All of us noticed it coming. As soon as John Cena shocked the wrestling world by asserting his retirement after 2025 at Cash within the Financial institution final July, him profitable his record-breaking seventeenth World Championship was preordained. Wrestling followers world wide had been on board with the WWE engineering a championship run for a person who hadn’t received a singles competitors in seven years, and was hardly a part of the corporate over that point interval. They had been so on board that they gladly sacrificed suspense for success. This was 20-plus years within the making, and generations of followers had been able to see him make historical past at WrestleMania 41.
Then, he did. And it sucked. However why?
Earlier than Cena received his generational battle with Cody Rhodes, the inheritor obvious to his babyface throne, the WWE was working a storyline improvement masterclass for the ages. Whereas everybody handled the Royal Rumble as a formality for Cena to get to WrestleMania, Chief Content material Officer Triple H (we’ll get to him later) and the WWE writers had been nonetheless in a position to generate shock inside this predictable rollout by not solely having Cena be eradicated on the finish of the Royal Rumble, but additionally by placing fan favourite Jey Uso onto a well-deserved championship observe. Then, after merely being added to the Elimination Chamber as a result of he’s John Cena, he books his ticket to a WrestleMania title match with a win earlier than continuing to shatter each Cena’s fan’s coronary heart by siding with the soul-stealing Ultimate Boss The Rock and executing the most surprising heel flip in skilled wrestling historical past. After which, in some of the scathing heel promos ever, he decreased a younger little one to tears by presenting his 20-plus-year relationship with the followers as an abusive one through which he did every part for them and so they nonetheless needed extra.
The Rock was the orchestrator. Travis Scott was excessive and giving Rhodes a black eye. Cena being chosen to be the face of the corporate by the insidious Vince McMahon was introduced up, as was Rhodes solely being within the place he’s due to Cena’s absence and Rhodes copying him. The whole lot was set. All that was left was for Cena and Rhodes to placed on the historic WrestleMania matches they’ve been recognized to do individually. Boy, did they not.
After uninspired fisticuffs, the match devolved to easily an trade of ending strikes earlier than concluding in one of many weakest endings in WrestleMania historical past. After getting his lick again on Travis Scott by hitting the Cactus Jack rapper with a Cross Rhodes, the champion wouldn’t strike Cena with the championship belt. Why? By the look on his face, it seems he didn’t need to win the fallacious manner. Effectively, that Captain America the Aristocracy bullshit bought him kicked within the groin and knocked out, making him the loser of the match. No shock interference exterior of Travis Scott, no ruthless aggression, no sustained back-and-forth preventing. It was the equal of the WWE shoving the full-course meal you ordered in your face and telling you to take pleasure in what you requested for. At a WrestleMania that featured Seth Rollins’ shock alliance with Paul Heyman; Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley, and Bianca Belair placing on an instantaneous basic triple-threat match; and Jey Uso profitable the World Heavyweight Championship, Cena’s title match can be an afterthought if not for the historical past made.
Even with all of that disappointment, I’m not prepared to surrender on the WWE’s grand plan. Probably the most promising signal that the WWE has a worthwhile plan which that horrible WrestleMania 41 fundamental occasion suits into is Cena’s expressed want to “damage wrestling.” Earlier right now on The Pat McAfee Present, Cena broke down a part of his post-WrestleMania plan, and it fairly actually sounds just like the WWE’s model of DC Comics’ Disaster on Infinite Earths through which the DC timeline was reset, liberated of its burdensome multiverse.
“I’m going to make wrestling begin over. That championship is coming dwelling with me, and I would be the final undisputed WWE champion, interval. They’re going to need to make a brand new title. They’re going to have to start out the over once more.”
Retiring a championship is really next-level heel shit. Beating somebody to a bloody pulp, knocking somebody off of a bridge, and nailing the boss’s daughter to a cross to sacrifice her are unhealthy. Having the balls to take away a championship is a seismic change that may very well be a sensible transfer. Cena delivering a WrestleMania match that felt like a formality greater than a battle and robbing followers of the kind of five-star match that requires you to place your physique on the road may completely be Cena’s manner of ruining wrestling. Think about if the remainder of his wrestling profession is centered on merely eradicating every part constructive that followers anticipate yearly, after which leaving with a title they’ve recollections connected to. That will be a scorched Earth plan I can get behind.
One other saving grace for the WWE is time. Cena has already dedicated to wrestling till the tip of December, with one other 27-37 matches left to go after initially stipulating he’ll wrestle in 30-40 matches in his ultimate 12 months. To date, he’s solely wrestled in Premium Reside Occasions. If he’s going to hit that variety of matches, it’s protected to imagine we’ll be seeing him wrestle on RAW and Smackdown. With the championship already received, the subsequent eight full months generally is a assortment of dream matches and title defenses. Possibly Cena can lastly beat Roman Reigns in a Singles match after failing the earlier two instances. Possibly the sleeping large Randy Orton goes again to his Legend Killer methods and begins his personal potential retirement tour by ending Cena’s with a loss.
We’ll nearly actually get a Cena/Rhodes rematch, or we’ll riot. If Cena and WWE’s plans are for the newly 17-time World Champion to damage wrestling, they’re off to an excellent begin.
