How WWE Should Book John Cena's Final Run

Sportskeeda Wrestling

Check out Sportskeeda's brand new game, BrainBuster! Can you become the undisputed quiz champion? Play now to find out - https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/brainbuster-wwe-player-guessing-game  With John Cena recently announcing that he will be retiring soon, the wrestling world is buzzing. Let's explore how WWE should plan the final chapter of Cena's illustrious career. As one of the most iconic superstars in WWE history, Cena's farewell tour needs to be nothing short of spectacular. We'll discuss potential dream matches, emotional rivalries, and legendary moments that could make his final run unforgettable.  You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe  #johncena #randyorton #cmpunk #therock #wwe #wrestling #sportskeedawrestling

Transcript

00:00Tonight, I officially announce my retirement from the WWE.

00:05Okay, brace yourselves, be emotional, but let's dig into it.

00:08It is unfortunately official.

00:10I just think it's time that we all face facts.

00:13John Cena is having his final run of his WWE career from 2024 into 2025.

00:22At Money in the Bank, he confirmed that his retirement tour begins in early 2025 and is

00:28set to span for most, if not all of the year.

00:32To summarize this, what he said is that at the show and the press conference, Cena said

00:38while WrestleMania 41 will be his final mania, it won't be where he ends his career.

00:45Cena also said that his jorts are going to be retired once he retires.

00:51I'm pretty sure he can wear jorts after that, but not the same way, and he's going to replace

00:55it with a suit and tie.

01:00He's open to going to a world championship at the number 17 record-breaking level.

01:06He appears to be entering the 2025 Royal Rumble match, and he's going to be having 30 to 40

01:14appearances on this final run, what is most of the year.

01:18It wasn't surprising that Cena was met with an outpouring of love and emotional support

01:24from the WWE fanbase and those within the industry itself.

01:28Long gone are the days when people meant what they said when they chanted, John Cena sucks,

01:35come to be a term of endearment for a man who is widely considered one of the greatest

01:39of his generation to perform at the highest level.

01:43Cena always said that he wanted to wrap up his career by the time he turns 50, and assuming

01:48he retires at the end of 2025, he's going to be nearly 49 years old.

02:08Let's get into it, what needs to be done with John Cena's final run in WWE.

02:16This is Sportskeeda Wrestling.

02:18I'm Kevin Callum, I've booed John Cena and I've cheered him too.

02:22What do you think needs to happen with John Cena and his final run?

02:26Let us know in the comments below.

02:28Oh look at you, I can see you, yeah you can't see John Cena but I can see you sticking through

02:33that little ad, thank you so much.

02:35We have a few ideas of what WWE should and shouldn't do in this, the very final and

02:42pivotal year of an important career ending run here.

02:46For one, WWE should not be putting John Cena in a string of weekly back-to-back matches

02:53so that he can face superstars for the first time ever.

02:57Overexposing him in his final year of in-ring competition is going to dilute the value of

03:03those big matches that he's in.

03:05We need Big Match Johnny being Big Match Johnny again.

03:09Unfortunately this sucks for some younger members of the roster, yeah on the younger

03:13side who could benefit from having the stardust of John Cena rubbing off of his colorful wristbands

03:20on them when they take an attitude adjustment.

03:24But for the active week-to-week superstars, it's just a matter of what it is, yeah maybe

03:29it's just best overall that John Cena's not in there all the time.

03:34Yeah, who do you think is not going to be part of this final run?

03:38I'd love to hear your take about that in the comments below as well.

03:41Even though it's 30-40 appearances in a year that can't be described as 30-40 matches

03:47in a year, and it can be described as a part-time run but certainly more expanded than what

03:52we've seen from John Cena in WWE in the past few years, it's still better to keep

03:56Cena's matches almost exclusively on premium live events or big destination versions of

04:03Monday Night Raw or Smackdown.

04:06Now we get it.

04:07With WWE scoring the most expensive and profitable TV media rights deal that has ever been granted

04:14within professional wrestling, Monday Night Raw and premium live events moving to Netflix

04:18internationally, $5 billion over multiple years kicks off in early 2025 which lines

04:26up with John Cena's farewell tour.

04:29It's going to be a part of justifying the money they're spending in getting such a

04:33big property.

04:35And we get that in order to give Netflix more value for the billions they're spending,

04:40WWE is going to have to put John Cena in some matches on Monday Night Raw, and that makes

04:45it special.

04:46It's not outright unavoidable, his matches on Raw should be kept to a minimum, and minimum

04:51doesn't mean they're not special, it means they are simply awesome things you get to

04:58see on Netflix in John Cena's final run.

05:01Last year heading into WrestleMania 39, Austin Theory, the young braggadocious superstar,

05:07was put in a dream feud against Cena and ended up beating him at WrestleMania.

05:13The only issue is the match, in the eyes of a lot of people, simply didn't live up to

05:17standards.

05:18Nobody remembered anything about the rivalry beyond John Cena chewing Theory up on the

05:23microphone.

05:24Austin Theory somehow became the only person to ever be worse off after beating John Cena.

05:30That's no detriment to him, but it's just simply a matter of the way the cards laid

05:34out when it was all said and done.

05:36Yeah, maybe that's not the same example if we're going to do a generation vs generation

05:41thing in this one final run.

05:43Old rivalries is the route to go.

05:47Perhaps his last WrestleMania match can be against Randy Orton, a man who, along with

05:53himself, helped define a generation of WWE, yet they've never had a one-on-one match

05:58at the show of shows.

06:00Certainly, they've had a lot of big matches together.

06:03They were in the same match at WrestleMania 24, but that was a Triple H Triple Threat

06:08match, so not exactly the same thing.

06:11It only seems like a fair spot since neither legend will be taking up a championship spot

06:17at WrestleMania from our estimations, and it can still be a marquee attraction in Las

06:22Vegas.

06:23It's already been hinted at in some way or another on social media.

06:28CM Punk, someone who is certainly counter-culture, and John Cena was the face of WWE culture

06:33for quite some time, were certainly a yin and yang against each other in a fantastic

06:39way in the early 2010s.

06:42Their Money in the Bank 2011 main event may be one of the most underrated WWE main events

06:47of all time.

06:49Reigniting that could be very, very special.

06:52Or better yet, they could team up together against two up-and-comers.

06:57Who couldn't love seeing the story of two old, bitter rivals now working on the same

07:01page for a common cause?

07:03Yes, it's a tried and tested trope.

07:07Yes, how do they coexist?

07:09But one that would certainly translate well for guys like Cena and Punk at this stage

07:14in their careers and lives.

07:17And who have for the longest time stood across the ring against one another, but not side

07:22by side like that.

07:23It would be an attraction unto itself.

07:25There's always the possibility of him targeting a world championship run at a record-breaking

07:31number 17.

07:32We're not going to deny that he doesn't deserve it, but some could say that maybe

07:38that's more of a game for the modern, younger talent on the roster.

07:42But apart from him hitting that record number, will anything good come from him being a world

07:48champion?

07:49That's a reasonable question.

07:50Even with his 16th world title reign in 2017, the only two things that came out of it were

07:56the fact that Cena tied Ric Flair's infamous world title record and that it set up Bray

08:02Wyatt's first world championship win.

08:05But that's also ignoring the significance of what could happen if he does indeed break

08:11the record that Flair has held for many years.

08:14To counter that, Cena's final run having a record-breaking moment before he puts up his

08:20pump up rebox for good would also be a seismic swerve to keep fans, both casual and diehard,

08:27on their toes instead of just having them anticipating the ending of it all.

08:32Maybe behind the scenes, Cena isn't keen on being a world champion, even if he doesn't

08:37admit it when he's talking to the media.

08:40An alternative idea, which in our opinion is maybe more interesting, is the story of

08:45John Cena going after the only accolade that has eluded him throughout his entire career,

08:52the Intercontinental Championship, the working man's title within WWE.

08:58That's all it takes for him to have a grand slam championship run, and he deserves a crack

09:03at that as well.

09:04WWE has done a great job since Gunther made the IC title a prestigious fighting championship

09:11once again.

09:12Oh yeah, we're gonna get into the stats here.

09:15There's only been two champions in the past two years in the IC title's lineage.

09:21Cena having a part of that could really elevate that, even in just a transitional type of

09:27role.

09:28It would also be a great way to get him to feud with up-and-comers, but also make it

09:32legitimate at the same time.

09:34Other names he's never crossed paths with would want to tangle with him in those circumstances.

09:40But in reality, Cena won't need a championship storyline to feel important.

09:45He's a championship unto himself.

09:47He's John Cena.

09:48The fact that his last run is enough of a draw is a special, magical thing unto its

09:54own.

09:55There's been a fine balance where it doesn't feel like Cena's taking up the biggest spot

09:59in WWE, while at the same time helping to elevate younger talent.

10:04He's been in that role for the better part of a few years, making sporadic appearances

10:09and having sporadic matches, but this needs to feel like something different.

10:14But that's where another key factor in how WWE should handle Cena's last run comes in.

10:19He shouldn't be losing that much to anyone and everyone.

10:23He's been losing a lot in the past few years.

10:27After having the Super Cena reputation for a majority of his career, the former franchise

10:32player of WWE took on the opposite approach from 2016, losing all sorts of matches to

10:38all sorts of talent like Dean Ambrose, AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Solo Sakoa.

10:44If you're going to have every superstar who faces John Cena beat him, then it's going

10:50to devalue their victories in a big way.

10:53The whole idea of beating the big superstar John Cena won't mean that much when fans

11:00simply just want him to feel like John Cena again, and it will devalue John Cena as well.

11:07It's a different mode they have to go in here.

11:10In a very same breath, Cena probably is going to be put under scrutiny if he beats too many

11:15newer superstars.

11:16It's a hard balance to hit here, but how is a win over him supposed to mean something

11:21right now in these circumstances?

11:24The only way that can be done is by having superstars that have earned the right to beat

11:28Cena get wins over him, and that's not everybody, and that's debatable, and that's a whole other

11:34thing.

11:35And yes, that means WWE is probably going to have to present some type of newer version

11:40of a Super Cena.

11:41That's a different debate.

11:43When we say a watered down version of that, we mean John Cena that just beats about everyone

11:48except a select few.

11:50In our opinion, the best way WWE can book Cena in 2025 is to present him as the most

11:56fired up, determined version of himself that we've seen in years.

12:01You know who he is?

12:06He knows who he is.

12:08He knows what his body can do.

12:10He's crafty, he's smarter, and he makes different choices while still being a fiery fighting

12:17underneath hero for the fans to rally behind.

12:24There needs to be an emotional lava flow of culmination and conclusion at the end of the

12:32year, with him losing, yes losing, to a worthy opponent on his way out.

12:38As is the tradition of professional wrestling, you are going out on your back, looking up

12:44at the lights, and making another superstar on the way out, giving back to the business

12:50that gave so much to you.

12:51And no, we don't mean a Kurt Angle type of farewell where he just gets a random opponent

12:57and loses in 6 minutes.

12:59Yeah, that wasn't fair to Kurt Angle, but that was then.

13:02But this is John Cena.

13:04This is different.

13:05It needs to feel like a momentous, game-changing event for both him and whoever gets the truly

13:15career-changing moment of getting to end the career of The Goat.

13:20Can everyone playing their part in this epic emotional story deliver on their roles?

13:28Can John Cena have the biggest send-off in WWE history?

13:33Because at this point, that's what fans are expecting, and some feel it needs to be that

13:39and more.

13:40Yeah, it's a big question to ask, and if you've watched this entire video and you haven't

13:44jumped into the comments yet, come on, do it, or I'm going to reach through the screen

13:48and give you an attitude adjustment.

13:50I don't know how that's going to work out, but get down there, or check out the other

13:54videos we have like these.

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