John Cena appeared on WWE Cash at the Vault Premium Live Match over the weekend, using the miraculous appearance to announce his complete departure from wrestling. The Cena Display isn’t over yet, however, as it announced it would compete “throughout” 2025 before formally and completely move away from the festival inside the ring.
It’s unclear what exactly Cena means by competing at speed, but Cena is reportedly already locked in for the Royal Rumble, Removal Chamber, and WrestleMania 41.
With this type of major announcement, speculation is mounting about what 2025 will hold for one of the biggest stars in WWE history. Can Cena win a world title for his 17th career appearance, breaking Ric Aptitude’s record for many stints as world champion? Will an individual party eligible for primary presentation win since 2018?
Let’s have a few laughs and try out some possible stops along with John Cena’s exit ride.
Successful Royal Rumble or Eliminating Chamber
Cena’s latest run through WWE should be nothing like his recent sporadic appearances in which Cena used to be older to position himself over younger talent, losing singles matches to Austin Concept and Solo Sikoa. In this presentation round, Cena must be in the main match participating in the presentation as a great player.
When Cena heads to WrestleMania, it should be in a main match role, not a random mid-card match. As mentioned, another run as world champion would give Cena the record for most runs as world champion in wrestling history. Cena could get to the all-important title opportunity at WrestleMania 41 in one of two ways, either by winning the Royal Rumble or the Removal Chamber, scheduled for January and February, respectively.
If WWE plans to name Cena and he doesn’t plan to compete on WrestleMania day, it would also be a way for him to win the Heavyweight Championship in the arena in the Royal Rumble match, but it seems there isn’t enough of it present. to create Cena in a global identity setting.
Successful heavyweight championship in the arena.
Assuming Cena wins any of the above matches and has a shot at WrestleMania, it will most likely make sense to chase the World Heavyweight Championship. The undisputed WWE championship held by Cody Rhodes could be linked in some way with any member of The Bloodline. Rhodes vs. Cena would get a lot of attention as an epic crash of elite babyfaces, but the easiest route would be for Cena to blow up whoever has the arena’s heavyweight championship. This also makes sense if you think that Cena’s exit trip is to help significantly shape Raw’s transition to Netflix.
At least for life, it seems that Gunther is destined to win the world heavyweight championship at some point before the end of the run, probably already at SummerSlam. Cena’s history of primarily participating in the wrestling version of a superhero would pair well with a dominant heel like Gunther.
An old-fashioned feud with Randy Orton
Orton and Cena have a long history that comes with many pay-per-view matches. Cena’s last years must have references to his most mythical rivalries and key issues in his career. Era Orton has been involved in Bloodline-related storylines since returning from shock, he hasn’t really had a defined route as an individual wrestler.
It looks like that could soon change for Orton, likely with a heel move. If Orton turns heel in the coming months, he would form an excellent foil for some point during Cena’s return. That could come before or after a potential victory for Cena’s name, but fans would certainly be keen to enact the return of one of the biggest rivalries that defined the late 2000s and early 2010s in WWE.
Cena conflicting parties possible alternatives
- With The Rock back in the mix, WWE could generate a lot of entertainment by pairing Cena and Rock for a perfect match. It feels like that won’t be the case since Rock is so deeply invested in the overall Bloodline story and splitting Rock and Cena’s combined drawing power will probably be the best business move. However, the theory that those two titans collide is enough to get the blood pumping.
- CM Punk and Cena produced arguably the best match of Cena’s career, and one of the best matches in WWE history, at Cash in the Vault 2011. Punk and Cena are a paranormal couple in their juxtaposition. Punk is everything Cena is not, a literal punk who had to scratch and claw to find his fix for leadership of an organization that had primarily anointed Cena before he had even made a single run. Once again, old Cena callbacks need to be on the menu for 2025.
- There isn’t enough juice left for a long program, but the re-debuting Uncle Good Day and his Wyatt Sick6 could reunite for an interesting short program with Cena. Next, Cena had an iconic WrestleMania pandemic “match” with Bray Wyatt inside the Firefly Funhouse. Having Cena participate in that brief game with Wyatt’s brother as a sort of tribute is also a fun and quite touching life.
