John Cena on His Heel Turn, WWE Retirement, Gunther and What He Doesn't Miss

Even in his retirement from the ring, the grind hasn't stopped for John Cena.

The record-setting 17-time world champion did big business for WWE in 2025, his final year as an active competitor. He headlined a plethora of premium live events including Royal Rumble, SummerSlam and WrestleMania, captured championships and tried his hand at turning heel.

After tapping out to Gunther in his final-ever outing last December, Cena quickly and seamlessly transitioned into his new role as an ambassador for WWE, going on to appear at WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas as the official host of the event and announcing the inaugural John Cena Classic at Backlash.

Away from wrestling, he's simultaneously spending his time taking on more acting projects and playing Clash of Clans.

Keeping Busy in Retirement and What He Misses About Wrestling

Cena has long been an avid player of the popular app game with over two billion lifetime downloads, making his involvement in the Search for Cena campaign all the more rewarding.

"Promotions like this to me are the sweet spot," Cena exclusively told Bleacher Report. "Whenever a company comes to you and says, 'Hey, we kind of want to do this thing based off of the You Can't See Me, but we heard that you might be also into the game...' And then you sit down and talk with them and the folks at Supercell gather information together that puts forth an authentic story as to why we're doing it."

The Search for Cena will see "Barbarian King" Cody Rhodes recruit the rest of the WWE Superstars available to play as in the game (The Undertaker, IYO SKY and Jey Uso, among others) and everyone else in the Clash community to hunt down the Cenation Leader between Sept. 1 and Sept. 15.

A one-time-only statue of The American Nightmare awaits those who manage to locate Cena's base.

Cena and Rhodes are rekindling their rivalry in the virtual world in the wake of their Undisputed WWE Championship wars in 2025 and their early encounters in the game many years ago.

"I think it's kind of built for us over at WWE, especially when we got into it," Cena said about using Clash of Clans to pass the time while traveling for WWE. "You were on the road far more than you were home, and the way that they set up making your clan and being able to have people participate was just kind of a way for me to stay interactive with the guys.

"It was just a way for us to have that camaraderie," he continued. "Weirdly enough, before Clash, all the boys used to play cards and cards like kind of fell by the wayside with the generation that I came up with. I would even say with The Hardy Boyz and then with like the OVW class, it kind of fell by the wayside. Clash became the new conduit for busting each other's chops and conversation just for us to stay friends."

That camaraderie among the guys and girls in the locker room is among the many things Cena misses most about being a full-time talent in WWE. Of course, nothing compares to the adrenaline rush of competing in front of thousands and that instant sense of gratification, especially compared to the tedious nature of the acting realm.

WWE x Clash of Clans/Supercell

One would assume that the hectic travel required of the wrestlers is what Cena doesn't miss about the business, but it's actually everything he endured from a physical standpoint, simply because his body couldn't endure it any longer by the time he hung up his boots for good.

"I like that life, I like the fraternity, I love the ever-changing live audience," Cena said. "The narrative is, like, I can waste all your interview time telling you how much I love it and how much I miss all of that stuff. So, one shining guideline was, physically, I'm older. I'm slower. My sprint time is down. My vertical jump is down. My strength is down.

"How many red flags, how many lights on the dash have to go on before you say like, 'Hey, it's time to move on'? I still have my health. I still feel very good. But honestly, if it if I was bulletproof, I'd still be in there with the guys."

Despite calling it quits last December, the Coyote vs. Acme star showed signs of "Super Cena" in the twilight of his iconic career. His critically-acclaimed wars with Rhodes, CM Punk and AJ Styles proved he had a little left in the tank than he initially let on.

For years, Cena maintained that he would wrap it up once he felt he could no longer deliver at an elite level consistently, and true to his word, he did just that, but only after holding a year-long retirement tour that featured a slew of milestone moments and moments.

In addition to saying farewell to his fans around the world, he did things that had long eluded him—the heel turn being chief among them.

WWE/WWE via Getty Images

Happy His Heel Turn Happened

Cena previously portrayed a villain at the onset of his WWE main roster run, but never while he was wrestling on top. That was what made his turn at Elimination Chamber 2026 so shocking and so satisfying.

Unfortunately, the fallout left a lot to be desired, at least creatively. There were glimmers of greatness during his heel run, but by and large, it wasn't what fans always envisioned it would be.

Cena has never been one to entertain "what if?" scenarios. He famously refused to reveal what the original plan was for his heel pairing with The Rock during an appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet and what it would have looked like had Rock and Travis Scott stuck around after WrestleMania 41.

When asked about whether he feels his Hall of Fame-worthy career would have been incomplete had he not gone through with that ill-fated heel turn last year, Cena responded with a rather insightful answer analyzing what about it worked and what didn't.

"That's a great question," he told B/R. "A hypothetical one, but I'll walk down a hypothetical lane. Let's say we never do it. I think that would give you as a writer, great canon for articles to write on, like, 'Man, what would it have been like?' But now we have what really happened. We got a heel version of me and we did the best we could with the time we had. And as far as, like, did it work or not? Okay, there's a lot of aspects to that from a business side.

"We didn't have a seat left," Cena continued. "And, you know, people watched in numbers. So, I don't know if it didn't work from a business standpoint. But then there's the creative standpoint. Sometimes blockbuster movies are poorly reviewed by critics. So, I understand where critically people are, like, 'Man, that's just not what I wanted to see.'"

Cena added that he would have loved to have had a chance to "literally ruin wrestling," to wrestle so poorly that people would have wanted him to go for good and to see a hero rise up to oppose him. He affirmed that they didn't have that kind of time, and that it wouldn't have been good for business.

He's also accountable for the critique. As seen on Netflix's WWE Unreal behind-the-scenes series, plans are constantly changing in WWE, and plans certainly changed with Cena's heel turn at at almost every turn. All in all, though, he has no regrets.

"I guess long and short, I'm glad to have done it," Cena said. "I never asked for it. It wasn't my idea. It was Paul's [Triple H] idea. And he even said himself, he asked me and in two seconds, it was a yes. Just like facing Brock or against Gunther. That's how I do business. Just let me tell the story my way. You know? So, if we never did it, I would have been fine. And it would have been nice for you guys to write about, 'Oh, man, he never did it.' In reflecting, I wouldn't change a thing."

Cena feels the lessons learned from the heel turn can be taught to the younger talent, specifically with how to be bold and take chances. He understands that some fans will see that run as a failure, but he's proud to have swung boldly.

The same can be said about his last match with Gunther at Saturday Night's Main Event in December. The bout itself was undoubtedly excellent, but Cena going against his "Never Give Up" mantra by tapping out to Gunther caused quite the stir among fans online.

WWE/WWE via Getty Images

'Gunther's Story Is Not Done'

An argument was made in the moment that Gunther would benefit big time from submitting Cena in unprecedented fashion, and he definitely did in the first few months thereafter.

With The Ring General having cooled off considerably since then, fans now wonder if it was worth it.

While addressing Gunther's status and how WWE has followed up with him, Cena discussed talent frustration and how he personally dealt with it at various points during his time on top.

"Everyone in the locker room at one point gets to a point of frustration," he told B/R. "I gotta be honest with you: Over my 23 years, I might've had two or three moments of fleeting frustration. They were, like, the blink of an eye because I always loved what I did... You didn't see me complain. I know there's a lot of reports and everybody talks about backstage drama. There was never a 'John Cena's frustrated with management' [report] because it's just not true. Not believable. I know there's frustration in all towns of like, 'Yo, man, I just did this spectacular thing. I need a new spectacular thing.' No, the spectacular thing is a conduit for you to stand on your own two feet."

He mentioned having to cut 15-minute monologues without wrestling on TV for months at a time while he was working part-time and how tough of a task that was, but he accepted and embraced that challenge because it forced him to get creative and be better as a performer.

How generational wrestlers like Gunther handle the peaks and valleys of pushes heating up and dying down will define their legacies and cement their spots atop the totem pole. Gunther not being a permanent fixture in the main event mix at the moment doesn't necessarily mean he won't be world champion again eventually.

"[Gunther's] story is not done," Cena asserted. "I think he's in that position right now where he's making moves based on the equity of Gunther. And sometimes you don't get a dance partner that's equal or greater to you. Sometimes you don't get a 25-year veteran like AJ Styles to make him retire. Sometimes you don't get to retire John Cena. Sometimes you got to lift up younger talent. Sometimes you got to hold the show by yourself.

"Man, matches I'm most proud of are having a beer with the audience in WrestleMania and then getting squashed by The Undertaker, because I felt really good about orchestrating a storyline that could bring back The Deadman as The Deadman," he continued. "I don't know, man. I hope that each performer reaches their potential and, man, that's my hope. I guess that's also the origin story for the opportunistic nature of the John Cena Classic. I just want to get folks out there to have an ability to do their thing the best they can do it."

Whether he's honing his craft in acting or dominating the Clash of Clans world, John Cena will forever have a place in pro wrestling, and although he's still navigating the waters of what in-ring retirement looks like for him, his attitude toward the industry may ultimately make him as invaluable of an asset to WWE outside of the squared circle as he was inside of it.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.