His time is up, his time is now, you will not see him, after 2025. That is proper women and gents, 2025 would be the closing 12 months that anybody will get to see WWE icon John Cena wrestle, as he has formally introduced that might be retiring from in-ring motion on the finish of subsequent 12 months.
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Cena made a shock look at Cash within the Financial institution 2024 to formally verify his plan to retire, later stating that he may have round 35 to 40 dates on his schedule earlier than December 31, 2025. Whereas the 16-time World Champion has already claimed to have agreed to a contract that can maintain him within the WWE household previous 2025, it will likely be in an envoy position and extra alongside the strains of what a Legend’s contract entails. Now, together with his closing 12 months looming, a number of WWE Superstars, and even some from across the wrestling world, have publicly expressed their want to get within the ring with Cena earlier than he hangs up his jean shorts.
There are solely a restricted quantity of spots to fill, so solely one of the best of one of the best will get the prospect to wrestle “The Physician of Thuganomics.” With that in thoughts, listed here are 5 WWE Superstars that completely have to combine it up with Cena in his closing 12 months as an in-ring performer.
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Randy Orton
When together with Royal Rumble matches, John Cena and Randy Orton have wrestled one another on pay-per-view a complete of 27 occasions. They’ve had a complete of 10 singles matches on a few of WWE’s greatest levels, with the stipulations various from TLC and “I Stop” matches, to 2 Hell in a Cell bouts and an Something Goes 60 Minute Iron Man match. As such, it is arduous to think about what else Cena and Orton might do with one another, even when it was only a throwaway TV match.
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Nonetheless, each males have grown and matured massively since then, with even the largest haters of the preliminary feud coming round within the fashionable period to understand the chemistry and arduous work Cena and Orton put in throughout their rivalry. In reality, their final singles match on pay-per-view, Hell in a Cell 2014, got here earlier than Cena turned one thing of a super-worker in a single day and put collectively a list of matches in his 2015 run with the WWE United States Championship that made folks go, “Cling on a minute, Cena can truly go.”
Orton has made it clear that he would like to get again within the ring with Cena, noting that WWE may need overdone it with their preliminary feuds and understands why folks could have gotten sick of it. With that stated, Orton is considered one of Cena’s best rivals, and in some folks’s minds, the definitive rival of Cena’s profession on condition that they had been in the identical OVW class that broke by way of in 2002. Yet one more go round for Cena and Orton does not must be an epic title match that folks had been so accustomed to throughout the top of the PG period, however it completely has to occur, even whether it is booked solely for nostalgia functions.
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CM Punk
There was a time limit the place it regarded like John Cena and CM Punk would by no means share a hoop collectively ever once more. Punk infamously stop WWE in 2014, stayed away from wrestling for seven years, and resurfaced in AEW in 2021, the place it regarded like he would keep for a really very long time. Nonetheless, hell has since frozen over and Punk is again in WWE, and since he returned from damage at SummerSlam 2024, he hasn’t gotten harm once more — who stated miracles could not occur?
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Now that Punk and Cena are in the identical firm once more, this bout must occur another time, a lot for a similar the explanation why Cena ought to face Orton. Nonetheless, Cena’s rivalry with Punk is a bit more layered than the one he had with “The Viper.” The 2 males had shared the ring many occasions earlier than Punk dropped the notorious “pipebomb” promo in 2011, however as soon as that had occurred, each match that Cena and Punk had one thing distinctive to it. The story was the person WWE had chosen to be the man vs. the person the followers had chosen to be the man, and each match appeared to really feel alien to the in-house WWE model. They had been unpredictable, dramatic, and the Superstars concerned would actually do no matter got here to thoughts within the second as a result of WWE was by no means going to fireside Cena or Punk on the peak of their powers. Moreover, each males have grown as performers since then, which means {that a} closing match might be much more unpredictable.
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Punk has publicly acknowledged that he needs another match with Cena, calling him considered one of his best rivals. Given the magic they’ve already made collectively, WWE could be silly to not allow them to solid a spell another time.
Dominik Mysterio
Not each match that John Cena has in 2025 must be a rundown of his best hits. In reality, it should not as WWE’s roster has a complete host of contemporary match-ups Cena might have, with this one being a bout that we’ve already seen a glimpse of.
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The one televised assembly between Cena and Dominik Mysterio got here at the episode of “WWE Uncooked” after WrestleMania 40 once they crossed paths in a six-man tag staff match. Nonetheless, these two have impressed followers at any time when they’ve ended up in the identical ring as one another at stay occasions, whether or not that is one-on-one or tag staff motion. 2025 must be the time the place WWE lets Mysterio get a giant singles match, as a result of it isn’t like officers have not trusted him with massive obligations earlier than.
Mysterio had the glory of being CM Punk’s first opponent in WWE throughout the firm’s 2023 vacation tour, with the fancam recordings of the bout exhibiting that Mysterio can completely cling with a star like Punk, and has the entire fundamentals down so effectively that he can simply garner warmth whereas studying from one of the best within the course of. Why would not you need somebody like that going towards one of many best babyfaces in WWE historical past?
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Cena may even draw upon the historical past that he has with Dominik’s dad Rey, as they each debuted on “WWE SmackDown” inside weeks of one another in 2002, and had been key the explanation why WWE’s blue model was as widespread because it was after the preliminary model extension. If there was ever a person who might make Cena seem like much more of babyface than he already might be in 2025, it is Dominik Mysterio.
Cody Rhodes
John Cena going towards this era’s John Cena. It actually writes itself.
If there’s one factor that should occur throughout Cena’s closing 12 months, it is pasing the torch to the following era. Positive, he can put folks over — he can put everybody over if he actually needs to — however the torch of being “the man” in WWE must be handed completely, and Rhodes is totally the person for the job. They tried to do it with Roman Reigns in 2017 and that went down in addition to a fart in church as a result of the followers, at that time anyway, did not need Reigns as the following man.
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In that respect, Rhodes could be very totally different as a result of not solely is WWE behind him, the followers are as effectively. Positive, there are a number of folks calling for a Rhodes heel flip as a result of how suited he was in that position in his first WWE run, in addition to ROH, NJPW, and, for those who imagine what Cody says, AEW. Nonetheless, he’s the principle babyface in WWE proper now and is strictly the kind of man the corporate had been in search of since Cena began winding down his in-ring profession. Getting that nod of approval from Cena would cement Rhodes within the eyes of everybody, and it could be a dream match for these tuning in.
There may be the small matter of Rhodes’ Undisputed WWE Championship, although. Cena solely wants another title win to surpass Ric Aptitude’s file and turn out to be a 17-time World Champion. That stated, Rhodes dropping the title to Cena would not be the appropriate transfer, even when it was to present the legend the file, as there’s one other champion that the veteran might inform a greater story with.
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GUNTHER
It stays to be seen if GUNTHER will nonetheless be the WWE World Heavyweight Champion by the point John Cena’s closing run kicks into gear. Nonetheless, assuming he’s, Cena must get his seventeenth World Title by beating “The Ring Common.”
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On the floor, the match ticks off so many packing containers. It is a first-time match that followers would not get to see wherever else. It is towards a person in GUNTHER who appears incapable of getting a nasty match with anybody. However primarily, it could be a basic story of the outdated gunslinger in search of another excessive earlier than he rides off into the sundown towards an unstoppable drive who has crushed everybody in his path.
In spite of everything, GUNTHER’s reign because the WWE Intercontinental Champion is so beloved due to that easy premise: he’s so good at what he does that it appears inconceivable that somebody might beat him. Put him towards Cena, one of the crucial embellished champions within the historical past of WWE, and have him pose a real menace to GUNTHER’s reign that nobody else on the roster would be capable to deliver to the desk. Even then, GUNTHER is so dominant and has brutalized so many individuals that it could be an unpredictable match that might have folks considering, “Perhaps this is not the man to beat him,” solidifying “The Ring Common” as the ultimate boss of WWE.
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Nonetheless, GUNTHER has been across the block lengthy sufficient to know when the appropriate time to do the job is. If he does, shedding to Cena could be the proper centerpiece of what must be a legendary 12 months for “The Physician of Thuganomics.”
