Joe Hendry: Missing Out On A Match With John Cena Lit A Fire Under Me

Joe Hendry reflects on one of his biggest opportunities.

John Cena took part in his final match at Saturday Night’s Main Event in December 2025. Along with a handful of other matches, the show featured an in-ring segment between The Miz, R-Truth, and Joe Hendry.

Speaking with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp for a new interview, Hendry noted his “incredible experience” at the show and revealed that he got the chance to talk to Cena.

“What I will say, I was super grateful to be a part of the last show. That was a really incredible experience. I got to talk to John there and I was there for when he did his last speech to the locker room. So to be there for that was pretty incredible, as well as appear on the show, to walk out at the end of the show as well to watch John’s last moments as an active WWE competitor, that was very special. So I was very grateful to
be a part of it. It’s one of those things that I have to say that I think everything happens for a reason. There’s part of me that wonders, maybe it had to happen that way. Maybe the match had to not happen for me to [appreciate that] you can’t expect every surprise moment to go your way.”

Hendry went on to say that not being able to wrestle Cena before his retirement motivated him to take his career to the next level.

“I think lit a fire under me actually, because it made me realize that, I guess, my goal was to face John Cena and because it didn’t happen, I was like, ‘Right, well, I need to take this to the next level now.’ I think it motivated me even more. I think the approach I took with going to NXT is I was in the Performance Center every day. I was doing the classes. It was not something that I had to do; it was something that I wanted to do. I really just tried to immerse myself in NXT as much as possible. I think going in with that, [I embraced] NXT to learn how WWE works. I feel I got like extra motivation because sometimes I think if everything just comes to you easily, maybe someone might take it for granted. So I just took it as extra motivation to go, ‘Alright, you know what? I need to dig even deeper to get these big moments to continue to happen.”

Fans can check out Joe Hendry’s entire interview with Fightful in the video linked at the top of this article.

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