John Cena Doubles Down On WWE Retirement Claim

2025 has been the year of John Cena in the WWE.

At SummerSlam in 2024, Cena shocked the world by declaring that 2025 would be his last year of WWE in-ring competition. And throughout the year, Cena has performed all over the world on a retirement tour that has captivated audiences.

This year, he won the world championship for a record-setting 17th time at WrestleMania, he's wrestled old foes like Randy Orton, CM Punk, Brock Lesnar, and R-Truth, and he even turned heel for a hot second.

Throughout interviews with the media during his retirement tour, Cena has maintained that he will not wrestle again after his last match on December 13. In an interview on Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday, Cena doubled down on that commitment.

“This has really never been done in WWE history. WWE Superstars don’t necessarily retire, they always kind of hang on for one more match. I am absolutely, 100% done on the 13th of December ... I will never wrestle again.”
John Cena

Cena continued and gave fans and critics permission to call him a liar if he returns to the ring at some point after December 13.

You can call John Cena a liar if he comes back from WWE retirement

"You’ll be able to show this clip and call me a liar," Cena said.

"There is a lot of skepticism out there because this has never been done before. I just hope people can come to grips with that because the reason I wanted to give people so much me time is because being able to perform for two decades, and people allowing me into their living rooms week after week, 52 weeks a year, no reruns, you do feel a connection with people."

The final WWE John Cena match will take place at the WWE Saturday Night's Main Event show on December 13 in Washington DC. Cena will be facing either LA Knight or Gunther in that match.

Thank you @jimmykimmel for my LAST late night show as an active @WWE performer. Excited for everyone to watch #SNME on Dec 13! @JimmyKimmelLive pic.twitter.com/QRb09cWnoe
— John Cena (@JohnCena) December 4, 2025

Knight and Gunther both advanced to the finals of the Last Time Is Now tournament this week on WWE Raw. That final tournament match will take place this week on SmackDown, with the winner going on to Saturday Night's Main Event to face Cena.

That episode of Saturday Night's Main Event will also feature a variety of NXT vs. WWE main roster matches at Cena's request.

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