John Cena suffered a stunning loss to Solo Sikoa at WWE Crown Jewel this past weekend, marking what seems to be the end of the legendary star’s temporary return to the company. Sikoa gained the advantage towards the end of the match when he managed to stun Cena with a running Samoan Spike and went on to brutalize the 16-time world champion with an additional 10 Samoan Spikes before finally getting the pinfall victory.
At the WWE Fastlane post-show press conference, Cena admitted that whilst this run wouldn’t be the end of his time in WWE, his final match was “on the horizon.” Weeks later, he went on to claim that he was considering retirement as he has not gotten a televised singles victory in over five years – with his last coming at the Greatest Royal Rumble pay-per-view back in April 2018 over Triple H.
Since his shocking loss to Sikoa, Cena has continued teasing a potential retirement through a series of daily crypt posts to Instagram. These include a photo of David Beckham, a screenshot of Wheezy from Toy Story 2, and a photo of Babe Ruth during his final game at Yankee Stadium, all of which indicate that his legendary career may be coming to an end. The teases have also seemingly featured on his X account as he posted about overcoming failure just days after his Crown Jewel loss.
During his unexpected return to WWE over the last few months, Cena has competed in seven matches across two Premium Live events, SmackDown dark matches, and the company’s Superstar Spectacle live event in Hyderabad, India. The Hollywood star recently revealed that he got direct permission from the Screen Actors Guild to make his WWE return amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike affecting Hollywood before he even asked the company if a return was even possible.