Is This It for John Cena?

Is wrestling close to being post-John Cena?
Photo Credit: WWE.com

When John Cena's WWE wrestling career began, he was a fresh-faced young adult with a square jaw and the kind of look you make fun of Vince McMahon for liking. His career in WWE to date has been tumultuous, but by most reasonable metrics, it can be considered a success. He hasn't officially retired yet, but that moment might come, according to the man himself. He told TMZ Sports that he's been thinking about hanging up the jorts. It's not like he's leaving a lot of wrestling prime on the table. He's 42 years old, which by WWE parlance probably makes him a Saudi Blood Money Up-and-Coming Main Event Guy, but by all other standards, is where he should be winding down. Given until a few years ago, he'd been grinding and grinding on the road, I'd say the toll on his body is commensurate to that of other all-time greats in any sport who hang 'em up around this age.

Imagining a WWE without Cena is probably the tallest task of any prior main event stalwart because of the circumstances of his rise to prominence. You didn't have to imagine a company without Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, or The Rock because all those scenarios happened in relative short order. Yeah, racist-ass Hogan spent eight years in the company, but judging by how much the yearly cycle has compressed between the first WrestleMania and now, the exchange rate probably bore out to half that time. Cena, however, was around for over a decade in the most jam-packed era for wrestling content in history. He was a stalwart, for better or worse, whether you liked it or not. And much like with Roman Reigns now, even the most begrudging haters might be arsed to admit that Cena was deserving of the spotlight McMahon decided to shine brightly on him. Cena's presence in WWE was almost as constant as death and taxes.

What would be most surprising to a 2006 era fan but not to one now is that Cena will be leaving to make movies. WWE Films tried desperately to make him happen, but as it turned out, it wasn't the actor that brought down The Marine or 12 Rounds but everyone else involved with the movies. Of course, I don't expect Cena to veer too far out of his action-star-and-kid's-movie lane; then again, no one expected that Adam Sandler had Punch-Drunk Love in him either. Still, if "all" Cena does with his movie career is stuff like The Fast and the Furious 9 or Ferdinand, well, he's succeeded. Hell, Dave Batista, the other guy who won a top title match at WrestleMania XXI who moved onto movies, has carved a niche out just playing big, dumb muscleheads like Drax the Destroyer in the MCU, and there's nothing wrong with that at all.

Granted, thinking about retiring and retiring are two different things. Hell, announcing a retirement and retiring are two different things. That being said, I'm not sure Cena will end up like Terry Funk, not that ending up like Terry Funk is necessarily bad, the not having any money part aside. Besides, if he did have one more big feud, he could subvert his role in the feud with The Rock and put someone over for the next decade, like Reigns or Seth Rollins or, if you want a spicy option, Big E. The point of this post is that I think it's time to start bracing for a wrestling world post-John Cena. One can only really give their body to wrestling for so long, and hey, actors have a union and benefits. He'd be foolish not to go full tilt.

In the meantime, if you can indulge me one fantasy movie casting, it would be to have Cena and Batista take up the roles played by Nicolas Cage and John Travolta, respectively, in a remake of Face/Off. I'm usually against those kinds of things, but c'mon, that would be the most fun action flick of the decade.