John Cena Announces Retirement From WWE

Sixteen-time world champion wrestler John Cena announced his retirement Saturday at WWE’s Money in the Bank at ScotiaBank Arena in Toronto, which Cena said was the “perfect” location to make the announcement.

In recent years, Cena has shown off a towel that read “Never give up.”

This time it read, “The Last Time Is Now,” a reference to his opening song, “The Time Is Now.”

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John Cena celebrates his victory at WrestleMania in New Orleans on April 6, 2014. (Jonathan Bachman/AP Images for WWE, file)

Cena also wore a T-shirt that read “The Last Time Is Now Tour” and “John Cena Farewell.”

Cena said he would compete in the Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania next year, which would be his final events. Chants of “Thank you Cena” then rang out from the crowd.

“Thank you for letting me play in the house you built for so many years,” Cena told the crowd.

Now a Hollywood superstar, Cena made his WWE debut in 2002 and quickly became a fan favorite. His first dominant act was as a trash-talking rapper, nicknamed the “Doctor of Thuganomics.”

Two of his most famous matches came at WrestleMania 2011 and 2012, both against Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Cena lost the first but won the second.

John Cena returns to WWE for the WWE Universal Championship during Money in the Bank at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas on July 18, 2021. (Joe Camporeale/USA Today Sports)

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Cena has been a part-time fighter for the past five years. His most recent return, before Saturday, came on night two of WrestleMania XL when Cody Rhodes dethroned Roman Reigns as the undisputed WWE champion.

He won his first of 16 world championships at WrestleMania XXI in 2005 at the age of 28.

Outside of the ring and acting, he is known for granting the most wishes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, granting nearly 700.

Due to his in-ring success and unmatched popularity throughout the 2010s, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest WWE performers of all time and is often placed on hypothetical WWE “Mount Rushmore” lists.

John Cena enters the ring at WWE SummerSlam 2015 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on August 23, 2015. (JP Yim/Getty Images)

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Cena has headlined WrestleMania five times, and with next year’s event in Las Vegas being his farewell, it’s fair to assume he’ll headline a sixth WrestleMania.

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