John Cena has admitted that he wanted his final year in WWE to be a lot longer.
After initially announcing that 2025 would be his last year as an active competitor, the 17-time World Champion officially kicked off the farewell tour at the Raw on Netflix premiere in January 2025. Ahead of the retirement year, Cena let fans know that he had 36 pro wrestling appearances scheduled, which was a combination of promo segments and matches across Raw, SmackDown, and Premium Live Events.
With Cena now a successful actor, other commitments have meant that he was unable to commit to a full-time schedule. While speaking with Bill Simmons on The Ringer, Cena stated that contrary to what some may think, the 36 dates were not easy for him:
“‘Hey man, 36 dates must have been easy this year.’ I did too many jobs. I was in Budapest, flying to Indy, do Indy, fly back, land, go film. Doing that until post-WrestleMania. Back and forth to Morocco, Budapest, all these crazy places that weren’t easy commutes. You think you can do it, ‘I’ll sleep on the plane.’ You don’t. It doesn’t happen. Then, you get upside down and you’re super fatigued. I threaded the needle just enough.”
Continuing, Cena added that he intended to do 220 dates in 2025, but added that the company no longer does that many dates for any star:
“The plan, originally, was to do a full year. This goes to show my ignorance of the business. I wanted to do 220 dates. Just take the year off from everything, hop on a bus, do a full WWE calendar, and totally say goodbye. Thank goodness the business isn’t like that anymore. I’d be done. They only needed me for 36.”
Following the TKO acquisition of WWE, the company has significantly stripped back the number of house shows that take place as they were reportedly not profitable enough. The main roster now only does a handful of international tours each year, along with the holiday schedule between Christmas and new year.
John Cena To Compete In Final Match Of Retirement Year At Saturday Night’s Main Event
Following a year-long farewell tour that saw Cena make appearances all over the world, the Hollywood star is set to compete one final time at the Saturday Night’s Main Event special on December 13 in Washington D.C. A tournament has taken place over the last few weeks to determine who will receive the honour of facing Cena in his last match, with the final set to take place on the December 5 SmackDown, which will see LA Knight face Gunther.
H/ to Fightful for the use of transcription.
Featured image: WWE
