A recent episode of the WWE RAW Recap podcast featured John Cena. One of the topics discussed included Cena’s thoughts about his final appearance at Madison Square Garden for his wrestling career and the importance of the legendary venue for WWE.
“I think the significance of this building should never be lost on sports entertainment. I know that there are events that are bigger and bolder and can fit more people. But I believe we can learn a lot from history, and I think that every person in WWE should understand the history of this place.
And that way when they’re awarded the opportunity to stand on the canvas, this building shouldn’t just mean something to me. And over the years, I’ve seen the importance kind of erode away. And I think it’s got a resurgence now. And I’m very, I’m very — that makes me feel good. Because this is a place where if you are allowed to perform here, you are a professional.”
Cena also gave his thoughts about how he’s never changed his mind about switching timeframe for his retirement despite the praise for his matches since this past August’s SummerSlam 2025 event.
“No. I think the thing that’s helping me push myself across the finish line is there is no tomorrow. So, I’ve always given everything I have. What I love — again, you’re saying a lot of stuff — so what I love is, ‘Hey man, as a fan, I think you’re having the best matches of your career right now.’ I have heard that through many phases of my career. I got to switch to the Hip Hop John Cena, and then was put in a lot of matches to quote-unquote toughen myself up. I heard that then, and then the era of Super Cena happened and then I got put with opponents who were supposed to be bad guys but they loved ‘em. The Punks, giving Bryan Danielson a shot, Edge. ‘Hey, you’re having some of the best matches of your career right now.’ Fast forward to the United States Open Challenge. ‘Hey man, you’re having some of the best matches of your career right now,’ and then for you to be able to say that right now means a lot. You can pontificate, of like, you should do X, Y and Z. But I’ve always wanted to stay curious and I’ve always wanted to leave the door open for a path of growth. You can never master sports entertainment. You can never master WWE. There’s always something to learn, and me with all this time under tension, I’m still learning and I’m still growing and I’m still trying to perfect my craft, and my body is beat up. It takes me a while to warm up for these matches and it takes me a while to cool down, and I wanna leave, given the audience shows up being like, you’re doing the best work of your career. I will say that’s helping push me across the goal line. That’s keeping my mind fresh. I’m always working with talent that I’ve worked with before, that I’ve had new opponents to work with so they’re bringing new ideas. I’m working with new talent. It’s great in that regard that there is that curiosity to still learn. I don’t think that I’ll ever be extinguished, but I do have to listen to my health and there’s not one piece that it’s like, hey, it should go past December 13th. I know there’s a lot of speculation — there was at one point, of like, ‘Oh, they’re just gonna run him through to WrestleMania’ because that’s the end of everyone’s story. That’s just the end of everyone’s story because that’s the way everybody did it before me. I told everybody 15 months ago that I was gonna do this. I told them I was gonna do a year, and I’m gonna do a year and after this, it’s done. I don’t say that as a bad thing. I say that as a collective, that I’ve (been) allowed to do this for 23 years, at a very high output, and to hear the, ‘You’re having some of the best matches of your career’ in the fourth generation of installments that I’ve heard that. It validates that I’m not the only one who’s exhausted. Every time I come through the curtain, I think everybody feels emotionally, like, man, he gave us all he had, and I think — or at least I hope — after the 13th of December, people understand that that’s all I’m trying to do is just give it everything I got.”
Cena also gave his thoughts about his recent stuff with Dominik Mysterio and how Mysterio reminds him of his younger self in WWE.
“What an awesome opportunity and I just came from Liverpool. Did two days there at a convention over the weekend and so many people — again, incredibly grateful for the ability to get in there with Dom Mysterio, who I respect and admire. He reminds me a lot of me and he reminds me a lot of the mistakes I made. I can see all of the mistakes that are about to happen with him, and I wanna shake him and be like, you’re gonna do this! But I want him to learn for himself. But he is authentic, he’s reliable, he works hard and he’s passionate about the business. He’ll figure the rest out. But what a chance, in Boston, to have a championship match, and because it’s not what Stone Cold would do. Like, yeah, yeah, I’d like that match. It can be done your own way. There’s no right way to be a success in this business. It’s just take opportunities as they come and I got a cool opportunity to do something special and man, it was a special moment so thank you for that bringing that up.”
Cena also gave his thoughts about how he was happy to see Zack Ryder, also known as Matt Cardona in TNA and the indies, make a return appearance to WWE as one of the mystery competitors for The Last Time Is Now Tournament on the November 14th WWE SmackDown show.
“Man, I was very, very glad to see Zack Ryder come back. Matt (Cardona) is a personal friend of mine. I can speak candidly like that and I’ve seen his mind grow. You wanna talk about I was being curious in a quest for growth. With Zack Ryder, I knew from a long time ago, has accrued so much sports entertainment wisdom, and it’s amazing, when we have interactions, he’ll tell me about his journey and be like, ‘This is what you were trying to talk about before and I wasn’t ready to understand it,’ and I like rooting for people who are humble enough to admit when they’re wrong and always wanna grow and are doing things for the greater good of the business. Matt’s certainly one of those guys… His wife Chelsea (Green) is certainly one of those folks, who takes an opportunity and makes the absolute best out of it and I was really happy to see Zack Ryder back.”
Cena also confirmed that it was his idea to do WWE main roster talent vs. NXT talent exhibition matches for the card of his retirement show for the upcoming December 13th WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event show in Washington, D.C.
“I really wanna take my hat off to Triple H. I called him up, I said, ‘I got an idea. We gotta do two hours for the tribute show, and if you do a whole John Cena tribute, two things are gonna happen. You’re either gonna do too much or too little. You’re never gonna please everybody. I would like to propose that we have big-name WWE superstars fight in exhibition matches versus the brightest in NXT.’ So that way, we have a sold-out building. Hopefully, the world’s watching on Saturday Night’s Main Event. I get to wrestle one final time. But in doing that, everyone also gets to look at what to look forward to. I think that’s the most important thing. Yes, it’s my last match but it’s collectively. We’re all just kind of closing a chapter of an era in sports entertainment, and I want people to be able to look forward to what’s next.”
Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com, Fightful.com 1, 2, 3, & 4
TNA Announces New TV Deal with AMC
WWE: Lash Legend & Trick Williams Get Engaged, Dominik Mysterio on His Wife Encouraged Him To Pursue Wrestling Career When He Didn’t Want To, More News
NJPW World Tag League 2025 Night 8 Results, Night 9 Card, Updated Standings
