years for the WWE.”

Cena retired from the ring in December 2025 but still works for WWE as an ambassador. Spotlighting younger talent on his retirement show was important to Cena, with Oba Femi, Je’Von Evans, Sol Ruca, and TNA’s Leon Slater receiving spots on the card. Femi and Evans have now been called up from NXT to the main roster.

The 48-year-old Cena told The Takedown on SI that post-retirement life is treating him well, and he feels this was the right time to end his chapter as an active wrestler.

“I wouldn’t say the end of my career is sad. I want to allow everyone to feel how they want to feel, but personally, I feel great,” Cena said.

“As long as I’m in one piece, I have love and fulfillment in my life, it was time to close that chapter and I really thought the last year, we went out with a bang, there were a lot of mixed opinions, but from my perspective, retirement is treating me well, so far.”

John Cena’s final match sets WWE arena gate record to cap off lucrative retirement tour

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: WWE

New data from live event trade publication Pollstar revealed that John Cena’s final match did more than big business for WWE and was the exclamation point on a lucrative retirement tour.

Reported by Post Wrestling’s Brandon Thurston on Thursday, the December 13 edition of WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event from Washington, D.C.’s Capital One Arena generated $6,553,883 in ticket sales, far surpassing the previous clubhouse leader for non-stadium shows which was the January 2025 WWE Raw on Netflix premiere at Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome ($4,898,365).

17,121 tickets were sold for the December 13 show with an average ticket price of $383, a mark Thurston said was under just WrestleMania prices.

It’s unknown if there was any site fee involved or if Cena himself saw any additional financial compensation for the match being held in Washington, D.C. as opposed to a different locale. The show was put on in concert with Events DC, “the premier host of conventions, entertainment, sporting and cultural events in the nation’s capital.”

Cena famously lost to Gunther in his final match, controversially tapping out to end his run.

Thurston also reported full data on the 20 of 38 appearances Cena had during his 2025 retirement tour, noting those shows drew more than $80 million in ticket sales which doesn’t include Elimination Chamber, Clash in Paris, SummerSlam and Survivor Series of which sales data isn’t currently available for. He also observed the difficulties in separating Cena’s impact on those tallies vs. the WWE brand name itself.

John Cena reveals approaching AEW’s Claudio Castagnoli before Logan Paul match

Posted on by Shounak Chakrabarti

John Cena recently opened up about getting in touch with AEW’s Claudio Castagnoli before his match against Logan Paul at Clash in Paris.

Throughout his retirement tour, Cena paid tribute to several of his rivals by using their moves in the ring during matches. Ahead of Clash in Paris, Cena approached Castagnoli to borrow certain moves from his moveset because the veteran believed they would help Paul’s style. Speaking on the No-Contest Wrestling podcast, Cena reflected on the incident.

“With Logan [Paul], he doesn’t have that many matches to go on. A lot of stuff he was doing was viral moments. ‘I need something more than that.’ We never left the ring. I saw Logan, and I’m like, ‘You look and work like Cesaro.’ I called Claudio [Castagnoli], ‘Can I borrow some stuff, please?’ ‘Are you kidding me?’ He’s part of the coffee group. ‘No problem. I can’t be there. It would be an honor.’ I’m like, ‘Logan, watch this guy. These are things I think you can do,'” Cena said.

“I’m sending him modified clips of the super European (uppercut), the giant swing, all things I thought Cesaro did well that I think Logan can do well. ‘This might help you wih you style. Get more stuff.’ Take it from Five Moves of Doom, there is going to come a time where you need more stuff.”

While Cena and Castagnoli (then known as Cesaro) never had a major rivalry in WWE, they had a few matches against each other over the years. The two are good friends and also part of a close coffee group chat with Seth Rollins.

John Cena cast in comedy film ‘One Attempt Remaining’

Posted on by Ian Carey

John Cena has been cast in a new movie.

Deadline reported on Wednesday that Cena has been cast alongside SNL alum Kate McKinnon, Jennifer Garner, and Aimee Carrero in the upcoming comedy film “One Attempt Remaining,” directed by Kay Cannon.

It’s not clear which character Cena will be playing in the film, but the plot follows an ex-couple who learn they are the owners of millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency but don’t know the password needed to access their account.

Since his WWE in-ring retirement in December, Cena has made a cameo in the Apple TV+ series Pluribus, and What Drives You with John Cena returned for a new season in January on The Roku Channel. He also stars opposite Eric Andre in the upcoming Netflix film Little Brother, which is set for release in 2026. Coyote vs. Acme is scheduled to be released on August 28, 2026.

The full article from Deadline is available here.

John Cena: Brock Lesnar’s return changed WWE SummerSlam 2021 title plans

Posted on by Ian Carey

John Cena says he was originally planned to win his 17th World Championship at WWE SummerSlam 2021.

During an appearance on the No Contest Wrestling podcast, Cena said that plans for his match against Roman Reigns only changed after WWE reached a deal for Brock Lesnar to return to the company.

“That night was supposed to go very different.”

“In the last moment, we had a surprise guest booked and he came out after the match was over. They didn’t secure Brock until 5:00 PM that day.”

After Reigns defeated Cena on the show, Lesnar came out to confront Reigns. According to Cena, the original plan had him winning the title, but the match would later be restarted, with Reigns ultimately regaining the championship.

“I was going to win 17. We were going to have someone come out and restart the match and Roman was going to take it back.”

“The way we put together the match was we were going to give him a hell of a match, everything out the door, no rules, no nothing, like tons of finishers, all this stuff because I was going to win and then Roman was going to take it back.”

Cena’s appearance on The No Contest Wrestling podcast is available below. The video is cued to his comments about WWE SummerSlam 2021.

John Cena reveals original plans for WWE Crown Jewel 2025

Posted on by Ian Carey

John Cena spoke about some of the pivots his final year in wrestling went through creatively during a recent interview.

Cena told the No Contest Wrestling podcast that AJ Styles was not his original opponent for Crown Jewel 2025 in Australia. Cena says he was initially set to face Drew McIntyre at the event, but the decision was made to give the fans a feel-good moment instead.

“AJ was supposed to be Drew but it pivoted. We wanted to give them a feel-good moment because they were listening to the data points. They listen to you guys, they do. It’s real.”

Cena’s match against Styles on the show featured callbacks to many of both of their former opponents and rivals and was rated four and three-quarter stars by Dave Meltzer.

Cena continued to say there were times fans were happy with how the run was going, but not at others.

“You have the Brock moment, people are pissed off. Then you have the AJ moment, things are great. Then you have the three-appearance run with Dom, which is fun.“

Cena reiterated that the original plan had been for him to turn back babyface during his match with Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam rather than on the go-home show. He also said that the decision for his character to smile and tap out in the match against Gunther was his own.

“It was a brave choice to say be like, we’re killing the character off. What’s the craziest way we can do it?” Cena said.

Cena’s full appearance on the No Contest Wrestling podcast is available below. The video is cued to Cena’s comments about Crown Jewel 2025.

John Cena shares what William Regal told him after his final match

Posted on by Ian Carey

John Cena shared what William Regal told him backstage after his final match in a recent interview.

During an appearance on the No Contest Wrestling podcast, Cena spoke about his long-standing admiration for Regal and advice Regal gave him early in his career.

“I really idolized William Regal, that European, Fit Finley, that catch-as-catch-can style,” Cena said.

Cena recalled asking Regal for feedback on a dark match he had when he was first starting out with WWE and Regal’s response.

“I asked him, ‘Did you see my match?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘How was it?’ His feedback was, ‘Lad, if you get yourself a pair of boots, at least you’ll look like a proper wrestler.’”

At the time, Cena said he took Regal’s comments at face value, feeling that he only needed to purchase wrestling boots.

“I was like, ‘Yo, I just got to get boots!’ Invest in yourself is what I took away from it.”

“In the callback of all callbacks, the night I retired, he literally came up to me and said, ‘Even without boots, you’re still a proper wrestler.’”

“The day was real busy, but all he needed was one sentence. You never know what the effect something like one sentence can have. That was like a 25 year callback.”

Cena’s comments come a little over two months into his retirement, following his submission loss to Gunther in his final match at the December 13, 2025, episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event. The second season of his Roku Channel series What Drives You with John Cena premiered on January 16, 2026, and consisted of four episodes. Cena is also set to appear in the comedy film Little Brother alongside Eric Andre, which is scheduled for release later this year.

Cena’s full appearance on The No Contest Wrestling podcast is available below. The video is cued to his comments about Regal.

Rusev on working with John Cena: ‘I love that man, he taught me so much’

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Getting to travel the world and work matches against John Cena helped Rusev become a much better wrestler.

On Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Rusev reflected on working with veterans like Cena, Mark Henry, and Big Show as he was starting out in WWE. Rusev and Cena were frequent TV opponents and even faced each other at WrestleMania 31, but most of their bouts took place at untelevised house shows.

“I love that man, he taught me so much,” Rusev said about Cena. “You know, people seen us probably wrestle like 10, 15 times on TV, but we wrestled probably 1500 times on live events. We traveled all over the world just to wrestle. And even in European tours, we used to do Red, then Blue, then Raw, then SmackDown, then maybe SmackDown, then again Raw. Like, we would just jump everywhere to do this match.

“And just learning from him, just listening, paying attention to what he does, why he does it, keeping my ears open, my mouth shut. And I’ve learned so much, man. If it wasn’t for him, but even him, of course, but even leading up to that with Mark Henry, with the Big Show, with all these veterans that I got to work with. Big Show would say, ‘Hey, I’ll see you in the ring.’ Like, that’s it? You’re just going to see me in the ring? Like, you’re 7-foot-2 and 500 pounds. But okay. I was so nervous. But all these veterans prepared me for that moment. And I’m very thankful for every single one of them.”

Rusev returned to WWE in 2025 but, despite hoping it would happen, did not have the opportunity to face Cena one more time before retirement. Cena is now an ambassador for WWE following the end of his in-ring career.

Van Vliet asked Rusev what the biggest lesson he learned from Cena was.

“Just timing, timing. Take my time,” he responded. “There’s no such thing as a TV match and a live event match. Like, there’s no such thing as a bad crowd. If they’re not reacting, it’s because you’re not giving them what they want to see. Him listening, ‘Okay, is it high pitch? Is it low pitch? Who’s out there tonight? What’s the vibe?’ He’s always there watching and learning the crowd as much as everything else…

“[You’ve] got to take your time and listen to the crowd. I think that’s the most important thing. Just listen to the crowd. They’ll tell you what to do.”

Oba Femi reveals WWE advice he received from John Cena

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Before John Cena retired from WWE, he shared some advice with Oba Femi that the former NXT Champion hopes to use in his main roster career.

Femi was featured on the same show where Cena had his retirement match in December 2025. It was Cena’s idea to spotlight some of WWE’s brightest young stars on that Saturday Night’s Main Event card. He also made a couple of visits to the Performance Center prior to retirement and had conversations with the talent in NXT.

On No Contest Wrestling, Femi said Cena was already familiar with his work when they met. Cena had good things to say about Femi and also gave him some constructive criticism. The one thing that stood out was that Femi should make sure he is interacting with the crowd and getting the fans to focus on him.

“He’s very big on ‘look at me’ moments,” Femi said. “I don’t know if you’ve heard the story with he and at the time Cesaro, where he told Cesaro to go get the [beach] ball that was being thrown around in the audience and pop the ball. But he’s very big on crowd interaction and ‘look at me’ moments.

“So he was telling me, he told me that he understands that NXT is a very fast-paced style of wrestling because that’s what Shawn [Michaels] wants. But at the same time, he encouraged me to, when the opponent is down, I should always take my time to interact with the crowd and do something that will be memorable to them so they can always remember me. So that’s one of the things that John said to me that stuck. That was a pretty big one, amongst many other things, but that was the big takeaway.”

Femi was hoping to have a match against Cena, but it wasn’t meant to be. He praised Cena for being very humble and still being one of the boys despite his Hollywood stardom.

“It’s very symbolic that John’s end is my beginning, and that fact I kind of enjoy,” Femi said.

“I really wanted to work with John. I was really hoping and praying that like, ‘Don’t go, don’t go too fast.’ But he did. He did. I was really hoping to work with him, especially when a lot of people were putting fire under the idea of me being the one to retire him and stuff like that. So I was really hoping that would happen, but it didn’t.”

Femi, a two-time NXT Champion, is now on the main roster and competed in the 2026 men’s Royal Rumble match. He has not officially been assigned to a brand yet.

Bruce Prichard compares WWE handling of John Cena, Roman Reigns backlash

Posted on by Ian Carey

Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson discussed times when WWE has pushed back against fan reactions on the latest episode of Something to Wrestle With.

Speaking about the 2006 Royal Rumble, Prichard said that despite backlash toward John Cena as top babyface growing, WWE viewed the situation differently based on the money he was drawing.

Prichard said:

“You had to ignore it because that was not someplace Vince was willing to go. When you look at John Cena, whether the loud male boos were drowning out everything else, the families, the merchandise sales, the kids, and the money were saying otherwise.”

Asked if the situation for Roman Reigns during the period he was pushed as the top babyface was similar, Prichard responded:

“Those are the two examples I always use. You can go back to when we first started doing this and we were looking at the product then. I told you from day one, never wavered, Roman Reigns is the biggest star they have and will be the biggest star.”

Prichard continued:

“The same thing with Cena. He was a star. The audience felt one way because they felt he was being shoved down their throat. As soon as we stopped shoving Cena down their throat, then it was, ‘Oh my God, you’re not listening to the people.’ It’s funny, but yeah, those are the two.”

Prichard also mentioned Randy Orton as someone who could also fit into the category with Cena and Reigns.

Last month in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that WWE’s reasoning for not wanting to turn Cody Rhodes heel is similar to why the company resisted turning Cena during the height of fan backlash, writing:

“Regarding any rumors of a Rhodes heel turn, we were told it’s not happening now, won’t until it’s deemed it has to and the feeling is that’s no time soon and we were told his merchandise numbers are nothing to be tinkered with.”

The full episode of Something to Wrestle With is available below. The video is cued to Prichard’s comments about Cena and Reigns.

John Cena thanks Big E for ‘the moments and memories’

Posted on by Josh Nason

With Big E all but confirming that his in-ring career has officially come to an end, the recently retired John Cena made his thoughts on the former WWE Champion known on social media.

Cena took to X on Saturday to recognize Big E, quote tweeting Big E’s Friday X post with “Thank you (Big E) for the moments and the memories. #Respect.”

The two shared the ring 13 times in their careers, solely on Raw or house shows. They had one singles match on an October 2015 Raw where Cena successfully defended his then-United States title against him.

The 39-year-old thanked fans on Friday, acknowledging a slew of injuries he sustained in his years of sports that included two torn ACLs, a torn pectoral muscle and a broken right patella that were sustained before he started wrestling. He acknowledged that he doesn’t battle pain on a daily basis, feels great and is “eternally grateful” for his in-ring career.

During Super Bowl media week, Big E answered a question about his in-ring future where he replied that as of now, he is retired and focused on other things which includes a new YouTube show about the NFL Draft.

He suffered a broken neck after a Ridge Holland suplex during a SmackDown match in March 2022. He hasn’t wrestled since then, but has appeared on both WWE PLE pre-shows and post-shows frequently.

John Cena WWE Hall of Fame induction update

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: WWE

With just over two months to go before WrestleMania 42 weekend, it appears John Cena will not be part of this year’s WWE Hall of Fame Class.

On Thursday’s Wrestlevotes Radio on Fightful Select, they stated as such and that Stephanie McMahon is expected to be this year’s headliner with another Immortal Moment expected as well. As of now, McMahon has been the only announced inductee.

Cena wrapped up his final year as an in-ring competitor last December in a losing effort to Gunther on Saturday Night’s Main Event, adding to speculation that perhaps Cena would be inducted this year. Next year’s WrestleMania will head to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the first time ever which might be the landing spot for his eventual induction.

As was the case last year, WWE WrestleMania 42 will emanate from Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on Saturday, April 18 and Sunday, April 19. The details for the Hall of Fame ceremony have yet to be announced.

John Cena thanks AJ Styles: ‘Phenomenal is an understatement’

Posted on by Bryan Rose

John Cena has nothing but praise for AJ Styles following his final match at the Royal Rumble.

Shortly after Styles lost to Gunther, Cena took to social media to thank Styles for his contributions to professional wrestling.

“Phenomenal is an understatement. Respect is earned and few are more worthy of universal industry wide respect than @AJStylesOrg. Thank you AJ for all you’ve done for wrestling. From anyone who’s seen you and those lucky enough to share canvas with you,” he wrote.

Styles lost to Gunther at the Royal Rumble on Saturday, passing out after being locked in a sleeper. It is somewhat similar to John Cena’s final match at Saturday Night’s Main Event last month where Cena tapped out to Gunther’s sleeper hold. That finish proved to be more controversial given Cena’s motto of never giving up.

Cena and Styles feuded with one another shortly after the latter joined WWE, wrestling each other multiple times from 2016 through 2018. They faced off for the final time last October, with Cena picking up the win in a match filled with tributes to previous opponents from their past.

DragonKingKarl: January 2026 mailbag

Posted on by Karl Stern

Image: WWE

On this week’s DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, it’s the return of the monthly question and answer show.

Karl Stern has a huge mailbag full of questions dealing with a variety of pro wrestling history questions including topics and on the evolution from VHS to DVD to streaming and the problems with that, poor wrestling spots, John Cena’s retirement and place in wrestling history, the Jarretts, the WON Hall of Fame, greasy heels and more!

Click Here to Listen (sub needed)

Netflix renews ‘WWE: Unreal’ for season three, update on timeframe and focus

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Season two of “WWE: Unreal” arrived on Netflix today — and we already know when the show will be back with new episodes.

The final episode of the new season closed with the announcement that “Unreal” has been renewed for season three. It will debut in summer 2026, with John Cena’s retirement run set to be a heavy focus. An exact premiere date will be announced in the coming months.

Brock Lesnar returning and attacking Cena is the last thing we see in season two. A teaser then airs announcing that Cena’s final run will be showcased in season three.

“We had a pretty f***ing good year,” Cena says to Paul “Triple H” Levesque.

“Pretty awesome,” Levesque responds.

Among the other clips included in the teaser is Levesque telling the writers’ room that the most important thing for the December 13 Saturday Night’s Main Event episode — where Cena retired against Gunther — was making sure everything went perfect for Cena. There is also a clip of CM Punk and Cody Rhodes in the ring with Cena after his final match where Punk tells Cena that he loves him.

The “Unreal” docuseries is produced by WWE, Omaha Productions, NFL Films, and Skydance Sports. Seasons one and two each consisted of five episodes. Each episode is roughly 50-60 minutes.