At WWE Money in the Bank John Cena made a bombshell announcement about his future in wrestling following his appearance at WrestleMania 40. Cena entered the ring in Toronto and spoke candidly to the fans about his career, revealing that next year, 2025, will be his final year as a wrestler. This surprised a lot of fans but Cena has been speaking about the big “R” word for months.
In April, he told Pat McAfee that he was looking to take a break from Hollywood to go on one final WWE run. At the WWE press conference following Money in the Bank, Cena explained his schedule over the next year and that he’s looking to give back to the fans that have so graciously spent so much time with him in WWE.
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Backstage, Cena reunited with one of his longtime rivals in CM Punk. When Cena was still full-time with WWE and both men were at the height of their careers, their feud took place over two years. Punk defeated Cena at Money in the Bank 2011, solidifying himself as the next guy to take the company into the future. Their last singles match was a #1 Contender’s match for the WWE Heavyweight Championship in 2013, which Cena won. Punk revealed at the press conference that he’s chomping at the bit to get in the ring with the 16-time World Champion “at least” one more time.
Speaking to Comicbook, Punk revealed their initial conversation after Cena made the announcement live at the event. “I text him right away and I said, ‘don’t leave before you say hi to me.’ And he text back, ‘haha, have a good one tonight.’ I immediately took that as, ‘piss off, I’m leaving,’ so I know he’s busy, he’s filming Peacemaker, so I figured he was leaving right away. I was pleasantly surprised to run into him afterwards and I told him I’ll be the guy that drags him out of retirement. This retirement that he says he’s gonna adhere to and this is it and when the final one happens that’s gonna be it, like, yeah, 15 years I’ll drag him out of retirement.”
Punk also explained what Cena has meant to his career, which Punk gives him a lot of credit for. “But Cena I think to my career means a lot. I don’t think there’s many people up in that rare air where if you talk about my career, I feel you have to talk about John. And it makes me feel proud that I think if you talk about John’s career, I think you have to talk about me. We’re married in that respect. Proud of him, he gets to go out on his terms, I know that’s important. I’m looking forward to what he does, and I told him that if it’s gonna be one more time, we gotta do it at least one more time.”
Stay tuned to Comicbook for updates on John Cena and his WWE retirement tour.
