John Cena isn’t just retired — he’s still tied to WWE, and that makes the idea of him suddenly showing up somewhere else a whole lot harder than just throwing money at him.
Cena recently said it would take someone willing to burn an insane amount of cash to get him back in the ring, telling Us Magazine that another match would basically require a promoter to lose their mind financially.
“It would be financial suicide for someone to court me in a position where I would have another match, and I truly mean that. So if you’re in the business of torching currency, that’s the only way to get me back in the ring.”
But even that doesn’t tell the whole story. Fightful Select reports Cena is still under a multi-year WWE contract as an ambassador, and the word from inside WWE is that the deal would prevent him from wrestling for another promotion. That pretty much kills the AEW fantasy booking before it ever gets started. There haven’t been any talks about Cena wrestling there, and it hasn’t been viewed as a real possibility.
Cena has also made it clear that he wants to stay involved without putting himself through another full comeback. When fans chanted “one more match” at Backlash, Cena said he appreciated the love, but his focus is on finding other ways to stay connected.
“So when I hear ‘one more match,’ I hear [that] there’s still interest, the heart still beats. I’m trying to think in my head, how can we gear this to where I can be there, be active and be included but allow others to do the thing I can no longer do.”
That’s where the John Cena Classic comes in. The event is still planned for later this year, with December currently being targeted, although that timing could still change. So the situation is pretty simple right now: Cena says he’s done wrestling, WWE still has him under contract, and another company can’t just back up the money truck and make a match happen.
Do you think John Cena actually stays retired for good, or does WWE eventually find one final match big enough to pull him back in? Let us know in the comments.
