John Cena: I Took A Big Swing At WrestleMania 41 And We Stunk Up The Joint. We Failed

John Cena headlined his last WrestleMania at WrestleMania 41 when he won the Undisputed WWE Championship from Cody Rhodes.

The match was not well-received as Cena worked to “kill wrestling” and Travis Scott interfered. The two would meet again in the main event of SummerSlam in a street fight that drew rave reviews from fans.

“I think it’s a great template for when I talk to young talent — and I try to do this all the time, I remind them to swing big and don’t be afraid to fail,” Cena told Anthony Sulla-Heffinger of Yahoo’s Uncrowned. “A lot of them think I’m talking from a glass house of like, ‘Yeah, sure, it must be easy for you, because you, you never fail.’ And then I’ll look back, especially on that last year because the retirement tour did have a lot of eyes, and I’ll say I took a big swing at WrestleMania and we stunk up the joint. We failed. But what did I do? I got back up, we dusted ourselves off, course-corrected the ship, and we culminated with a fantastic finishing of the story, as Cody would put it, at SummerSlam.

“As far as the last match goes, gosh, there were a lot of easy routes we could have gone creatively and I appreciate the bold swing at the end. So, it’s authentically me. I didn’t leave anything in the tank physically. I gave it my all, got to work with a great opponent. I thought we had an ending that surely everybody talked about. Regardless of whether it was acclaimed or criticized, it sparked conversation and thought, which I think is really cool.”

Cena is now helping the younger talent by inviting them to the Cena Classic, which will feature main roster stars against NXT talent.

Cody Rhodes was the first invitee. Fans can learn more about the John Cena Classic here.