Matt Hardy believes that John Cena's farewell tour will elevate people.
16-time world champion John Cena will retire in 2025. He announced the news at WWE Money in the Bank and stated that he would embark on a farewell course that spanned the year.
Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, Matt Hardy was asked to share his thoughts on John Cena announcing his retirement.
“I think John retiring is probably a good call for him because I think he wants to move forward and do more things on the Hollywood front and in the acting front and whatnot. I think, by kind of setting a timetable on it, 2025 over the course of that year is when he’s going to do his retirement, I think he’ll have a run of very interesting matches, very interesting feuds, and there will be people that he’ll elevate along that path, and they’ll make it emotional. They’ll find a way to tie into the storytelling where it seems real emotional and you’re gonna miss him. You’re going to bereave him whenever he’s gone. But I think over the course of that time, he’ll do great. I think he’ll elevate people. He’ll get people emotionally connected to him in his journey and what he’s doing. Then I think he’ll leave WWE, and you’ll still him back as a figure on TV, interacting but not wrestling as much, and he will fully focus everything on Hollywood and acting," Hardy said.
Hardy was then asked whether he thought that Cena should win his seventeenth world title and break Ric Flair's record. He stated that he would not mind that. Hardy highlighted Cena's loyalty to WWE and reiterated that he would not mind seeing him break the record.
"I wouldn’t mind that. I wouldn’t mind that at all. I think he is such a WWE loyalist, I wouldn’t mind that. He would be a great guy to get that honor. When you look back at him and it’s all said and done, he spent his entire career at WWE and for WWE, and he really is one of the more loyal employees that has ever worked at WWE. So yeah, I wouldn’t mind that at all," Hardy said.
Hardy went on to share his belief that there could be value in a world title run for Cena, as WWE could capitalize on the emotional investment that fans had in Cena, and it could lead to the veteran putting someone over.
"I think there is something that could be valuable from a run with John Cena. I just think if people get so emotionally connected to him in this journey, like, ‘Oh my god, we don’t want it to be over,’ and he gets into a title match, I feel like he could win, and then he doesn’t need a long reign, obviously. You give him a month where he has this, ‘Oh my god, John Cena,’ we’re getting the best of John Cena, and then you have him put over someone clean and make them, and they’re beating this legend, the GOAT, who has had more reigns than anybody else. I think there could he something to that of value," Hardy said.
The Miz recently said that he wants to work with John Cena. Check out his comments here.
John Cena has said that it's a great time to do a retirement tour, given WWE's rise in popularity. Click here to see what he had to say.
Fightful Select reported more information about John Cena's retirement.
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