Probably the most necessary wrestlers in WWE historical past will cling up his boots on Saturday when John Cena wrestles his ultimate match. Like a lot of his profession, Cena’s 2025 retirement tour has been filled with essential ups and downs, however the experience is about to come back to an finish when Cena faces Gunther on Saturday Evening’s Predominant Occasion.
The yr has seen Cena accomplish new profession achievements whereas additionally pinballing between roles as a babyface and heel. Some matches have did not ship, whereas others price among the many better of Cena’s storied profession.
Briefly, followers have gotten the total John Cena Expertise over the previous 12 months. Let’s have a look again.
A essential flop of a heel flip and a record-breaking title win
Trying to break his tie with Ric Aptitude for many world title reigns at 16, Cena entered the Royal Rumble in a bid to safe a world title match at WrestleMania 41. The Rumble got here right down to Cena and Jey Uso, and it felt as if a Cena win was inevitable just for Uso to get the win in a shocking second.
A disenchanted Cena mentioned that wrestling in the primary occasion of WrestleMania was “finest for enterprise” and that he’d earn that honor by coming into the Elimination Chamber. Cena doubled down on the state of affairs by saying that “23 years of loyal service to this firm” meant he didn’t have to qualify for a spot within the match, one thing the opposite 5 rivals would wish to undergo.
Cena would punch his ticket to WrestleMania contained in the Elimination Chamber. When the match was right down to Cena and CM Punk, the eradicated Seth Rollins stomped Punk’s head into the metallic grating surrounding the ring. Cena unheroically locked Punk in an STF to get the victory.
Cena’s determination to make the most of Rollins’ actions was not sufficient that night time, as Cena turned heel at The Rock’s urging, resulting in a brutal assault — joined by Travis Scott — on Rhodes.
The second of Cena’s heel flip did precisely what WWE supposed, going viral on social media and drawing widespread media consideration.
The issue is, WWE did not appear to have plans past that one nice second.
Cena went on to beat Rhodes in a 25-minute slog at WrestleMania to turn into undisputed WWE champion and set the brand new document for title wins. Cena’s win in the end got here because of interference from Scott, with The Rock by no means showing. Cena defined his actions as the results of being in an abusive relationship with the followers and eager to break wrestling for them by being the “final actual champion.”
The state of affairs by no means hit proper, as Cena was repeating the identical half-hearted messages about hating the followers whereas draped head-to-toe in merchandise promoting his retirement tour. In the meantime, The Rock and Scott had disappeared fully, utterly eradicating any remaining affect from the viral second of Cena’s heel flip.
In a latest interview, Cena advised that the choice for the flip wasn’t based mostly in far more than creating that single second.
“No, that stuff you see on [WWE] Unreal is actual,” Cena mentioned. “‘We have to make Chamber huge, so let’s do one thing that’ll shock all people. Hey man, we received this concept.’ ‘No drawback, I will do one of the best I can.'”
Outdated rivalries renewed and a flip again to the sunshine
As said, Cena’s heel run by no means actually clicked, however WWE leaned into historical past in an try and maintain issues attention-grabbing. That began with Cena defending his title in opposition to Randy Orton. Cena and Orton have a “storied rivalry” that’s based mostly extra in each holding such distinguished spots within the promotion than ever actually clicking in-ring.
The pair would have an honest match at Backlash, with Cena retaining the belt and transferring on to a quick program with R-Fact that kicked off when Fact confronted Cena on the Backlash press convention, main Cena to place him by way of a desk. Cena defeated Fact at Saturday Evening’s Predominant Occasion in Could earlier than shedding by disqualification of their June rematch on SmackDown.
The R-Fact story was a enjoyable diversion that leaned into years of comedic interplay and Fact’s long-held declare that Cena was his childhood hero. Within the midst of Cena’s floundering heel run, Fact introduced some enjoyable over two matches that mixed to final simply barely over 10 minutes.
One other traditional Cena rivalry was reignited for Evening of Champions, with Cena dealing with CM Punk. The construct to the match was one of the best Cena match into the heel character he was portraying. Cena and Punk had sufficient historical past to attract on the place Cena had actual grievances to play off of, together with doing his personal recreation of Punk’s well-known “pipebomb” promo from their 2011 program. That promo got here as Punk was WWE champion and deliberate to depart the corporate with the championship, and Cena was capable of flip that as they have been in fully reversed positions in 2025.
Cena and Punk would go on to have among the best matches of Cena’s retirement tour earlier than a parade of interference overwhelmed the story of the match itself. It was unlucky, as a result of Cena and Punk have all the time had sturdy in-ring chemistry and have been telling a advantageous story with out the involvement of Seth Rollins, Bron Breakker, Bronson Reed, Penta and Sami Zayn.
With Punk out of the best way, Cena was once more paired with Rhodes forward of SummerSlam.
On the ultimate pre-SummerSlam SmackDown, Cena got here face-to-face with Rhodes and … turned babyface. There was no actual sturdy motivator for the flip, Cena merely mentioned he’d misplaced his means and declared, “August 1, 2025, the day John Cena got here again to WWE.” With that, the Cena heel run was over and Cena was set to complete up his profession because the character he’d portrayed for practically his total profession.
Dropping the title and changing into a grand slam champion
Predictably, Rhodes would win the title at SummerSlam. He and Cena put collectively a greater match than their dangerous WrestleMania displaying, leaning on “avenue combat” guidelines to offer some further drama. Cena stayed true to his flip again to the sunshine in opposition to Rhodes, shaking the brand new champion’s hand earlier than the stunning and controversial return of Brock Lesnar. Lesnar ended SummerSlam by brutally attacking Cena.
Earlier than Cena and Lesnar may meet in a match, Cena was pulled into a brief program with Logan Paul.
Having gotten by way of probably the most dramatic a part of his farewell tour, Cena gave the impression to be having extra enjoyable within the ring and confirmed that by utilizing a number of strikes from exterior his regular repertoire in his Conflict in Paris win over the social media influencer-turned-wrestler.
Cena and Lesnar confronted off at Wrestlepalooza in a match that known as again to their SummerSlam 2014 match, the place Lesnar hit 16 German suplexes in a dominant victory. Lesnar once more dominated Cena, although the match was extensively seen as a disappointment, with even ESPN, whose streaming take care of WWE started with the occasion, grading it a C- (CBS Sports activities gave the match a C).
The true spotlight of Cena’s retirement tour got here in October at Crown Jewel. With no construct past a social media trade asking if they need to have a match, Cena met AJ Types in Australia.
A few of Cena’s finest matches had come in opposition to Types, and Crown Jewel was no completely different. The 2 went far exterior the construction of a typical WWE match, making numerous callbacks to moments all through their careers and utilizing strikes of a lot of their previous rivals. In construction, Types vs. Cena functioned extra like a match from the unbiased circuit within the 2010s than a 2025 WWE match.
After Types, Cena formally hit his ultimate stretch of appearances, however there was one ultimate profession achievement left.
In his ultimate look in a WWE ring in Boston, Cena was known as out by intercontinental champion Dominik Mysterio. This led to a direct title match that noticed Cena decide up the win, capturing the lone championship he had by no means held in WWE. With the intercontinental championship now on his resume, Cena joined the unique listing of WWE grand slam champions (those that have held a world championship, tag staff championship, intercontinental championship and United States championship).
Cena’s run as intercontinental champion was short-lived. After teaming with Sheamus and Rey Mysterio to defeat Judgment Day on his ultimate Uncooked, Cena confronted Dominik Mysterio in a rematch at Survivor Sequence.
A bunch of interference, capped off by the return of Liv Morgan, noticed Mysterio get the win and recapture the intercontinental title.
Now, all that continues to be for Cena is Saturday night time and his match with Gunther, the person who battled by way of a event to earn the honour of being Cena’s ultimate opponent.
Was John Cena’s retirement tour successful?
It is tough to reply whether or not Cena’s ultimate yr was really successful. The reserving was a letdown at many factors. The preliminary heel activate Rhodes was an enormous second, however there was no follow-through, and The Rock by no means returning made it really feel meaningless and left Cena to chop repetitive promos about how a lot he hated the followers, which merely did not make sense.
WWE overcorrected by having Cena randomly resolve that he was man as soon as once more, which was probably as a result of there was no method to have Lesnar return and assault Cena with out Cena being again in a babyface position.
Additionally, a lot of Cena’s matches early within the yr have been tough. The matches have been too lengthy, overbooked and he did not seem as if he ought to be going 25 minutes.
Nonetheless, as soon as Cena received his legs underneath him, he was capable of produce a little bit of magic with Punk, in addition to among the best matches of his profession in opposition to Types.
There have been missteps alongside the best way, however when issues labored, it was a reminder that Cena is among the finest to ever do it in WWE. In that means, no less than, Cena can take into account his ultimate yr successful.