John Cena Sets His 2025 WWE Retirement
John Cena’s retirement announcement at WWE Money in the Bank in July 2024 was a firm plan, but not an immediate exit. He said he would wrestle through 2025, including WrestleMania 41, and then end his in-ring career. Cena completed that farewell run: his final match was against Gunther at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13, 2025.
What Cena announced in Toronto
At the July 6, 2024 Money in the Bank event in Toronto, Cena told the crowd that 2025 would be his final year as an in-ring competitor. He specifically named the 2025 Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania 41 among the events he planned to wrestle. He later clarified that WrestleMania 41 would be his last WrestleMania, not necessarily his last match; the farewell tour was expected to continue through the rest of the year.
The announcement gave fans a defined final season rather than a sudden retirement date. Cena had spent much of his later WWE career balancing wrestling with acting and other commitments, so the tour gave the company and its audience time to celebrate his work while introducing the next generation of performers. The schedule also made clear that his planned retirement concerned in-ring competition; it did not mean he would stop appearing in entertainment or sever his relationship with WWE.
How the farewell ended
In 2025, Cena competed throughout the farewell year, won a record-setting 17th recognized WWE world championship at WrestleMania 41, and later returned to the role of challenger for the closing stretch of his tour. WWE billed his December 13 match with Gunther at Saturday Night’s Main Event as his final contest. Gunther won by submission, and WWE subsequently described Cena as retired from in-ring competition at the end of 2025.
For fans, the lasting significance of Cena’s statement is that he followed through on the retirement he announced publicly. His final year connected a long career to a planned goodbye, with appearances across the calendar rather than a single last WrestleMania. He remains associated with WWE, but the company’s official profile now records that his in-ring career ended in 2025.
Sources
WWE: Cena announces 2025 retirement · WWE: Saturday Night’s Main Event, December 2025 · WWE: John Cena profile · WWE: Gunther earns the final-match opportunity
Sources
Tags: Wrestling
