John Cena Can’t Say He’ll Never Wrestle Again but It’ll be Costly

Have we truly seen John Cena's final WWE match?

It appeared that John Cena officially wrapped up his in-ring WWE career in 2025 when he went on a year-long retirement tour before losing in his final match of the year to Gunther at Saturday Night's Main Event. While retirements in professional wrestling have never been a sure thing, most believed that Cena's would be one that stuck.

Since retirement, Cena has continued to appear on WWE programming in 2026, from hosting WrestleMania 42 to announcing the upcoming John Cena Classic; it doesn't appear the WWE Universe will be saying goodbye to the "Never Seen 17" anytime soon. But could that potentially lead to one more match?

John Cena believes it would be "financial suicide" for someone to court him into another match

WWE Legend John Cena recently spoke with Us Weekly. When asked about the possibility of "one more match" and how realistic that scenario would be, Cena refused to speak in absolutes but admitted it would be financial suicide for someone to try to court him into having another match.

"I hate speaking in absolutes … 'Never' is a strong word," John Cena admitted. "It would be financial suicide for someone to court me in a position where I would have another match, and I truly mean that. So if you’re in the business of torching currency, that's the only way to get me back in the ring. Aside from that, the reason 'one more match' resonated so well for me, first of all, I got to express to the fans of how fulfilled I felt when I retired.

"Second of all, the interest of an audience being like, 'We want to see you again!' gets me excited for the new idea of the John Cena Classic. We can do this again. I’ll be there. It'll be fan-forward and fan-first. I won't be so focused on, 'Man, this match means everything to me. I've got to make sure I give all I have when the music plays and I'm under the lights.'

"I get to watch other performers, so I can kind of be the ambassador for the event, and I can get out there and meet with people that matter most in my life, the fans. I really can’t wait for this thing to find its legs, for us to get a city and a date and move forward. And I can't wait for it to happen. So when I hear 'one more match,' I hear [that] there's still interest, the heart still beats."

John Cena wants to remain active in WWE without returning to the ring

While the chants of "one more match" do mean a great deal to Cena, he hopes to find a way he can remain active with WWE without being an in-ring competitor, which is seemingly the reason for the creation of the John Cena Classic.

"I'm trying to think in my head, how can we gear this to where I can be there, be active, and be included, but allow others to do the thing I can no longer do," John Cena continued. "I hope we have it with the John Cena Classic."

While a John Cena in-ring return is probably unrealistic, he seems like the type of person who wouldn't want to step on the moment he and Gunther created at Saturday Night's Main Event. If Cena were to return for another match, it would certainly diminish The Career Killer's accomplishment.

More details on the John Cena Classic are expected to be announced in the coming months.

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