Top 5 Lowlights Of John Cena’s Final Year In WWE
2025 is John Cena’s last year in professional wrestling. Rewatching his entire run this year, the one word that comes to mind is disappointing. Then again, WWE creative has been terrible in general this year. How they handled and booked Cena’s final year has been mainly bad. There are so many lowlights that happened, but from the bunch, five stand out the most.
1. That Failed Heel Run
Well, let’s get this one out of the way immediately. Cena’s heel turn, in my opinion, was one of the greatest moments ever. However, when looking at the entire heel run, it was an absolute mess with poor creative and booking.
It didn’t help that The Rock was never seen in that story ever again and basically pulled a Hulk Hogan “That don’t work for me, brother” when doing damage control on Pat McAfee’s show. Cena’s limited dates hurt the run as well. Along with TKO, greed, and whatever the heck they did with Travis Scott, it was just a waste of time. One of the greatest missed booking opportunities since the Invasion Angle in 2002.
2. The Wrestlemania 41 Match Sucked
Cena faced Cody Rhodes in WrestleMania 41 for the Undisputed WWE Championship. It was absolutely terrible and will go down as one of the worst in the event’s history. The match was so boring, and I felt disappointed. This match will be remembered for that awful Scott appearance, then for Cena winning his 17th world championship with WWE. Man, did Scott’s involvement age poorly as he eventually had a falling out with WWE.
3. The Wrestlepalooza Match He Had With Brock Lesnar
Oh boy, talk about a match that was both a waste of time and poorly booked. Brock Lesnar returned to WWE at SummerSlam 2025 and attacked him. It was clear that the plan was for them to face each other at Wrestlepalooza. Not only was the match terrible with Lesnar dominating, but Cena never got his revenge for this, and it was never mentioned again. Good job, WWE, wasting one of Cena’s final matches.
4. Moving His Final Match Away From Boston
Ahh, TKO and their greed in 2025. Now, the original landing spot for Cena’s final match to take place was in Boston, Massachusetts. Well, that never happened because WWE & TKO decided to turn it into a bidding way and scrapped the plans. Instead of Boston, Cena’s final match will take place on Saturday Night Main Event in Washington, DC. It felt like a punch to the gut for most fans.
5. WWE Declining Cena Doing 220 Dates
This is another head-scratching move by TKO. Cena has admitted that he was willing to do a total of 220 dates for his final run, and WWE declined. They only gave him 36 dates, which is absolutely ridiculous. Imagine how much better his final year would have been had he gotten those dates. Thanks for being greedy, TKO.
Final Thoughts
There is plenty more to list, but the five above were the most annoying. WWE mainly failed Cena’s final year in the company. Many are pointing the finger at people, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Travis Scott, and Triple H. To me, though, I point the finger at TKO for how greedy they have been throughout Cena’s final year. I also blame Triple H, as he is the Chief Content Officer, and he’s not done great this year.
