After more than 20 years at the top of WWE, John Cena ended his in-ring career in unusual fashion. Instead of retiring at WrestleMania, he had his final match on December 13, 2025, at Saturday Night’s Main Event XLII, where he lost to Gunther in front of over 19,000 fans at Capital One Arena.
Now, Cena says that the decision was very intentional.
Speaking on the No Contest Wrestling podcast, the 17-time WWE Champion explained that he chose December deliberately to help WWE during a slower time of year.
John Cena Says December Timing Made More Sense Than WrestleMania
During the podcast, host O’Shea Jackson Jr. brought up the fact that Cena has never won a championship in December. And then, he connects that fact with his retirement in the same month.
John Cena then revealed the real reason why he chose to retire in December. He said that the month usually feels like a waiting period for fans between Survivor Series and Royal Rumble. Moreover, business can slow down during the holidays when fans are busy spending money elsewhere.
So, he pitched the idea to WWE executives Nick Khan and Triple H that his final match should happen in December.
“So it’s a weak month for viewership. It’s a weak month for live attendance. And the fan fans are like, ‘Wait till January.’ We’ve advertised it. That’s when the road to WrestleMania starts. 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, is December is soft. WrestleMania is going to sell itself,” Cena said.
Cena felt that retiring at WrestleMania would be “selfish.”
“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,” he added.
Cena also liked that it gave younger wrestlers a chance to shine without the pressure that comes with WrestleMania weekend. He stated that it would also be an opportunity for WWE to identify its weaknesses and learn how to turn them into strengths.
“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, we did all right. Nick Khan was like, ‘That’s a good idea.’ So thank you, Nick, for doing that,” Cena said.
In the end, it worked. The event drew a full crowd in Washington, D.C., and created major buzz, especially for a December show.
Read More: John Cena’s 17th WWE World Title Win Was Planned To Happen Much Earlier
