John Cena recently explained why he knew 2025 would be his final year in WWE.
Speaking in an exclusive interview on WWE’s YouTube channel with Tom Rinaldi after RAW, Cena was asked when he realized his time was coming to an end. He said he first noticed it when he expected to have the entire year off.
“The fact that I thought I was going to have this year completely off. For the longest, I’ve been a part-time piece. Sometimes, I come back just to deliver the opening monologue. That is the toughest spot in what we do. To come out for 15-20 minutes, tell the audience what they’re going to get, and not deliver anything else.”
“Not have a confrontational war of words, no physicality. Show up with the equity you’ve built, hope they enjoy, and go through 16 talking points, somehow weave the energy of the crowd, not killing house for the matches about to follow. It’s a very tough spot. I could kind of see the writing on the wall. ‘We need you to come back. We want you to open the show.’ ‘Of course you do. I will do it, but you’re right.'”
Cena also noted that WWE has been pairing him with younger talent since 2013, which reminded him how much the company had changed. “The situations where I can come back is a lot more of a good back. I’ve been paired with new talent since 2013. Just looking at the calendar, I’m 48. I thought I would have this year with minimal commitments and I began to say, ‘Something is going to happen this year or I have to post on X that I’m going to retire.’ Either one is okay. When I was presented with, ‘We can do this or this.’ Finally, I just said, ‘It’s either this year or we don’t do it, and I’d like to do it.'” [H/T: Fightful]
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