John Cena: Retiring At WrestleMania Is Selfish

John Cena spent 2025 on his retirement tour, which was announced at WWE Money in the Bank 2024. Cena closed his retirement tour on December 13 at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event, a show dedicated to him.

Speaking to O’Shea Jackson Jr and TJ Henderson on No-Contest Wrestling, Cena explained his thought process of wanting to retire in December.

“I’ll tell you why I specifically chose December to retire. There is a lot of stuff going on in December. In the WWE calendar, Survivor Series is the last one, and then everyone waits for the Rumble. December is like a month in limbo. We’ve never really been able to crack that code. With people on holiday, until the holiday season is over, tickets are tough to sell because people are spending on holiday presents. It’s a weak month for viewership and live attendance. The fan fans are like, ‘Wait until January’ because that’s how we advertise it. That’s when the road to WrestleMania starts. When I presented this idea to Nick Khan and Triple H, they were awesome. ‘Who do you want to work with?’ ‘What event do you want to retire at?’ I simply said, ‘Hunter, who I want to work with is up to you guys. It’s your department. I’ve never been that guy. I don’t want to take this last year and change who I am. You deal em, I play em.

“Nick, from a business perspective, the data that I’ve gathered over 23 years of doing business is December is soft. WrestleMania is going to sell itself. Retiring at WrestleMania is selfish. It doesn’t do anything for the business. I retire in December, the weakest month, the middle of December, the dry zone, we put it right in the middle of December because I know when you do the holiday tour, the houses will come back and you guys will make money. Let’s show a profit in Q4. Put it in whatever arena you want, doesn’t matter. Let’s get ourselves in the best position to have the best December we can. I feel this is an event people will pay to see.’ Sure enough, it was. That was my thought process. Selfishly, do you want to be the last match at WrestleMania? Sure. The event sells it sell.”

Elsewhere during the interview, Cena revealed his original opponent for WWE Crown Jewel. You can learn more here.

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