John Cena Comments On The Fan Perception Of WWE 'Wasting' Gunther

After retiring John Cena via tap out at WWE Saturday Night's Main Event in December, "The Career Killer" GUNTHER went on to retire AJ Styles in the same hold at the 2026 Royal Rumble. The star didn't have much to do after, however, as it would be Oba Femi to wrestle Brock Lesnar in his retirement match. In recent months, however, GUNTHER emerged to insert himself into the Undisputed WWE Championship picture on "WWE SmackDown."

On "Busted Open Radio," Cena commented on the perception that WWE fumbled GUNTHER's momentum following his massive SNME victory. "The Never Seen 17" said that while he helped put the "Ring General" over, what WWE followed through with was up to them.

"I know there's sentiment out there that, 'Man, they're wasting GUNTHER,'" Cena said. "Maybe, currently, they are. But I don't see the view from the penthouse. I'm not in those meetings where they're just looking at the white board, connecting the dots.... What I am going to do is I'm not going to challenge the opinion of like, 'Hey, I'm not going to give this for this guy and you're going to forget him.' This is the work I need to do for today, and we're going to make him look the best we can, and I'm going to give him as much steam as I can and what you do with it afterward, it ain't my call."

Cena once again defended the finish of their SNME match, where he, the star who always told fans to "never give up," tapped out. He said it was a "great way" to end his character's trajectory, and to this day, people are still talking about it.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.