John Cena Reveals Wild Original Plan for WWE Farewell Tour

John Cena’s final run in WWE is already one for the books—but it could’ve been a total burnout.

While speaking on The Bill Simmons Podcast, Cena opened up about just how ambitious and exhausting the original plan was for his farewell tour. According to the 17-time world champ, he initially wanted to do 220 WWE dates in 2025—not just matches, but every kind of appearance. He was ready to go all in.

“The plan originally was to do like a full year. I wanted to do 220 dates. Just take a year off of everything, hop on a bus, do a full WWE calendar, and totally say goodbye.”

But between his Hollywood schedule and constant international flights, Cena found himself juggling way more than expected—even with just 36 official dates locked in for his farewell.

“I was in Budapest… flying from Budapest, do all night on set, fly to Indy, do Indianapolis, fly back, land, drop my stuff off, go film… and doing that until post-WrestleMania. Back and forth to Morocco and Budapest and all these crazy places that weren’t easy commutes.

You think you can do it ’cause like, ‘I’ll sleep on the plane’ or whatever. You don’t. Doesn’t happen. Then you get upside down and you’re like super fatigued.”

The Leader of Cenation admits the 220-date plan would’ve wrecked him.

“Thank goodness the business isn’t like that anymore, ‘cause I would be—if you took a gingerbread man, just broke him—I’d be done.”

Cena’s retirement run began on January 6th at the WWE Raw on Netflix premiere, and it all wraps up on December 13th when he steps into the ring for one final match in Washington, D.C. Whether he’s jet-lagged or not, he’s showing up to give fans one last ride—just not 220 times.

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