Dave Meltzer Analyzes Schedule For John Cena's 2025 WWE Retirement Tour

The wrestling world is still coming to terms with the fact that 2025 will be the final year John Cena puts on his jorts as an in-ring competitor. Cena took to the microphone at Money in the Bank 2024 to officially announce that the sun is setting on his wrestling career, and that "the last time is now." There was some initial confusion as to whether WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas would be the place he would be retiring. However, Cena later clarified that the 2025 retirement tour would last the entire year, with December being his eventual ending point.

Now that the news has sunk in, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter broke down how he thinks Cena's final year in WWE will pan out from a scheduling perspective. Meltzer noted that with WWE moving to Netflix in January, Cena will be featured heavily on "WWE Raw" during his retirement tour as a way to kick off the new partnership in a big way. What this also means is Cena's acting schedule will be a lot lighter in 2025, due to the fact the man himself has previously stated that balancing a full-time acting career and a wrestling career is beyond difficult.

Cena has already stated that the Royal Rumble on February 1 will be his last, as will next year's Elimination Chamber, which has yet to be officially announced, implying that Cena will have a heavy involvement in the first third of the year as the company builds towards WrestleMania 41 in April. Whether Cena's first match of 2025 will be the titular Rumble itself remains to be seen, but Meltzer can see that being the official beginning of the retirement tour.

Despite not being in Hollywood for much of 2025, WWE looks to make Cena's year worthwhile from a financial standpoint. Meltzer believes Cena will earn a lot of money for his final year, given that The Rock received a deal worth $30 Million to be around at the start of 2024, as well as Cena promising to be active over the entire year. It will also be a financial success for WWE as a company, as Meltzer can see them marketing a vast majority of their 2025 dates around the fact that it will be the last time these towns and cities will be able to see Cena wrestle, with many of them likely to sell out.

As far as who Cena will face in 2025, many people have reportedly already thrown their hat into the ring as potential opponents given that this will be their last chance to get in the ring with Cena. Across the reported 35+ dates, CM Punk has already made it publicly known how important his feud with Cena was in the 2010s, and would like one more match with the 16-time World Champion. While there is a rough outline of a schedule that includes specific arenas and overseas tours, the announcements are set to be staggered out to build more anticipation.

Overall, a wrestling retirement should always be taken with a grain of salt, given that some wrestlers have retired on multiple occasions. However, Cena has made it very clear that he has no intention of wrestling past the age of 50, and with how busy and successful he has become in mainstream pop culture over the past few years, fans might have to begin to stomach the fact that 2025 is going to be the last time they see him in WWE.