WWE news, rumors: John Cena admits he’s ‘close’ to retirement, gives timeline for last WWE match

John Cena sees retirement on the horizon. Cena is motivated to mix it up with today’s WWE superstars but knows the clock is ticking on his in-ring career.

Cena recently completed a two-month run with WWE that concluded with a loss to Solo Sikoa at Crown Jewel. It was the 16-time world champion’s longest continuous run with the company since becoming a part-time act in 2019. Cena has performed in a WWE ring every year since 2002, but he knows that streak won’t last.

“Yes, I hope so,” Cena said of an in-ring return while speaking with Logan Paul on the “Impaulsive” podcast. “I’m not officially done. I know that I’m close. I’m close. I can feel it. 

“The product has become so crisp and so fast and so skilled. It is a different world. I love and I still feel fluent. I would like to say goodbye when I still feel fluent. It’s coming and to the point where… you know the moment in the sunset where it starts to go down, ‘Man, it’s going down real fast.’ That’s kind of where I’m at. I’m not done, but I need to decide when I am.”

Cena offered a slightly narrowed retirement timeline in an interview with ET. Cena plans to stop wrestling before he’s 50. That puts his latest end date at April 22, 2027. WrestleMania traditionally takes place in early April so he could squeeze in a finale at WrestleMania 43 if he chooses.

“I’m gonna be 47 this year,” Cena said. “I feel great. So inside, I feel great, but I know what it takes to be a WWE performer night in and night out, and I don’t ever wanna just go out there and do it to do it. I wanna have the passion, the same passion as the fanbase, and I wanna give them exactly what they give me.”

“The miles on the odometer say, ‘Hey, that’s gotta be done before 50.’”

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson recently joined the board of WWE’s parent company TKO Group Holdings. Paul Levesque, formerly Triple H, is the chief content officer and head of creative for WWE. Cena does not have designs on becoming an executive in the wrestling world like his legendary rivals.

“What I would love to give to the business is my time,” Cena said. “I live very close to the Performance Center and I would like to go in as a guest and that way I’m not obligated and they’re not obligated in any way. It’s stuff I do in my free time anyway.

“I’m fortunate enough to have some other stuff going on and I’ll be focusing on that too, but I always want to be involved in the business. I get so passionate about it and it’s something that I love and I think I have a few pieces of wisdom that need to be passed on, I don’t think it should die with me. I’ll try to do that the best I can.”