‘John Cena owed it to WWE fans to fix his retirement storyline’

WWE legend Wade Barrett is delighted John Cena was able to ‘course correct’ his farewell tour.

The 48-year-old wrestling icon is retiring next weekend at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13, and commentator Barrett has admitted he had concerns about his ‘heel turn’ in March this year.

At Elimination Chamber, Cena turned heel – wrestling slang for becoming a bad guy – on Cody Rhodes in one of the most shocking moments in WWE history.

Speaking exclusively told Metro, former Intercontinental Champion Barrett made it clear he wasn’t a huge fan of the twist, referencing his own in-character feelings about Cena’s betrayal of the American Nightmare.

‘I don’t know if he took some bad advice on the whole heel turn. I didn’t like it at all,’ he said in comments that appeared to be blurring the lines between storyline and real life.

”I didn’t think it was the right move, and I think his course correct around about SummerSlam time was absolutely the right thing to do.

‘I think he owed it to the WWE Universe and, of course, his legions of Cenation fans to close this thing out the right way and give people what they wanted from him, which is the John Cena they’ve known and loved all along.’

For his part, Cena told The Ringer this week that he didn’t regret the heel turn and did all he could to make it work.

‘Could I have given any more than I did? Not a bit,’ he said, noting that the fan reaction prompted a pivot which they made at the right time. ‘It didn’t work, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t give it my all.’

Preston-born star also revealed he had concerns that the 17-time world champion might not even survive the full farewell tour, which was announced at Money In The Bank 2024.

‘Not being offensive here – John’s not a young pup anymore,’ Barrett said of the man he’s known since his early WWE days in the Nexus.

‘I thought the whole time, this could go off the rails, the chance of injury is much higher now,’ he added. ‘Thankfully it hasn’t, we’re gonna get all the way there to the finish.’

The finish will come in just eight days time, when Cena faces the winner of The Last Time Is Now tournament, which will be decided on tonight’s SmackDown in a final between LA Knight and GUNTHER.

In a special twist, the wrestler-turned-Hollywood star’s final night will also feature exhibition style bouts between major WWE names and rising superstars from NXT.

Barrett spent plenty of time as a commentator for NXT before moving to Raw and SmackDown, and he’s hoping to see Oba Femi or Trick Williams get highlighted on the show.

‘[Oba] has the potential to be, the next 20 years, the big monster of this industry. He’s built for it,’ he said.

He hailed Oba’s fellow former NXT Champion Trick as a ‘natural athlete’ and ‘such a likeable human being behind the scenes’, as well as someone who has shown a natural gift for wrestling.

‘If you could design a prototypical star to go on a poster, it’s Trick Williams,’ he said. ‘Those are the two guys for me that are really standing out at the moment.’

When it comes to Saturday Night’s Main Event, Wade admitted the build to Cena’s farewell has been an emotional one behind the scenes.

‘It’s going to be tinged with a lot of emotion, a lot of sadness, that he finally is walking out the door for the last time,’ he said when asked about the mood of the locker room.

However, Cena himself isn’t letting his true feelings show.

‘He’s always been the most stoic guy ever. You never see him happy. You never seen him sad. He’s just flatlining the entire time,’ Wade quipped.

‘You consider the things he goes through in his life and his career, he should be peaking and troughing all the time. He should be “Wow, on top of Mount Everest”, “oh no, I’m in this deep valley, that was a disaster”. But he’s just not that kind of guy.’

Fans not be quite so reserved as they say goodbye to a superstar who has helped define WWE for the last 23 years, rising up the ranks from his 2002 SmackDown debut against Kurt Angle.

For Barrett, Cena is the driving force between the perception of wrestling changing around the world from something non-fans saw as beneath them.

‘I think they thought we were a bunch of meatheads, troublemakers, criminals, dumb, it was entertainment for low IQ people,’ he candidly admitted.

‘Look at it today, and it is night and day, and this is the reason why Marvel and the top Hollywood producers want WWE stars in their shows.’

Cena has been adamant he’ll never wrestle again after December 13, but he’s also made it clear he’ll always remain part of WWE in some capacity.

His Hollywood schedule will prevent anything full time like a commentator or producer backstage, but Barrett thinks he could offer a lot as a ‘guest trainer’, or even in a special on-screen role.

‘Maybe a talk show segment, a special Piper’s Pit the week before WrestleMania,’ he suggested. ‘Get the two kind of top stars in there and have John Cena host his own talk show type thing.’

Whatever happens, Barrett knows Cena will ‘always’ be around, similar to how legends like The Undertaker, The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin make their presence felt.

He smiled: ‘For the most part, they’re not wrestling, but they just have these star moments that make us look good, bring extra eyeballs to us and pass on some pearls of wisdom to people who are going to be pulling the train in this era.’

John Cena’s final match takes place on Saturday, 13 December, live at Saturday Night’s Main Event on WWE’s YouTube channel. His 2025 Retirement Tour has seen him appear 35 times around the world – fans in the UK and Ireland can catch up on the full tour so far on Netflix.

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