John Cena may miss wrestling every single day, but he has a pretty personal reason for refusing to push his body beyond its expiration date.
During his appearance on TODAY’s Making Space with Hoda Kotb, Cena opened up about knowing when it was time to end his in-ring career. Hoda Kotb asked how he could be so certain when plenty of people were still telling him he had more left in the tank.
Cena explained that the answer came down to the amount of preparation and recovery required to continue performing at WWE’s level. At 49, Cena said he knew he could technically keep wrestling, but doing so would demand more and more of him physically and personally.
“Simply because of the preparation and recovery it takes to participate at that level and speed. And I’m not near as fast as, like, younger, more athletically refined, elite-level performers. It wasn’t like I, I’m, I’m at peace with what I had to do and have a lot of gratitude for being able to do it for 23 years. That’s amazing. The normal lifespan is way less than that.”
Cena said the numbers ultimately made the decision for him. He had already enjoyed a wrestling career far longer than most, and continuing would have meant putting even more of his life into staying physically capable of performing.
“So I’ve already kind of beat the system by not only making it, but by having a nice long tenure. The data was the closure for me. Like, I’m just, I just can’t keep up, and I can’t, I could continue to do this. It’s already very consuming. It will be exponentially more consuming.”
That led Cena into the bigger reason why walking away made sense. WWE was once the center of his entire life, but that changed as he got older and his relationship with wife Shay Shariatzadeh became his priority.
“So when I was 20, WWE was it. When I was 30, WWE was also it. Started to fragment as I turned 40. I have love and partnership in my life, and that’s like, that’s the bull’s-eye. So, hey, is taking all this time and putting it away from the bull’s-eye really walking the talk about saying I want to try to be a good husband and a good partner? Not really.”
Cena then explained that the issue went beyond simply spending too much time away from home. He also had to think about what another serious wrestling injury could mean for his wife later in their lives.
“And physically, am I being fair to my partner by, hey, I’m gonna put my health at risk so people, when I’m 52, can cheer as they might bring me out on a stretcher, but then I put an unnecessary burden on you if I make it to 80? You know what I’m saying? So I guess my priorities shifted.”
Even after laying out all of those reasons, Cena made it clear that retirement did not happen because his love for wrestling disappeared.
“Yeah, clear. But I still, I love it and I miss it every day.”
Cena spent more than two decades putting WWE ahead of nearly everything else, but his explanation makes it clear that retirement became less about whether he could squeeze out another match and more about what that match might cost him years later. The cheers would last a few minutes. The damage could follow him and his wife for the rest of their lives.
Do you think John Cena made the right call by walking away when he did, or do you believe he still had another run left in him? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
