John Cena, the most decorated wrestler in the history of the WWE, has officially tapped out of the sport.
John Cena capped off a year-long retirement tour with a final appearance for the company at ‘Saturday Night’s Main Event’ in front of over 19,000 people at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC.
The 17-time champion lost his final match to Gunther, tapping out for the fourth time in his career and the first time in 21 years.
John Cena attempted multiple signature moves – including his ‘Five Knuckle Shuffle’ and the ‘Attitude Adjustment’ – but ultimately could not last multiple sleeper holds from the ‘Ring General’.
After breaking the hold multiple times, John Cena looked dead into the camera, gave a slight smile and tapped out.
It’s the first time he tapped out of a match since 2004, doing so against Kurt Angle
After Gunther left the ring, the rest of the WWE locker room emptied out to give Cena one last goodbye.
World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk and Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes both entered the ring and handed Cena their belts to wear one final time.
Fans in the Nation’s Capitol were not happy – booing Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, who is the chief content officer of WWE, as he walked out.
Levesque had chants of ‘bulls**t’ and ‘You f***ed up’ rain down on him as the overwhelmingly pro-Cena crowd voiced their displeasure.
A montage of clips began playing, with multiple wrestlers from throughout Cena’s career being featured. An older clip of former WWE boss Vince McMahon was included.
Cena then took off his shoes and his sweatbands, leaving them in the center of the ring before taking his bows and walking off.
After high-fiving fans as he approached the entrance way, he took one final bow and spoke into the camera one final time.
‘It’s been a pleasure serving you all these years, thank you,’ Cena said – before exiting the arena as the cameras faded to black.
This is the second retirement match that Gunther has spoiled in 2025. Earlier this year, he defeated Bill Goldberg in his last bout.
The loss caps off a roller coaster of a 2025 for Cena – where the iconic wrestler turned heel for the first time in his career at Elimination Chamber in March.
He’d go on to defeat Rhodes for the Undisputed title at WrestleMania – breaking the record for the most world titles of any wrestler in history.
Rhodes would take back the belt at SummerSlam and Cena’s final title came by defeating Dominik Mysterio in his hometown of Boston.