With John Cena’s final match officially in the rearview, as he closes the book on his wrestling career, I think it’s time we have an honest conversation about the so-called “retirement tour.”
Growing up, Cena was one of my childhood favorites. My dad was a huge Cena fan from the start, so I have a bit of nostalgia for the past (but maybe that’s the Gen Z talking). When Cena’s retirement tour was announced last year, there were so many questions to be asked. Chief among them: how can you properly honor a career like Cena’s — one of the greatest of all time — with 36 dates? After watching Sting’s retirement in AEW and how well Tony Khan, Darby Allin, and the Young Bucks handled the legacy of Sting, and Hiroshi Tanahashi’s retirement run in New Japan Pro Wrestling this year, I had hope Cena would get the same treatment.
One of Cena’s largest faults is that he has always been a company man. It’s something he doesn’t dispute — he’s willing to do whatever is asked of him. He’s literally Mr. WWE. That’s where my frustrations stem from with this entire retirement tour.
Things got off to a great start. The heel turn at Elimination Chamber was a twist that nobody really expected. However, there was one glaring issue staring back at us like a big pimple: Travis Scott. It’s like trying to stick a round peg in a square hole — it just didn’t work. WWE is hellbent on creating the next Bad Bunny instead of accepting that he’s a complete anomaly when it comes to celebrities wrestling. They brought in Jelly Roll for a SummerSlam match to make everyone forget their crimes. Well, it didn’t work! For me, at least.
He finally wins No. 17 at WrestleMania 41. That almost made me forget what we had to endure to get there. Then they fire R-Truth, receive major backlash, re-hire him and put him into two matches with Cena that did nothing for either of them. But hey, it’s a callback to CM Punk’s pipebomb promo he cut after Cena beat Truth! I was excited to see where the Ron Killings character could go, which is apparently nowhere. The Punk storyline gave Cena the juice to somewhat salvage the first half of the year. But what else can you expect from a pair of wrestling soulmates?
Things recovered over the summer when Rhodes won back the Championship at SummerSlam. Ok, great. Cena is back to making the set of stars that are carrying the torch. Then, for whatever reason, WWE brings Brock Lesnar back so that Cena can lose one last singles match against him. (Spare me the mansplaining, please.)
Let me just say, it’s not that he was having bad matches. The quality of his wrestling was the best we’ve seen from him in a long time. But the booking was, at times, downright atrocious and completely maddening. They were taking two steps forward and five steps back while trying to course correct in real time. Then they gaslit fans about what they were seeing.
So much of this retirement tour has felt completely rushed and not thought out at all. Cena wins the IC belt from Dominik Mysterio, holds it for less time than it takes Roman Reigns to get in the ring, and then Dom wins it back? I’m not mad at the result; it’s just giving me whiplash.
All in all, I’m really not impressed by what WWE managed to do with Cena. There’s a likelihood we will never see a star like Cena again. I only hope they learn something from it before Styles and others hang up their boots in the not-so-distant future. It should have been more about putting over the stars of the present and future. Instead, it became a jumbled, misguided greatest hits tour.
It’s truly a shame, for someone who has promoted WWE at every turn, even he isn’t safe from the mediocrity. When you have a wrestler as big as Cena pumping out limited-edition merch, selling record tickets in arenas all around the world, how does one miss the mark this much? I’m not upset with Gunther winning. In fact, that’s the exact result that should have taken place.
Cena is old school and wants to go out on his back while staring up at the lights. I respect that a lot. But I can’t help but feel that had there not been so many blunders along the way, fans would’ve reacted a lot differently to the result. Now all anyone is talking about is what happened after the match instead of Gunther solidifying himself as the biggest villain in the company.
Perhaps if they spent more time in the writers’ room instead of cosplaying in the White House, we could have had a different (much better) outcome.
The post Now That It’s Over, Let’s Talk About John Cena’s WWE Retirement Tour appeared first on VICE.
