5 Ups & 8 Downs From John Cena's WWE Retirement Tour

UPS…

5. MSG House Show-Style Match

WWE Raw Sheamus John Cena Rey Mysterio Judgment Day
WWE

Once John Cena turned babyface and started doing everything fans assumed we would get out of a retirement tour, the entire experience improved dramatically. Those final four-plus months were actually a really enjoyable time as a fan.

One of the more inconsequential moments came during Cena’s final appearance on Raw at Madison Square Garden. He had just captured the Intercontinental Championship from Dominik Mysterio and the Judgment Day confronted Cena, who had opened Raw. Sheamus and Rey Mysterio ran down for the save, setting up an impromptu six-man tag match.

The match itself was little more than house show fare that happened to be recorded and broadcast on television. Even the offense itself was straight out of a house show playbook for babyfaces.

Some understandably didn’t like this, but it felt like the kind of light, fluffy fun WWE could have and should have been having with Cena during this final year. They could have sprinkled a few of these matches throughout the year rather than trying to make every match a major event.

But hey, this is a subjective list, so if anyone disagrees, that’s fine.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.