With his retirement match against Gunther set for this upcoming weekend at Saturday Night's Main Event, WWE icon John Cena has revealed the significant hurdles he faced in scheduling his year-long farewell tour, citing financial and logistical issues related to his Hollywood career.
In an interview with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, the 17-time World Champion explained that his plans for the tour were finalized over a long period, beginning roughly a year and a half before his 2024 announcement at Money In The Bank, back in 2022.
"About another year and a half. So the whole thing was like 3 years. … By then, I knew I had a lot of opportunities outside of WWE, and those are very difficult to balance. Not just being everywhere – the first half of this year for the tour, I was flying back and forth to Budapest and Morocco, making PLE dates, and man, I literally left Intuit [on January 6] … to land in Budapest to shoot the next day. That's a scheduling thing."
Credit: WWE
Cena stated that the single biggest hurdle to his in-ring activity was insurance, which he described as "super pricey". He explained that getting injured while wrestling would result in a pause on any film or TV roles, and film studios were often unwilling to allow him to wrestle while shooting a movie.
Due to the potential financial cost and the sheer impossibility of balancing the demands, Cena admitted he had often had to pay out of pocket for insurance just to be able to make his limited dates.
Cena continued that avoiding injury was a main priority for him throughout 2025 because getting hurt in the ring would force a pause on any film or TV roles until he was healthy. His dedication to upholding his promise to the WWE audience to retire without a comeback led him to take such precautions.
Despite the challenges, Cena will compete in his final match this Saturday, December 13th, at Saturday Night's Main Event against Gunther. Gunther defeated LA Knight in the final of "The Last Time Is Now" tournament to earn the right to retire Cena.
Related Headlines
