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."
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.
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.