By: Manuel Polanco
When John Cena announced his retirement on July 6, 2024, he shook the wrestling world up, and many fans, myself included, were hit with a whirlwind of emotions. The legend I grew up watching and the wrestler who made wrestling feel like something much more than it was had said his time was up, and it was time to go home.
“Just because I physically feel I’m at my end, doesn’t mean I need to distance myself from something I love,” said Cena in his retirement speech. “The time is now” was the catchphrase for this run, a nice spin to his iconic phrase from his entrance song, “You can’t see me, my time is now.”
While writing this, it has been confirmed that Cena’s last opponent in his wondrous career will be the notorious heel, Gunther. Gunther beat fellow wrestler LA Knight in the “Last Time Is Now” tournament, earning him a shot against Cena in his last match at Saturday Night Main Event on Dec. 13.
But before we get to the end, let’s backtrack and analyze this run from the start and consider what could have been.
What made Cena a special wrestler was that he arguably was the biggest baby face ever in wrestling history, and whether you liked him or not, he played the role of the good guy well, and fans loved it. Not only did Cena revolutionize the United States (U.S.) Championship with a spinning title, but his iconic gimmicks, including Dr. Thuganomics, helped catapult his career as a whole.
Chances are, if you’re reading this and don’t watch wrestling, you may not know what a face or heel is, so let me explain. A babyface or face is the hero or ‘good guy” of the story, and the fans love and cheer for them. When you think of babyfaces in wrestling, think of CM Punk and Kofi Kingston as some of the best Babyfaces of our time.
A heel is the opposite of that; they are the villains of the story and will do anything to win, even if it means cheating, humiliating, or disrespecting the fans. To be a really good Heel, you have to be good at being hated and being a villain, something that is not for everyone. Some notable heels are Vince McMahon (both in wrestling and irl) and Randy Orton.
Cena turned heel in his final run and said he would “Ruin Wrestling for everyone.” If he meant that playing a horrible gimmick would ruin wrestling, then he came through.
The cracks in the foundation were starting to show, and it began early on when Cena began a feud with fellow baby face Cody Rhodes, who held the Undisputed WWE Championship. This feud saw Cena finally turn heel with help from The Rock, who said he wanted to take Cody’s soul (We still don’t know what he meant by this.)
The Rock was supposed to be an integral part of Cena’s heel run and help Cena claim the world title during his WrestleMania 41 match against Rhodes. Not only was this match horrible and one of the worst WrestleMania matches in a while, but for some reason, Travis Scott appeared and hit Rhodes with the title before he could pin Cena.
This resulted in Cena low-blowing Rhodes and winning the title for himself and earning it for the 17th time in his career. If this were any other heel than maybe it would’ve worked with the fans, but it just fell flat, and the fans were not happy.
Many, rightfully so, blamed The Rock for inserting himself in a needless feud so he could be the center of attention, but also ruin this heel run because he was the main reason it happened. The WWE writers didn’t have any idea how to write a heel Cena; his promos were not good, his material was lackluster, and The Rock not being there hindered this run by a lot.
With Cena only scheduled for 36 appearances in his final run, we’ve wasted at least half of it with lackluster booking and a failed heel run. This resulted in Cena himself reverting back to a babyface and challenging Rhodes to a match at Summerslam. Cena would lose but this match was far and above better than their previous Mania match.
Cena was not a good heel, and personally, I don’t think he ever could be, so deciding to go with this gimmick in his final run was not only a bad decision by Chief Content Officer, Triple H but also shows how TKO relied on old memories to make a quick cash grab for a potential heel run.
That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy everything, one of my favorite things he did was a pipebomb promo against CM Punk where called him out for being a hypocrite and mentioned other wrestlers he had burned in the past.
Cena had flashes where it seemed like things were going places but ultimately it all fell flat.
A lackluster retirement tour for one of the best to ever do it, it almost feels disrespectful that this is how fans will remember Cena’s last run in the fed, a failed experiment to make a quick buck. When this article is published, we will be days away from Cena’s final match in the WWE and we can only hope he goes out with the respect he has earned.