Dave Meltzer Speculates On WWE's Plans For John Cena Retirement Tour

John Cena has had a monumental pro wrestling career that will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest of his generation, if not the entirety of pro wrestling. Cena recently announced his retirement tour, proclaiming that WrestleMania 41 will be his final appearance on "The Grandest Stage of Them All."

According to Dave Meltzer, in a recent episode of "Wrestling Observer Radio," Cena will likely have to cut back on his acting to a degree if he plans to make all the dates he proclaimed. 

"Big farewell tour and everything and, you know, a year?" said Meltzer. Despite this, he doesn't expect to see Cena around much for the rest of 2024. "He's committed to the Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, and WrestleMania."

Meltzer explained that he believes that Cena will likely win the Rumble or Elimination Chamber, and wondered if he'll end up breaking Ric Flair's 16-time championship record. Cena is currently tied with Flair with 16 combined championship reigns recognized by WWE, so all it would take is one more reign to pull that off. Meltzer also pointed out how he was a massive draw while champion, and that his potential 17th reign might play a part in WWE's Netflix deal.  

"They [WWE] may want to be able to market him as the greatest of all time, and the person who's held the most world titles of all time," said Meltzer. "He kept talking about Netflix, so I think that maybe the deal is they want him on again, that's why they may be paying him a lot of money, is to help, you know, draw Netflix when they start in January."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio," and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.