WWE Royal Rumble 2025: HUGE Plans For Returning Legend

This will be the FINAL time you ever see a WWE legend at Royal Rumble.

John Cena NXT
WWE

WWE is promoting Royal Rumble 2025 as the final time fans will have the chance to see one John Cena on the card. The company posted a video on their official X feed that showed Cena hyping up tickets for the 1 February PLE inside Indianapolis, Indiana's cavernous Lucas Oil Stadium.

In that, the returning legend said that this will be "the last time" he'll "compete in a Royal Rumble event". His wording has led to intense speculation already about exactly what Cena will be doing on the show. Will he play a part in the titular 30-man bout, or will Triple H have something extra special up his sleeves on the undercard as part of JC's retirement tour?

The public need to know, but everyone will just have to wait.

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Previously, Cena announced that his retirement tour would take in between 30-40 dates between January-December 2025. That number has since been narrowed down to 36, and the Rumble is one of them. Of course, John will surely also perform across WrestleMania 41 weekend in April. There's zero chance that's off the schedule, especially due to 'Mania's overall importance and the idea that this will be Cena's last whirl on the grand stage.

Cena Won't Necessarily Work The Rumble Itself

WWE Crown Jewel 2023 John Cena Solo Sikoa
WWE.com

There's no guarantee that John will be involved in the Rumble's 30-man scrap. Speculation is rife that WWE may fancy sticking him in a special attraction bout elsewhere; naturally, it'd be an easier sell to have Cena win that than the Rumble.

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Don't rule that out either though.

It's not out of the question that JC wins the 30-strong match and punches his ticket to one last World Title reign come 'Mania. There's also been a lot of chatter about a possible match vs. Raw kingpin GUNTHER come April. Don't forget that Cena only needs one more top prize triumph to match Ric Flair's almost mystical 16-time brag.

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WWE may want to pull the trigger on that before John hangs up his jorts for good. His retirement tour runs until December, so there'd be plenty of scope for taking the title back off Cena post-win. GUNTHER's biggest fans might not want to hear any of this noise - they'd be hoping the full-timer beat the returning part-timer on this occasion.

Stay tuned for more on precisely what WWE has planned for John Cena at the Rumble when it breaks.

Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.