Real reason WWE botched John Cena's farewell tour, according to former employee (Exclusive)

Former WWE head writer Vince Russo recently spoke about how the company bottled John Cena's farewell tour. The star currently has five dates left this year.

At Money in the Bank 2024, John Cena announced that he would retire at the end of 2025. During his retirement tour, The Cenation Leader turned heel, won the elusive 17th world championship, turned babyface again, and had memorable matches against top stars like Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, and Logan Paul. His last match was against Brock Lesnar.

On the latest episode of Sportskeeda's Writing with Russo, the veteran writer claimed that Cena became the victim of internal politics in WWE. He felt the company had a falling out with The Rock, which directly impacted Cena's heel turn. Vince Russo added that the creative team was not able to recover from the chaos, and it eventually ruined John's farewell run.

"I'm telling you, man. A lot went sour with Rock. A lot went sour with The Rock and people not being on the same page. Cena got caught right smack in the middle of that. Since that happened, they have not been able to recover from that," Russo said.

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John Cena suffered a devastating loss at the hands of Brock Lesnar at Wrestlepalooza. The Beast delivered six vicious F5s to secure the win over Cena.

The Franchise Player is now gearing up for a match against AJ Styles. Fans have long been demanding to see the two former world champions collide one last time. The match will take place at Crown Jewel in Perth, Australia, this weekend.

Cena's last match is slated for December 13 in Washington, D.C. The star will headline Saturday Night's Main Event.

Please remember to embed the video and credit Sportskeeda for the transcription while using quotes from this piece.

About the author

Prityush is a WWE news writer for Sportskeeda Wrestling who started watching wrestling in the later part of The Attitude Era. Although he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Prityush was a creative writer for his college, and his flair for creativity and love of pro wrestling eventually led him to the journalism field. After an initial stint in 2016-2017, he has been writing regularly for Sportskeeda since 2021.

As someone who loves and respects the business, he prides himself on factual, clean, and ethical reporting, free of plagiarism and AI usage. One of the ways he ensures this is by transcribing videos that he reports on.

Prityush had the privilege of interviewing superstar Matt Hardy in his career so far. Although, his favorite wrestler is CM Punk, as he relates to his Straight Edge philosophy.

When he is not reporting news, he loves reading and collecting WWE action figures. He currently owns over 500 wrestling figures and merchandise.

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Edited by Prityush Haldar