MR. TITO: My Tribute to John Cena and His Tremendous 23+ Year WWE Career

So I was watching the recent NoDQ Review and panelists were getting quite emotional about John Cena having his final wrestling match this Saturday on WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event. After all, they’ve been following the WWE closely for decades and with that, watching John Cena since 2002. For 23 years, we’ve watched Cena debut, find his rapping gimmick, rise up through the midcard, become world champion, and then dominate the Main Event scene for 10 years until he started stepping back for Hollywood roles that came his way. For 2025, however, Cena returned for a Retirement Tour filled with more appearances and matches than many other current WWE main eventers perform.

To me, I think John Cena’s in-ring retirement is emotional because he’s the biggest star to have a formal retirement like this. To me, the top 5 wrestling stars of the “Wrestlemania Era” are Hogan, Austin, Cena, Rock, and Ric Flair in that order with guys like Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, Roddy Piper, Randy Savage, Bret Hart, HBK, Sting, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Rey Mysterio, Kurt Angle, etc. fighting for the bottom 5 of the top 10. Unlike the other top 5 members, John Cena told us in advance when he was going to retire and then gave us a full year to appreciate him on the big WWE stage.

Compare that to the other members of the top 5. Hulk Hogan could never say goodbye and had off and on again relations with the WWE during the 2000s while going to work for TNA. Various sex tape controversies piled onto that. His multiple WWE exits were abrupt and followed by working for a competitor. Ditto for Ric Flair, who probably hung on for too long in WCW but when the WWE gave him a massive send-off at Wrestlemania against Shawn Michaels, Flair kept his career going in TNA instead. Steve Austin’s career became muddy after 1999, particularly during 2002-2003. His last match was at Wrestlemania 19 during 2003, but we didn’t know it yet. We endured another year of “Sheriff” Austin before he disappeared after Wrestlemania 20. For the Rock, after Hollywood came knocking, he worked here and there during 2001-2004 and also disappeared after Wrestlemania 20.

Hall of Fame ceremonies are nice, but they aren’t compared to a full blow year-long tour in which John Cena is making 36 appearances and will have wrestled half of those at 18 matches. All of the places were advertised ahead of time to get fans in each location ready to see their longtime hero one more time (WWE’s price gouging hurts, though). Hogan, Flair, Rock, and Austin didn’t receive the opportunity to do that. Of the wrestlers below the top 5, I’d argue that maybe Undertaker and HBK has had the proper opportunity say “goodbye” but Shawn Michaels botched that by taking Saudi money to wrestle one more time. Hopefully, Cena makes his match against Gunther hold firm as his final match and isn’t lured out of retirement.

I’ve had the honor to cover John Cena’s career from start to finish… I began writing columns for Lords of Pain during October 1998 and my first column covered Halloween Havoc 1998. Thus, I was around and writing columns regularly (daily, in fact) when John Cena made his June 27th, 2002 debut on WWE Smackdown which I wrote about here on the very next day, 6/28/2002:

Vince praised Angle for his win at King of the Ring over Hogan, and then introduced Kurt Angle. Angle is now proud that he’s bald, and then was so pissed off that he’d challenge anybody from the back that he’s NEVER faced before. That would lead to a man named John Cena to walk down.

Kurt Angle vs. John Cena was our first match of the night. Cena looked like a million bucks, giving Angle a good bout. Now, whether that’s Angle selling everything like a champ or not, we’ll never know. But Cena looked more crisp than any of the other recent OVW debuts and had a whole lot of charisma than the once praised Randy Orton. Lots of sweet clotheslines (like Sting) and near falls on Kurt Angle to keep it exciting. I liked it. Great debut and rub for Cena, who lost to a weird looking pin by Angle at the end. Could this been Cena acting like Sting to Kurt Angle’s Ric Flair? Well, that’s stretching it, but if Cena makes it big, everyone will point to Angle as the man giving him an opportunity to shine.

As you can see, I thought Cena had a strong debut and certainly, Kurt Angle deserves his flowers for making Cena look like dynamite during the debut.

But 2002 didn’t become a good year for John Cena. After this match, he struggled to find his role in the WWE and lacked a character that could complement what appeared to be a freakish athletic ability. As luck would have it, Cena was on a touring bus when fellow wrestlers began rapping in the back and Cena joined in. Stephanie McMahon was on that same bus and heard him… Obviously impressed, she encouraged him to incorporate his natural rapping ability as part of his character. This was during the era where music artist Eminem’s 8 Mile was a big hit and battle rapping was a fad. Cena’s character began delivering raps and that turned into scathing rapping promos cut on his opponents. A star was officially born.

If you want to see GREAT John Cena stuff, watch his 2003 year where he worked mostly as a heel and was developing his rapping persona. He naturally won over fans, insomuch that he had to be turned into a babyface for 2004. Then by 2005, he defeated JBL and ended his long WWE Title reign to be crowned his first of 17 world championships at Wrestlemania 21.

What people don’t fully realize is that WWE’s business began declining following Wrestlemania 16 during 2000 and declined even faster after the botched WCW/ECW invasion of 2001, the brief return of the NWO during 2002, and the struggling RAW brand following the 2002 brand split through 2003-2004. RAW’s viewership, in particular, declined during 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 and then John Cena switched rosters to join RAW and RAW began increasing during 2005, 2006, and then returned to increasing during 2009.

Wait, you say that I didn’t include 2007 and 2008 in my numbers? Well, those years saw declines because the WWE was hit by a metric ton of BAD NEWS thanks to Chris Benoit murdering his family during June 2007. Then, things piled on with blood in the water and multiple wrestlers were then exposed for purchasing performance enhancers and various drugs through online pharmacies. This caused multiple responses by WWE… More teeth for their Wellness Policy, concussion protocol installed, and the PG Era. Yet, there was one glimmer of light through all of this… The babyface top guy known as John Cena. He carried that WWE brand on his back throughout the late 2000s at a time where bad public relations could have shut the WWE down!

I’d argue his finest work was during the first half of the 2010s… The WWE roster had thinned out, as older wrestlers moved on, retired, or became part-time (Edge, Triple H, HBK, Batista, for example) while developmental talents from FCW/NXT just weren’t filling roster gaps needed at the time. Cena lacked good quality dance partners initially and then went above and beyond to put guys over. This includes Miz, Alberto Del Rio, Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles, and especially CM Punk. Cena let the Rock defeat them in their first match at Wrestlemania 29. Then, at SummerSlam 2014, Cena agreed to let Brock Lesnar literally destroy him and pretty much end his longstanding main event run.

Then, I’ve got Cena letting Undertaker, Bray Wyatt, Solo Sikoa, and Roman Reigns defeating him in future years. For 2025, Cena let Cody Rhodes, Dominik Mysterio, and Brock Lesnar defeat him while it’s likely that Gunther will retire him.

I used to get tired of the “Super Cena” argument, which completely disregarded ALL of the wrestlers that Cena put over. For one, when you’re the #1 star in the company, Vince McMahon won’t let you lose EVER. Could you please show me win/loss records of Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Steve Austin, Undertaker, the Rock, Triple H, and Roman Reigns? Vince will push his top stars to win repeatedly and the data shows that fans LOVE to see their favorites actually WIN matches.

Secondly, who is complaining about Cena “burying” them? For one, John Cena has NEVER had Creative Control and based on the number of jobs he did putting other wrestlers over that I’ve mentioned above, your argument falls flat. If you’re only giving me Ryback, Alex Riley, and Kenny Dykstra, then you’ve got to try harder. Each had their own careers to control while also combatting bad creative teams led by Stephanie McMahon at the time. For Kenny, he was given a male cheerleader gimmick and placed in a stable where nobody could stand-out. Yes, I understand there’s the Mickie James stuff, but Vince will keep you around if you can draw money. We’ve had 15+ years to see whether Riley, Ryback, and Dykstra could regroup and prove their worth inside the ring… And here we are with 2 out of wrestling and 1 (Dykstra) working for WWE as a producer.

Through John Cena’s own admission, he has spoke about improving and repairing a few past relationships… However, can you show me any main event alpha male who wasn’t difficult to deal with? You had your backstage politicians (HBK, HHH), guys with too much pride (Austin, Hart), guys who protected and enabled friends (Undertaker), or guys who wanted control over everything (Hogan). Hence why WWE has been ruled by tougher guys with egos to bruise, themselves, to handle such volatile personalities.

By all indications, John Cena was coachable, did not create conflict with his creative, and has a long list of putting over other wrestlers.

With time, I think many John Cena “haters” have converted to appreciating John Cena. Personally, I started to see the Cena love begin to shift as WWE and Vince McMahon were shoving an inexperienced Roman Reigns babyface character down our throats from 2014 through early 2020. Hence, why I think his 2025 retirement tour has been so successful. John Cena’s fanbase has grown significantly since 2014, the last true year of Cena’s top guy main event run when Brock Lesnar smashed him. On top of that, John Cena has been wildly entertaining for his Hollywood endeavors. He’s hilarious in comedies, always solid in action films, and he absolutely KILLED IT as Peacemaker and deserves an Emmy for his Season 2 performances. Seriously, folks, while the Rock may have helped drive the final nails into the DC Extended Universe started by Zack Snyder, Cena’s Peacemaker character is making James Gunn’s DC Universe very interesting.

And we could get into the 2025 year in its entirety, especially the heel turn at Elimination Chamber and the heel run after that through SummerSlam 2025. In my view, turning Cena heel was making the best of a bad situation that formed when the Rock became unavailable to fulfill planned WWE commitments. WWE had to re-calibrate and came up with turning Cena heel to spark interest in Wrestlemania 41 with the Rock no longer available to perform (Rock wanted Cody to turn heel). And it worked… Wrestlemania was able to push over 10,000 more overpriced tickets for both nights of Wrestlemania along with Cena, as a heel, packing houses.

However, this was 2025 and not 2011… Every WWE fan appreciates John Cena now and just didn’t want to boo him. Cena worked as a heel against Cody at Wrestlemania 41 and the match sucked, and then Cena took the heel training wheels off to have amazing matches for the rest of the year against CM Punk, AJ Styles, Dominik, and Sami. To me, Cena has STUFFED the “Match of the Year” candidate voting box for 2025 and you can’t go wrong with most of his top matches.

John Cena has, as the phrase goes, “aged like fine wine”. He’s morphed into a mature, good dude who genuinely cares about the wrestling business while his desire to learn and be coached has benefitted him greatly in Hollywood. On top of that, he’s still the top wish-giver for the Make a Wish Foundation and he’s become a loving husband to his wife. Cena is retiring from the WWE at the top of his game and with an incredible amount of goodwill compared to other stars who stayed for too long or just couldn’t walk away properly.

The fact that John Cena has been appreciated more with time goes to show that often, wrestling fans don’t fully appreciate what’s in front of them until it’s almost over or gone.

Now, onto John Cena’s match with Gunther. In my opinion, John Cena should DEFEAT him. I see zero value in Gunther defeating Cena in 2025 and then defeating Brock Lesnar during 2026. If you want to impress me, have Gunther get humbled one night and then have to climb the hill of the wrestler who dominated John Cena.

I also think that Gunther has peaked and cannot get any bigger than what he is now. Once Gunther vanquishes Lesnar, who else is there to wrestle or defeat? I guess he could wrestle Punk, Seth, and Roman, but each of those guys are getting older and have seen their peaks already, too. There is no where to go but down and there just isn’t anybody strong in developmental or recently called up guys to take their places.

I’d cap off John Cena’s career with a win and then give him a big speech at the end… John Cena DESERVES that, unlike the undedicated Bill Goldberg who begged for a retirement match for years and then complained about it afterward. Cena is in peak form for 2025 and would be believable to defeat someone like Gunther who likes to taunt his opponents rather than be in KILL MODE like Brock Lesnar. That weakness needs to be exploited and John Cena should get the win.

It’s been an honor to cover John Cena for the past 23 years and makes my extensive time as an online columnist worth it. He’s a hero to many and an all-time great. I wish him the absolute best with his retirement and continued career in Hollywood. If there’s a place to donate in order to make Peacemaker Season 3 happen, please let me know as I want more of that show. Go watch that show on HBO MAX if you haven’t already, strongly recommended.

Thank you, John.

“You can’t see me”. I witnessed your entire career, from start to finish, and it was fantastic!

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