John Cena explained his decision to retire in December 2025 during an appearance on No-Contest Wrestling, revealing that the timing was a strategic business move to bolster WWE’s traditionally “weak” fourth-quarter performance. Cena noted that December has historically been a difficult month for live attendance and viewership due to holiday spending and the gap between Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble.
“I’ll tell you why I specifically chose December to retire. There is a lot of stuff going on in December and in the WWE calendar, like Survivor Series is the last one, and then everyone waits for the Rumble. December is like a month in limbo. They’ve never really been able to crack that code. And with people on holiday, there’s until the holiday season is over, until like the 26th, tickets are tough to sell, yeah, because people are spending on holiday presents. So it’s a weak month for viewership. It’s a weak month for live attendance. Fans are like, Wait till January. We’ve advertised it. That’s when the road to WrestleMania starts. Right when I presented this idea to Nick Khan and Triple H, they were awesome. Who do you want to work with? What event do you want to retire at? I simply said that Hunter, who I want to work with is up to you. That’s your department. I have never been that guy. I don’t want to take this last year and change who I am. You deal in my plan. Nick, from a business perspective, the data that I’ve gathered over 23 years of doing business, December is soft. WrestleMania is going to sell itself.
So retiring at WrestleMania is selfish. It doesn’t do anything for the business. We retire in December, our weakest month, and we take the middle of December, the dry zone that desert from the end of Survivor Series to the beginning of the Rumble, we put it like right in the middle of December, because I know once you do the holiday tour, the houses will come back. You guys will make money. Let’s show a profit in Q4. And you put whatever arena you want, doesn’t matter. I have no affiliation in geography, just let’s get, let’s get ourselves in the best position to have the best December we can because I feel it’s an event that people will pay to see. And sure enough, it works. But like that was my thought process, selfishly, do you want to be the last match of WrestleMania? Sure, but the event sells itself, and in doing so, you get the trickle-down economics of like, okay, now we got a freebie in December. Bring up the young kids. Get them in front of the noise. You got nothing to lose. Let’s have a night of no storylines. Exhibition matches Drago versus Creed. Let’s do that stuff. So, just in targeting, where can we improve the most? What’s our weakness, and how can we turn it into a strength that trickles down into, like, Yo, how can we make this something bigger than just a Saturday night, you know? That’s kind of my thought process behind that, and they bought it. So, hey, we did all right. Nick Khan was like, that’s a good idea. Okay, so thank you, Nick, for doing that.”
Cena’s final match took place on December 13, 2025, at Saturday Night’s Main Event XLII. The event was held at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., in front of a sold-out crowd of over 19,000 fans. In accordance with Cena’s plan to showcase young talent, the card featured several cross-brand exhibition matches, including:
- Gunther def. John Cena: “The Ring General” won the main event via submission with a sleeper hold, marking Cena’s first submission loss in over 20 years.
- Sol Ruca def. Bayley: The NXT standout secured a major victory over the veteran following a “Sol Snatcher”.
- Cody Rhodes vs. Oba Femi: The champion vs. champion opening match ended in a no-contest after Drew McIntyre interfered.
- AJ Styles & Dragon Lee def. Je’Von Evans & Leon Slater: A tag team match pitting main roster stars against talent from NXT and TNA.
Following the match, Cena performed the traditional retirement gesture of leaving his sneakers and wristbands in the center of the ring. He was joined by the WWE roster, with CM Punk and Cody Rhodes notably offering Cena their championship belts to hold during his final salute to the fans. Triple H, addressing the fan backlash over Cena’s loss, explained that Cena’s philosophy has always been about leaving the industry “better than you found it”.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit No-Contest Wrestling with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
