Gunther Calls Out WWE Fans' Hypocrisy with John Cena, 'Stop Crying…Life Goes On'

After forcing John Cena to tap out in his retirement match at Saturday Night's Main Event this past weekend, Gunther continued to taunt Cena's fans this week.

During an appearance Wednesday on TMZ's Inside The Ring (h/t WrestlePurists), Gunther was asked if he had a message for Cena's fans, and he responded by saying, "Stop crying. Okay? Life goes on."

After Gunther's victory, the live crowd at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., showed their displeasure, booing the result, Gunther and even WWE head of creative Triple H during Cena's post-match retirement ceremony.

On Inside The Ring (h/t WrestlePurists), Gunther also suggested that fans were somewhat hypocritical for supporting Cena so vociferously after being against him in the past.

"Sometimes it's a little bit funny with fans to me because all in this last run that Cena had, especially the second half of it, the connection people had to him was just amazing," Gunther said. "I think I've never seen something like that before, but it's also funny when you think back, I don't know, when was that? 10 years? 15 years? Something like that, maybe even longer, he was the most hated guy on the whole roster.

"He was a babyface, but he went out there and he got booed everywhere he went. People complained that he got shoved down their throats and whatever. And here we are 10, 15 years later and people act like it never happened, and the situation never existed. Now they all love him. Bit hypocritical if you ask me. But that's what the fans are. Whatever is the flavor of the month, they jump on it."

To Gunther's point, there was a time when Cena was considered arguably the most divisive figure in all of pro wrestling.

While Cena has always had a devoted fanbase, it can be argued that he had nearly as many detractors from the time period of about 2006 until he stopped being a full-time wrestler in around 2017.

It was commonplace for dueling "Let's go Cena," and "Cena sucks," chants to echo through arenas across the country and the globe.

However, even as Cena spent a large portion of 2025 in a heel role, fans largely embraced him, and it was clear late in his retirement tour that they were firmly behind him.

Ultimately most of the fans in attendance at Saturday Night's Main Event were likely longtime Cena fans, and many of them may have even grown up with Cena being one of their greatest heroes.

Because of that, it isn't overly surprising that they wanted Cena to go out on a winning note.

On that night, the fans' vitriol seemed to be directed toward the booking more so than Gunther himself, but that flipped this week.

During Monday night's episode of Raw in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Gunther received a ton of heat from the crowd when he made his entrance to open the show. The boos got even louder when he declared that he made Cena tap out like a "b---h."

That is unquestionably the type of reaction WWE's decision-makers were looking for when they had Gunther beat Cena, and it is something they can potentially use to create compelling storylines for a long time to come.