John Cena's WWE Retirement Tour Receives 'F' Grade In Brutal Review (WWE News)

John Cena's retirement tour blasted as "a series of wasted moments."

by Andrew Pollard
WWE SmackDown John Cena
WWE

As the wrestling world continues to digest John Cena's final match, Bleacher Report has reflected on how WWE handled Cena's retirement tour as a whole.

When looking back on these past 12 months, Bleacher Report's Donald Wood gave the record-setting 17-time World Champion's retirement run a brutal "F" grade, noting that "instead of finishing on a high note with a legacy-defining finale, Cena's retirement tour was a series of wasted moments." This review also mentions "mishandled matchups and rivalries" and "lack of cohesion between matches and the overall storyline," with Cena's heel turn having "doomed the tour's success."

Of course, John Cena turned heel at the Elimination Chamber, assaulting Cody Rhodes and aligning with the Rock and Travis Scott. And while Scott made an appearance at WrestleMania 41, the Final Boss faded into the background after Elimination Chamber, leaving many fans to question why that Cena heel turn needed the Rock and Travis Scott involved in the first place.

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Undoubtedly, that heel turn itself was fantastic, one of the all-time great turns and a truly jaw-dropping moment. The problem wasn't the turn, per se, but more how the subsequent heel run was booked, with it ultimately, in hindsight, feeling like a total waste of a large part of John Cena's final year as an active in-ring talent. It's also worth noting how, from a sheer match quality perspective, things picked up massively once Big Match John switched back to a babyface role later in the year, with some fantastic contests against the likes of Cody Rhodes, Logan Paul, Dominik Mysterio, AJ Styles, and, most recently, Gunther - even if the finish to that Gunther match has certainly split opinion amongst fans.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.