Wrestlers Mostly Say Same Thing About John Cena

He has been cheered, he has been booed, and he has even had toilet paper thrown at him during a wrestling match. Still, thanks to his hard work and dedication to the business, John Cena has rightfully earned his spot as one of the most respected men in modern wrestling history. From his TV debut against Kurt Angle in 2002, all the way to the announcement that he will be hanging up his boots, armbands, and jorts at the end of 2025, Cena has carved out a legacy for himself that is unlike anyone else in the business.

Whenever his music hit, everyone would react. It didn't matter whether people liked him or not, he would always go out and put his body on the line to the point where most people within the business usually say the same things about him. While some wrestlers probably hate him (this is the wrestling business we are talking about after all), not all do. So let's talk about what wrestlers really think about 'The Leader of The Cenation,' 'The Doctor of Thuganomics,' and the man who had the guts to wear literally nothing at the 2024 Academy Awards, John Cena.

With 2025 being his final year as an in-ring performer, many fans have wondered whether or not John Cena will finally surpass Ric Flair's long-standing record of being a 16-time World Champion. Cena won his 16th title at the 2017 Royal Rumble defeating AJ Styles, but has yet to reach the elusive number 17, something that Flair himself is actually hoping for.

In July 2024, shortly after Cena announced that he would be retiring for good, Flair appeared on an episode of "Busted Open Radio" where he stated that he would be happy if Cena beat his record. He did originally say that he would have preferred for his daughter Charlotte Flair to reach number 17 first, but if WWE chose to do it with Cena, he would happily shake his hand and congratulate him.

Flair would take to social media in the days following the appearance on "Busted Open Radio" as some people had misinterpreted what he said, believing that he wanted Charlotte to do it and not Cena. The 'Nature Boy” explained that while his first choice to break his record would have obviously been his daughter, he would love nothing more than to see Cena reach the number 17, calling Cena an incredible athlete and a genuine person, as well as saying it would be an honor for someone like him to be the one to break his record.

The 'Nature Boy' also said that someone like Randy Orton would be a good choice for breaking his long-standing record, especially given that Orton and Flair worked so closely together as members of Evolution in the early 2000s, but Orton would have to win three World Championships between the time of writing (August 2024) and Cena's retirement in December 2025 to do. Speaking of The Viper...

John Cena has had a number of rivals in his career, but the man who has been linked with the most throughout his career is Randy Orton. The two men came through the same OVW class that also gave WWE the likes of Brock Lesnar, Batista, and Shelton Benjamin, and at one point in time, seemed like they faced each other for either the WWE Championship or World Heavyweight Championship on every pay-per-view that happened.

Because of this, both men have grown incredibly close over the past two decades, both from an in-ring standpoint and their own personal lives. So much so that Orton recently revealed that he would love to have one more match with Cena before the end of 2025. Orton told Cody Rhodes that even he figured out that people most likely got sick of seeing 'John Cena vs. Randy Orton' billed for a pay-per-view in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but would love to build up to something special so that they could roll back the years one more time before Cena calls it quits. Cena will end up having between 35 and 40 dates on his schedule throughout 2025, so Orton's chances of one more match will be limited.

Both Orton and Cena have had Hall of Fame careers at this point, and are almost certain future inductees into the WWE Hall of Fame. When the time comes for Orton to eventually be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, he has publicly stated that he would want Cena to be the one to induct him, not just because of their long-standing rivalry or how much they know each other, but because Orton was so entertained by Cena when he inducted William "The Refrigerator" Perry in 2006. 

While Randy Orton might think he is John Cena's greatest rival, CM Punk might have something to say about that. Punk's popularity exploded in 2011 when he dropped the now famous "Pipebomb" promo, which might be best remembered for Punk breaking the fourth wall, saying hello to Colt Cabana, and saying WWE would be better once Vince McMahon had died, but Cena was not only the catalyst for that promo, he was in the ring to witness the whole thing unfold.

Now that Punk himself is back in WWE after a rollercoaster ride through All Elite Wrestling, the 'Straight Edge Superstar' has already made it very clear that he wants one more match with Cena, not just because it will be a big deal given their collective star power, but because Punk sees Cena as his greatest opponent.

The match that followed the "Pipebomb" promo was the WWE Championship match between Punk and Cena at Money in the Bank 2011, a match that is widely regarded as one of the greatest matches in WWE, and wrestling history altogether, but the two didn't stop making magic on that famous July night. Even when Punk was so mentally fried at the thought of working for WWE in 2013, he still recalls the match he had with Cena on "WWE Raw" as one of the most enjoyable nights of his career, which might have been because he delivered a piledriver to Cena at a time where delivering a piledriver was about as accepted as an unprotected chair shot to the head. Much like Orton, nothing has been announced as to what Cena will be doing in 2025, but if Punk gets his way, they might be able to make some magic one more time.

Young John Cena fans who will see him pull off these amazing feats of strength and tell their friends about him the next day in school will likely see Cena as a real-life Superman. While his identity can't be hidden by a pair of glasses or an extremely loud suit, he does have enough strength in his body to make him seem like a genuine superhero.

A prime example of this was when he won his first piece of gold in WWE. Cena defeated The Big Show for the WWE United States Championship at WrestleMania 20 in 2004, with the match being best remembered for Cena delivering an Attitude Adjustment (then known as the FU because it was 2004) to the world's largest athlete. Big Show, now going by his real name of Paul Wight in AEW and ROH, put Cena in an elite class of performers during an interview in 2023 as one of the three strongest men he had ever been in the ring with.

Wight described being lifted by Cena as 'climbing a piece of workout equipment because he was so stable,' while also revealing that he never felt he was in any jeopardy while working with him. The other two men Wight listed were Mark Henry, who was literally the World's Strongest Man at one point in time, and Brock Lesnar, who has conquered WWE, the UFC, and if he wanted to, several small countries all by himself.

While Wight has a lot of kind words for Cena, The Doctor of Thuganomics has fond memories of working with Wight in WWE, stating that the current AEW star was one of the few people who actually believed in him during the early days of his career.

The man who will be overseeing John Cena's 2025 retirement tour will be WWE's current Chief Content Officer, Triple H. While Cena has had the chance to work in WWE since 'The Game' took over the creative direction of the company in 2022, those appearances have been sporadic, meaning that 2025 will be the first time Cena and Triple H will be able to craft a long-term story together.

It seems that Triple H is not only excited to work with Cena on a much more consistent basis but that for a man whose WrestleMania entrances were the height of making himself seem like the most important man in the world, he was actually humbled at the opportunity. 'The Game' took to social media following Cena's retirement announcement at Money in the Bank 2024 where he called him the greatest of all time and had nothing but nice words to say about Cena at the show's post-show press conference. Triple H said that Cena has had such an unbelievable career that he belongs on everyone's Mount Rushmore of wrestling and thanked him for everything that he has done for WWE.

Triple H has since confirmed that John Cena will be a part of the 2025 Royal Rumble event in Indianapolis, the 2025 Elimination Chamber event at a location that is yet to be confirmed, and WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas. Whoever he faces and wherever he shows up, WWE fans around the world will be ready to witness the career of one of wrestling's most famous faces come to an emotional end.