The uproar’s died down, but it seems like “was John Cena tapping out in his final match a good call?” debate is here to stay among wrestling fans. It came up during Cena’s appearance at the New Orleans
Fan Expo recently, about a month after the Never Seen 17 said goodbye to the WWE ring after his submission loss to Gunther in the main event of Dec. 13’s Saturday Night’s Main Event in Washington, D.C.
Cena took a question about the finish and used it to thank fans, and explain why that reaction was “perfect”:
“Thank you [for reminding] me that you’re allowed to have your opinion, and thank you for not just conforming to a certain set of standards. Thank you for being vocal enough to express how you felt, because every moment can be a teachable moment. I put together — my job is to try to put together a story that I think you all will enjoy.
“And when there’s critical opinion out there, I’m all ears. I don’t ignore the critics. I’m thankful for them in [Washington] D.C. and every match I had before that. And like I said, I guess a kind of parallel to my career, I think it was a perfect end. Because a whole lot of people thought it sucked, and a whole lot of people thought it was special. And that’s kind of been my story for 23 years. So I thought it was perfect.“
Like he was for the bulk of his career, the finish of Cena’s final match was polarizing. And since his tapout remains contentious, it’s likely that at least part of Cena’s legacy will be frequently debated. That feels right for Cena, and a lot of us who boo-ed him for some or all of the LOLCENAWINS Era.
And I’m not just saying that because I made the same argument in our “Best of 2025” series…
You can see Cena’s answer in full, courtesy of this video from MuscleManMalcolm:
