Ahead of his final match at Saturday Night’s Main Event last night (Dec. 13), words of praise and gratitude for John Cena and legendary WWE career continued to pour in.
A man he main event-ed back-to-back
WrestleManias with sent in a video, but still didn’t explain the soul selling. The Rock said…
“John, Saturday, December 13th. The time has come. You are wrestling your final match in your unbelievably blessed and historic career. I wanted to share a few things with you, man, before you go out and, as we say in wrestling, tear the house down with Gunther.
“First, I want to say thank you. Thank you so much for your contributions, your emotion, all of your accomplishments, your passion, and your commitment to this wild and crazy world that is unpredictable—and everything that professional wrestling is, and that we love.
“I want to thank you for that because I feel like you and I share a wild and crazy history. Yes, we have spilled blood together in our matches. We have torn tendons—literally—in our matches. We’ve broken records. And man, that has been incredible. I’ll always be proud of what you and I were able to accomplish together, along with the rest of the roster back in those days. It was awesome. That was rare air that we were able to breathe, and I will always be grateful for it.
“But the most important thing I want to share with you—the thing I’ve realized over the years about our relationship, our bond, and our friendship—the thing I discovered about you that I love the most… is your jorts.
“I’m only kidding. I love the jorts.
“The thing I love most about you is that you’re a good human being. And man, that matters. The more I go down the road of life—and the more we all go down that road—you realize just how important it is to be a good human being. To be kind to people. To treat people well. It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice. You epitomize that quote.
“So, brother, thank you for everything you’ve done for our entire business, WWE, and this world of professional wrestling.
“I also want to take a moment to acknowledge your family—the entire Cena family—because I know personally, having grown up in this crazy world of professional wrestling, that when you become a wrestler, it becomes a family affair. Everybody sacrifices. To your family: thank you for your sacrifices as well. I know how proud you are of John, and I’m just as proud as you are.
“Last thing for you tonight: when you go out there, right before your music hits, I want you to remember the thing that you and I always talk about before we go through the curtain—before we’ve done our dance in arenas and stadiums all across the country.
“Do you remember what we say to each other? Not the part about, ‘Hey, let’s have some tequila and moonshine after the match.’ No, the other part.
“Have fun.
“Go have fun.
“John Cena, you are the GOAT. Go have fucking fun and tear that house down, man.”
Ric Flair also had something to say, in Title Case-style, of course (WOO):
@JohnCena, You Have Represented The WWE, Our Business, Our Brand. Congratulations On A Phenomenal Retirement! Good Luck Tonight Man! I Will Make Sure The World Is Watching, Well At Least In Tampa! Please Know That You’re One Of A Kind, And It Will Be Light Years Before Anyone Replaces You. Even Though Vince Put An End To Us Hanging Out Together On The Road, You Will Be A Hero To A Lot Of Us Forever! Kick Ass & Never Look Back! WOOOOO!
His former boss, and current Secretary of Education Linda McMahon posted:
On the opposite side of most issues, and opposite Cena for a SummerSlam angle back in 2015, Jon Stewart offered:
Matt Hardy remembered something better than a match with Cena:
And proving once again that wrestling is about more than any one promotion’s initials, AEW and ROH folks are chiming in:
A full rundown of everything that happened on Cena’s final WWE card can be found here.
