Following the announcement of John Cena’s farewell tour to WWE, which will begin with the premiere of Monday Night Raw on Netflix in January 2025, colleagues, fans and insiders have begun to speculate about who his opponents might be, including who will have the honor of facing the Boston native in the final meeting of his illustrious career.
While wrestling tradition often requires an icon of the genre to leave the stage and “pass the baton to a younger, up-and-coming colleague,” Nic Nemeth (Dolph Ziggler of the WWE) is convinced that it would also be okay if the retirement came after a match against a veteran of the sector.
Dolph Ziggler on John Cena
Dolph Ziggler spoke about this during a conversation on “Busted Open Radio”, where Dave LaGreca mentioned his long-time rival Randy Orton as a possible final opponent for John Cena, a latter hypothesis that Nic Nemeth immediately promoted with gusto.
“Not everything has to be some kind of passing of the baton,” said the Cleveland athlete, arguing that the sixteen-time world champion will remain associated with WWE forever, one way or another. This is also related to the news (which you have already read on our website) that John Cena recently signed a new contract with WWE, which will be valid even after his career in the ring ends.
“This is one of those situations where it doesn’t necessarily have to be John Cena versus Bron Breakker or some new NXT guy that’s particularly on the launch pad,” added Nic Nemeth (who seems to have settled his historical friction with the old rival in recent years).
The TNA World Champion even went a step further, comparing a potentially career-ending feud between John Cena and Randy Orton to another historic WWE rivalry that took place in the final stages of two other legendary careers: Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker, who faced each other in two consecutive WrestleMania editions in 2009 and 2010.
“We all know what’s behind it. We all know they were rivals. We all know we want to see a game like that, and actually I wouldn’t mind seeing more than one,” admitted Nic Nemeth.
