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

3. IC Title Reign

WWE Raw John Cena Intercontinental Champion
WWE

When John Cena announced his retirement and this year-long farewell tour, the top item on WhatCulture’s list of things for him do was to “win the Intercontinental Championship.”

It took almost the entire year, but Cena finally checked that item off his bucket list in November when he defeated Dominik Mysterio to capture the one title he had never won, becoming a Triple Crown and Grand Slam champion in his final weeks as an active wrestler.

To make the occasion even more special, it came during Cena’s final appearance in his hometown of Boston, born out of an impromptu match when Mysterio interrupted Cena’s show-opening, in-ring promo. Cena’s fiery “I can’t lose” in Boston comment really resonated and sealed Dominik’s fate.

The match itself was pitch-perfect, with Cena getting a wonderful parting gift in his hometown: his final singles victory and the last, missing title to add to his collection.

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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.