Cena felt at peace in his final moments as a WWE Superstar.
After a gruelling battle at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13, John Cena tapped out to GUNTHER with a smile on his face in his final match, leaving the crowd at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. stunned into silence.
Speaking to Cody Rhodes on What Do You Wanna Talk About?, Cena explained the reasoning behind his decision to smile before tapping out, likening the moment to someone passing away peacefully.
“For the last five minutes, everything I preach about story and drama and having a conversation with the audience… the ones I love are in the front row. I know my colleagues are watching on the monitor back there. We’re just in a Sleeper Hold, man, but we’re having that conversation with the audience. As I essentially take my last breath, I have struggled. If you think of somebody, the natural causes scenario or however we picture loss in our life, all of us have been through it. They struggle. They hang on just long enough to make sure to say goodbye to everybody that’s been meaningful in their lives. And that whole day was so many unbelievably vulnerable, meaningful conversations. And then you realize, I’ve connected with everybody I love. Physically, I feel great. I think it’s time to take that last breath. And that’s that. I hate to keep going back morbidly to obituaries, but like… this person died peacefully. And knowing that like, man, we are in a good place. We’re going to be great going forward. The bottom of the t-shirt says ‘I gave everything, thank you for everything.’ And in that one moment, that was that. Going peacefully.”
-John Cena
Nevertheless, the Washington crowd quickly shifted from shock to outrage, making their feelings clear towards WWE Head of Creative Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque.
Elsewhere during the interview, Cena said that he has the utmost respect for his Saturday Night’s Main Event opponent. You can read more about that here.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on what lies ahead for John Cena following his retirement as soon as we hear more.
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