What If John Cena’s WWE Retirement Run Had Been Longer Than Just 36 Dates?

John Cena is trying to wrap up his decades-spanning wrestling profession at this weekend’s Saturday Night’s Important Event, completing the “Last Time is Now” tour of 36 appearances over this past 12 months. Cena has made good use of those dates, taking his place atop WWE history with a record-breaking seventeenth world title reign, finally becoming a Grand Slam Champion along with his procurement of the boys’s Intercontinental Championship, and collecting wins over rivals each latest and old. But with little greater than a calendar month’s value of appearances, there’ll all the time be the query over what might have been with a bit of more time given. 

Cena himself poured fuel on that specific fire as he told Bill Simmons this past week that he had intended on working a run of 220 appearances. Obviously, times have modified since that was expected from any individual, let alone the retiring “Biggest of All Time,” but there’s a wealth of missed opportunities to explore in even half of the 184 dates WWE decided to shave off of that expectation. 

Alongside the seventeenth world title, Cena broke the mold of many years and turned heel years after fans had stopped clamoring for it, a move that was as temporary because it was poorly-received within the months following WrestleMania. How different could that — and your entire run — have been with more time to breathe? Nobody will truly know. However it makes for an interesting line of thought, and the idea of this installment of What Could Have Been, during which we take a take a look at how things may need shaped up if the “Last Time” had just a bit of bit more time.

Much in the identical way he did in real life, Cena would have likely still been sent crashing out of the Royal Rumble to precede “Important Event” Jey Uso’s coronation. From there, he went on to declare himself into the Elimination Chamber match, winning it and aligning with The Rock and Travis Scott in a beatdown of WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. That was the last fans saw of Rock on this storyline, though Cena did go on to cheat Rhodes out of the title at WrestleMania. 

More dates would have done nothing on that front, as The Rock was still going to be absent, but they might have allowed Cena to deepen the reasoning behind such a monumental shift in character — perhaps even interacting with Solo Sikoa’s edition of The Bloodline or the Randy Orton/Kevin Owens feud that was aborted by Owens getting injured. Cena could have spent the extra weeks in interactions with Orton and Rhodes together as allies, writing Orton out of the event with an injury angle and leaving Rhodes isolated heading into ‘Mania. A part of what sold the heel turn short was such a stark change in direction for Cena in such a brief period of time, the extra weeks would have allowed not only greater reasoning for the turn itself, but additionally Cena progressively breaking his own cardinal rules to get the wins leading into the match with Rhodes. 

That will ultimately result in his victory at ‘Mania, with Rhodes managing to avoid all dirty tactics until one well-placed “For those who smeeeeellll” plays out, distracting Rhodes long enough for Cena to pin with him with Cross Rhodes. The Rock (and particularly Travis Scott) doesn’t even need to be there.

Cena winning the WWE Championship was followed by Orton’s attack on him in the course of the “WWE Raw” following WrestleMania, thus organising their Backlash feud. In our timeline, Orton would have been getting back from an injury angle to perhaps a fair higher response from the group and a bit of more personal animus to their feud. 

Orton failed ultimately, thwarted by the center in the appropriate place on the mistaken time, R-Truth. That arrange their one other match at Saturday Night’s Important Event, where Cena defeated Truth in only over 4 minutes. Not only would that match feel like less of a kick within the teeth with more Cena dates, but there can be time for the three of them to deepen the why behind the whole lot. In turn, Truth’s own arc in the next months can have carried more resonance. Rhodes and Orton could have emerged after the Truth match; Cena actually defeated Truth and went on to interfere in Logan Paul’s attempt at Jey Uso’s World title, thus organising Rhodes’ return to thwart Cena and Paul, teaming with Uso against them at Money within the Bank. Fairly than muddying the inter-brand waters, Orton and Rhodes proceed to feud with Cena on “WWE SmackDown.”

Stepping in on Cena’s side on this hypothetical can be The Miz, and by reluctant proxy, Carmelo Hayes. Cena, Miz, and Hayes could have had a trios match with Orton, Rhodes, and Truth, with Cena even walking out on his partners to shut that angle, and arrange his eventual teaming with Sikoa – hearkening back to the Rock alignment – at Money within the Bank; moreover, Jacob Fatu could have cost Cena and Sikoa the match similar to he had when he returned to cost Sikoa Money within the Bank.

With Money within the Bank gone and done, Cena prepared for the most recent a part of his final chapter against one other familiar face, CM Punk, at Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia. Punk was notably working his first match within the Kingdom, with Cena making some extent of dragging his challenger there in an attempt as an instance that Punk was as power-hungry on the detriment of his morals as Cena himself. But once more, more dates would have meant further interactions, and thus a possibility to further the storyline behind their eventual bout. With the advantage of hindsight, Punk could have planted the seeds for what eventually became Cena’s turn back to babyface, poking holes within the reasoning behind his heel turn.

That also could have enhanced the match itself, with Cena either reluctant or outright refusing to cheat, getting the clean win and starting the steps to reclaiming honor at the identical time. Cena and Punk have their moment of respect, the previous attending to soak within the adulation of a global crowd he won’t ever perform in front of again, and getting the road began to his rematch with Rhodes. at SummerSlam. 

Further dates beyond Night of Champions may need given Cena the possibility to flex his acting chops, reckoning with the concept that he himself has ruined his legacy and thus everything of his retirement tour. The Rhodes match could have presented itself as true redemption, a probability to right the mistaken of WrestleMania for each men at the identical time. Rhodes and Cena wound up being face vs. face in actual fact, but as has grown to be the theme, just a bit of more time to let the whole lot breathe, settle, and slide into place would have undoubtedly improved things. 

Cena kicked off his renewed babyface run with a Clash in Paris bout against Logan Paul later that month. But since an ongoing vein with Sikoa and MFT – his Bloodline – has been established, we could say that Cena teams up with Sami Zayn in his feud against them; Zayn captured the US title from Sikoa on the “WWE SmackDown” prior to Clash, so there can be precedent.

Cena and Zayn winning together in Paris would also arrange the canon event that was their US title match within the week following. Brock Lesnar, who had returned for a post-credit cameo at SummerSlam, returned over again to decimate each Cena and Zayn, ending the match in no-contest. That ultimately led to Lesnar vs. Cena at Wrestlepalooza; Lesnar defeated Cena in lower than 10 minutes. Meanwhile, Paul Heyman re-aligned with Lesnar and form of – but not quite – made him an element of The Vision. 

While we’re fantasy booking, perhaps with the extra dates, Cena, Heyman, and the Vision could have interacted ahead of Wrestlepalooza and deepened that plotline going into the match; relatively than Lesnar decimating the person who i presupposed to be singing his swan song, Cena overcomes the onslaught and appears more likely to win. Then Heyman and Vision plot to play Rock’s music, distracting Cena and allowing to get Lesnar the win the corporate felt he needed.

Cena went on from here to establish far-and-away his best match of this 12 months, AJ Styles at Crown Jewel. Not only could this have received greater build-up, but Styles was feuding for the Intercontinental title held by Dominik Mysterio prior to it. They might have been competing for the chance at Mysterio, relatively than simply running things back because they simply needed to. 

It was almost a month after Cena beat Styles that he finally returned and declared his want for the Intercontinental Championship, winning it from Mysterio on the identical night. It was a long-awaited moment that had looked increasingly unlikely, so there was undoubted relief when it finally got here.

But additionally it is hard to flee the concept that Cena declaring for, difficult for, and winning the title all on the identical night got here relatively abrupt and fast. Clearly, due to the lack of dates actually left. So, without that inconvenience, Cena and The Judgment Day may need been in a position to get the ball rolling weeks prior to this eventual title win. Cena wound up working Finn Balor, JD McDonagh, Raquel Rodriguez, Roxanne Perez, and Liv Morgan into his feud with Mysterio. But that was all done in a single single match at Survivor Series – the IC title rematch where-in Mysterio recaptured his title. Those interactions might have been deepened and expanded upon within the weeks that Cena wasn’t present for, his Intercontinental title win may need felt higher earned, after which the rematch loss equally in those regards. Possibly for the 2 weeks he held the title, Cena could have brought back the open challenge once more. The Last Time is Now tournament would have continued after the very fact, only Cena could have actually been present for that on commentary or whilst a referee.

The predominant point is that with more dates, everything of this run very likely would have felt more befitting of John Cena the workhorse, the face of the corporate for over a decade, and probably the most decorated world champion in WWE history.