John Cena Reflects On WWE Retirement

John Cena hung up his Jorts in December of last year, after a year-long retirement tour that celebrated his 23 years in WWE. The former WWE Champion recently attended the premiere of "Matchbox: The Movie," where he was asked about the decision to leave WWE. 

"[Wrestling is] something I wish I could do forever. I think the reasonable approach is to understand when it's time to step away," Cena told "Entertainment Tonight." He went into the roughly three-year process that went into coming up with, pitching, and then following through on the retirement tour that Cena concluded on December 13 in Washington, DC. "I did have plenty of time to get into a space that like, 'My in-ring performance in WWE is over.' I'm happy that we did -I thought we did an incredible year of business, and certainly the audience has talked about it, and I'm very grateful for that."

Cena's retirement tour featured a controversial heel turn, which saw Cena turn his back on the WWE fans to join up with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Travis Scott for much of the spring and summer, before finally being welcomed back as a hero after SummerSlam.

Cena was one of the many stars retired by former World Heavyweight Champion Gunther. Gunther submitted WWE HOFer Goldberg in the former WCW World Heavyweight Champion's retirement, then he submitted Cena at December's "Saturday Night's Main Event," and then went on to retire AJ Styles at the Royal Rumble in January, also by submission.