John Cena Says The Original Plan Was To Do A Full Year Retirement Tour, ‘I Wanted To Do 220 Dates’

At WWE Money in the Bank 2024, John Cena announced that 2025 was going to be his last year as an in-ring performer. It was later announced that Cena would work 36 dates as part of his retirement run.

His first date was on January 4th at the WWE Raw on Netflix premiere, and his final date will be on December 13th when he competes in his final match. Throughout the year, Cena has continued to film and promote other projects, including flying to different countries in the middle of the run.

“‘Hey man, 36 dates must have been easy this year.’ I did too many jobs. I was in Budapest, flying to Indy, do Indy, fly back, land, go film. Doing that until post-WrestleMania. Back and forth to Morocco, Budapest, all these crazy places that weren’t easy commutes. You think you can do it, ‘I’ll sleep on the plane.’ You don’t. It doesn’t happen. Then, you get upside down and you’re super fatigued. I threaded the needle just enough,” said Cena while speaking to Bill Simmons of The Ringer.

He continued, revealing his original idea.

“The plan, originally, was to do a full year. This goes to show my ignorance of the business. I wanted to do 220 dates. Just take the year off from everything, hop on a bus, do a full WWE calendar, and totally say goodbye. Thank goodness the business isn’t like that anymore. I’d be done. They only needed me for 36,” he said.

Cena will face either LA Knight or Gunther in his retirement match on December 13th.

Elsewhere during the interview, Cena reflected on his heel turn. You can find his full comments here.

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