WWE champion John Cena has confirmed that he will soon be retiring from the ring.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Cena, who will be turning 47 this April said that he can’t shoot movies while wrestling because of insurance reasons.
“That time(retirement) is gonna come, it’s gonna come soon. I never wanted to just go out for the sake of going out there and I’m going to be 47 this year I feel great. I want to have the passion the same passion as the fan base and I want to give them exactly what they give me and miles on this odometer say likeHey, that’s gotta be done before 50.'”
“As long as the phone keeps ringing and we’ve had some good opportunities here, I’ll kind of preserve that for as long as I can. But even coming back for these one-at-a-time things or short three-month periods, it takes its toll more and more, and I’ve just had an incredibly fortunate run with my health. I feel great. I just want to continue to feel great the rest of my life,” he said.
Cena noted that he would however be appearing in the ring once in a while after retiring, and looks forward to a retirement match.
“I’ve never missed a year, and as long as I can perform, I don’t intend to miss a year. When I say I’m done — in WWE, they say never say never and a lot of people retire and come back — I’m just being honest with myself,” Cena sid, adding that, “There’s such a great new generation now as well. It’s time to pass the electric energy on to the folks that can be there every day.”
Cena is a 16-time WWE Champion but his journey to success and fame in the industry was not easy. In 1999, he moved to California in search of a job, having completed a Physiology degree.
Things didn’t go well and at some point he was homeless and forced to live on a free pizza.
“They had a deal where, if you could eat their whole pizza, you got it for free. I used to eat there every night, a whole pizza, so I didn’t have to pay, because I didn’t have the money to pay the guy,” he told Kevin Hart in a previous interview.
In 2000, he began his wrestling journey at Ultimate Pro Wrestling, where he won a heavy weight championship that landed him a contract with WWE.
Aside from Wrestling, Cena is also a well established actor having featured in films such as The Marine (2006), 12 Rounds (2009), The Reunion (2011), F9: The Fast Saga (2021), The Suicide Squad (2021) and Fast X (2023).