10 Major Problems Facing WWE In 2017

3. John Cena's Slow Retirement

2016 was the year John Cena finally started slowing down. He’s been off television for several months now, and while Cena’s set to return to SmackDown in two weeks time, he’s very much a part-timer at this point. At 39-years-old, it looks like Cena already has one eye on retirement, and a wealth of lucrative opportunities await him on television and in Hollywood if recent reports are to be believed.

This is a massive issue for WWE. Cena has his critics, but he’s still the company’s biggest money-maker. Attaching Cena’s name to a card all but guarantees a spike in viewership, and you can’t say that about many of his colleagues. They’ll miss him when he’s gone, and it looks increasingly like this is going to happen sooner rather than later.

Cena will likely get an opportunity to equal Ric Flair’s record of 16 world championships next year, but he’ll also spend considerable time away from television. WWE aren’t going to be able to rely on their biggest draw for much of 2017, and there are no obvious choices to step into his shoes and claim the mantle of WWE’s franchise player as their own. WWE’s inability to create new stars will come back to haunt them when Cena eventually says “goodbye,” and it’s all their own doing.