{"id":149122,"date":"2025-12-20T15:25:52","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T20:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=149122"},"modified":"2025-12-20T15:26:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T20:26:31","slug":"4-questionable-booking-decisions-from-john-cenas-retirement-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/12\/20\/4-questionable-booking-decisions-from-john-cenas-retirement-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Questionable Booking Decisions From John Cena’s Retirement Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cenation is still reeling from John Cena’s emotional retirement at Saturday Night’s Main Event XLII<\/a><\/span>. Fans had months to prepare for the “Never Seen 17″‘s farewell, but it still feels difficult to believe that Cena won’t ever wrestle again.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, as he promised, Cena had given us a year-long retirement run, which saw him wrestle at every PLE on the WWE calendar. We saw the “Greatest of All Time” renew old rivalries with Randy Orton, CM Punk, and AJ Styles. The Champ also won his elusive 17th World Championship, defeating Cody Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania 41 – Night Two<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Despite an eventful and mostly successful retirement run, Triple H did make several questionable booking decisions during Cena’s farewell tour. Here, we examine four such instances.<\/p>\n

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Photo credit: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

#4. John Cena finishes his final Royal Rumble as the runner-up<\/h2>\n

The 2025 Men’s Royal Rumble<\/span><\/a> had one of the most stacked fields in recent memory. John Cena, CM Punk, Roman Reigns, Seth “Freakin” Rollins,\u00a0 Drew McIntyre, Logan Paul, and Rey Mysterio were confirmed for the 30-man melee. Yet, despite an all-star field, WWE made the risky move of going with the fresh Jey Uso as the winner.<\/p>\n

This proved to be one of the most controversial decisions of 2025. Not only did the move overexpose Jey, who received a ton of backlash following his win, but it also robbed Cena of a deserving Rumble win. In hindsight, Cena would have been the better choice.<\/p>\n

The odds were stacked against Cena, who had struggled to win big in the last few years. This was his final chance to tie Stone Cold Steve Austin’s record of 3 Rumble wins. The stage was set for “Super Cena” to make a grand return and kickstart the farewell tour with a Rumble win.<\/p>\n