It has been clear for years that John Cena is closer to the end of his WWE tenure than he is the beginning, but his latest outing against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 34 might have been a sign that his next run with the company will be his last.
Save for becoming a Grand Slam champion, he has accomplished it all in WWE—sometimes twice in certain cases. At this stage of his career, Cena merely returns to take on fresh faces, put over the talent of tomorrow and give fans what they want to see more often than not.
It's quite amazing to note he has lost his last six pay-per-view matches. He hasn't had his hand raised on a major stage since SummerSlam in August 2017, so the notion he is overshadowing the current crop of Superstars is fairly ridiculous.
That said, there aren't many notable names left for Cena to face, at least any that make sense. He has already clashed with the likes of AJ Styles and Finn Balor, in addition to putting over Roman Reigns and Shinsuke Nakamura.
The last real money match left for Cena was with Undertaker, who he attempted to bring out of retirement in the weeks leading up to WrestleMania. Ultimately, The Deadman didn't accept his invitation to do battle until the event arrived, and their matchup lasted only a few minutes.
This has led to speculation from fans that the 16-time world champion will eventually challenge The Deadman to a rematch at next year's installment where both of their careers will be on the line.
Bleacher Report@BleacherReportWOW. Undertaker defeated John Cena at #WrestleMania https://t.co/0J36P6sm0t
Although Cena winning would be fairly predictable, it isn't out of the question for him to fall short and walk away from WWE. After all, he has plenty of projects lined up for the immediate future and has shown promise as an actor in Hollywood.
In addition to his involvement in The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, he recently wrapped up production for the upcoming film Bumblebee and has hosted a variety of award shows, including the Kids' Choice Awards.
His most recent movie, Blockers, allowed him to display his range as an actor, especially in a comedic role, and he will only continue to improve with the more movies and shows he appears in.
Of course, having him lose his last match to Undertaker wouldn't be ideal considering he is also in the twilight of his run with WWE. However, someone such as Samoa Joe would benefit from being the one to put Cena on the shelf indefinitely and send him into an easy retirement.
Plus, that's a feud fans have never seen before on WWE, and the matches would surely be special. That is an in-ring encounter worthy of WrestleMania, but we are bound to see Cena much sooner than that, and pitting them against each other at SummerSlam would work just as well.
Either way, there's no need for Cena to beat Ric Flair's record of 16 world titles won, nor is there a need for him to be in the main event picture again with so much star power between Raw, SmackDown Live and NXT right now.
John Cena@JohnCenahttps://t.co/cJocoqPhtQ
With Reigns clearly being positioned as "the guy" in WWE, Cena's days as a full-time competitor are over. He comes in for the occasional short-lived stint, but even those are having less and less of an impact.
Eventually, Cena will take time off from wrestling for more than a handful of months and fully focus on other endeavors.
The Rock was similar in that respect in that fans never actually knew he was done for good in early 2004, and that phase of Cena's career is coming up quickly as well.
The Champ's status as a "free agent" in storylines and the fact he has been running through countless dream matches should be enough proof his days are numbered, so don't be surprised if we no longer see Cena in WWE once his next run concludes.
Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is an Endicott College alumnus and aspiring journalist. Visit his website, Next Era Wrestling, and "like" his official Facebook page to continue the conversation on all things wrestling.
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