John Cena has finally broken his silence on his reitrement from WWE.
Apart from a closely guarded appearance on Cody Rhodes’ podcast where he seemingly spoke in riddles, Cena has not given a major interview where he details his exit from WWE.
A place where he performed for 23 years and was on top for a good 20 of them. Cena deserved a special send-off and the Kobe Bryant retirement tour didn’t feel out of place.
But, to many fans, the 48-year-old tapping out in his final match did indeed feel out of place.
Not Cena. The 17-time world champion thought it was ‘perfect’.
Speaking at the Fan Expo New Orleans, Cena shared his thoughts.
“Losing my last match against Gunther, thank you. Thank you to remind me that you’re allowed to have your opinion, and thank you for not just conforming to uh to a certain set of standards.
“Thank you for being vocal enough to express how you felt because every moment can be a teachable moment. I put together, my job is to try to put together a story that I think you all enjoy.
“And when there’s critical opinion out there, I’m all ears. I don’t ignore the critics, I’m thankful for them for DC [Saturday Night’s Main Event and every match I had before that].
“And like I said, I kind of parallel to my career, I think it was a perfect end because a whole lot of people thought it sucked and a whole lot of people thought it was special.
It’s not hard to buy into Cena’s rationale. He was one of the most popular babyfaces ever for a short spell after winning his first world title in 2005 and as WWE entered the PG era a few years later, he became a symbol for children.
Older, more hardcore fans did not enjoy his one dimensional character. Though, by the winter of his career, Cena had enough equity with the fans and had earned enough respect to garner admiration.
Well deserved, too.
