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WWE fans are still in mourning after John Cena, who preached to “Never Give Up,” gave up in his final match.
Cena, 48, went up against Gunther at Saturday Night’s Main Event earlier this month for his final time in the ring after a farewell tour that began when he announced his in-ring retirement in the summer of 2024.
Cena tapped out, and WWE’s chief content officer was booed upon coming out to congratulate Cena on a legendary career. He was also hit with chants of “you f—ed up,” referencing his apparent decision to have Cena lose.
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John Cena and Seth Rollins face off during Night Of Champions at Kingdom Arena on June 28, 2025, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Joe Maher/WWE via Getty Images)
However, WWE superstar Seth Rollins hinted that Cena had no problem with the supposed decision, especially considering that legends usually lose their last match to pass the torch.
“If John Cena had just won the match, you wouldn’t be asking any questions about it. We’re not even having the conversation. No one would be saying the name Gunther. None of this would be going on. At the end of the day, it’s always about what’s next, and John understood that better than anybody,” Rollins told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. “He understood that it was never about what you’re doing in the moment, it’s about what’s coming next. And you have to prepare for the future.
“The business rolls on. The shows keep coming. The audience changes. The machine powers through. So my feeling is I saw John smile before he tapped out, and I think he knew exactly what he was doing.”
Much of Cena’s farewell tour was seen live on Netflix, as the WWE and the streaming service reached a deal to broadcast “Monday Night Raw” beginning this past January — the Netflix debut also happened to be Hulk Hogan’s last WWE appearance.
Seth Rollins enters the arena during “Monday Night Raw” at RAC Arena on Oct. 13, 2025, in Perth, Australia. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE via Getty Images)
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But it was yet another way for Netflix to tap into sports and entertainment, as it has done with boxing, the NFL, and, starting next year, Major League Baseball.
Rollins, a Chicago Bears fan, will be behind the mic for Christmas Day’s Detroit Lions-Minnesota Vikings game on Netflix.
“I’ll be clad and looking nice and saying Merry Christmas to the world on Netflix while talking about football, and I’ll try to scoot back home and spend the evening with my girls,” Rollins said.
Rollins has appeared on “Good Morning Football” and even hosted “The Rich Eisen Show” as part of his “Ruse of the Century.”
“I’ve got a substantial amount of broadcasting background,” Rollins joked. “It’s been a cool year for me to be able to sit down and talk football with some people who really know a thing or two about football. So I’m looking forward to taking my skills to the big stage on Netflix on Christmas Day and hopefully I can keep up with the boys and girls who know more than I do.”
With Cena’s wild year that went from face to heel back to face, it seemed like if anyone were to win their final match in WWE, it would be Cena, considering his farewell tour dubbed him the “last real champion.”
But if Cena wouldn’t do it, Rollins can’t imagine anyone will.
John Cena makes his entrance during Crown Jewel at RAC Arena on October 11, 2025 in Perth, Australia. (Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images)
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“What you may not get ever again is this Derek Jeter, Kobe Bryant-type retirement. I think that’s the thing, is once it’s done, no one else is gonna do it, and John was the perfect person to say, because he’s John, ‘I’m going to retire at the end of next year, I’m gonna do a full calendar, and then I’m done, and that’s it.’ And he’s never coming back,” Rollins said.
“You know, you see all these guys, they go through these retirements, and then they come back and have 16 different unretirement matches and re-retirement matches, whatever. He’s not going to do that. John, I promise you will never wrestle another match in his career, and I think you will not get to see another top talent do what John has done. I don’t know if any talent would want to. You know, John’s the kind of guy that’s like, ‘I wanted to go to all these places that I’ve been for 20-plus years and give the fans one more opportunity to interact with me and to see me perform.’ And so I don’t know that we’ll ever get that again. And it was a very special year. It’ll be very sad to see what the WWE looks like with no John Cena for the foreseeable future.”
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