When did John Cena debut? Career, age, and more explored as WWE player announces retirement in December 2025

It will be the end of a legacy of an in-ring career when WWE icon John Cena, 48, closes the chapter on his legendary career this December. John Cena will enter the ring to compete in his retirement match on December 13 at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., which started with his debut on the WWE in 2002. He is a fan favorite over the last 20+ years and a record-winning 17-time world champion. According to Newsweek, there is already hype behind his last show, with thousands of fans anticipating coming to the event, and tickets are being bought at a much higher rate.

WWE superstar John Cena posted a touching message on X, reposting WWE's post on the promotion of his last match. To tackle the speculation about his future, John Cena announced that he will retire from in-ring competition and that his last WWE match will be on December 13, 2025. He further said he was grateful to be able to experience and have moments with WWE and pointed to his desire not to break his promise but to see his fans one more time in the ring. 

In his words:

"Despite any speculation or rumors, on July 6, 2024 I announced I would retire from WWE in ring participation. I am far from perfect but strive to be a person whose word has value. 12/13/25 will be my final match. I am beyond grateful for every moment WWE has given me. I am excited for 12/13 & look forward to seeing all of you one last time."

John Cena's boxing career

The year 1999 marked the start of the professional wrestling career of John Cena with Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW), where he wrestled as The Prototype and became the UPW Heavyweight Champion within a period of four months in April 2000. The following year, he became part of the World Wrestling Entertainment (since then WWE) and was dispatched to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) to learn the ropes, and became both OVW Heavyweight and OVW Southern Tag Team Champion with Rico Constantino.

John Cena first appeared in the main roster of WWE on June 27, 2002, when he responded to an open challenge presented by Kurt Angle. His charisma and quickness on the mic were revealed early on through his character of Doctor of Thuganomics, which got him an enormous fan base.

Cena would go on to become one of the most iconic figures in the history of WWE as he was the star of many WrestleMania matches and some of the most famous rivalries in history involving the likes of The Rock, Edge, and Randy Orton, and won the admiration of generations of wrestling fans as the face of the company.

He has an illustrious career that has earned him several accolades over the decades, with 14 WWE Championships and three World Heavyweight Championships. He has also been successful in the ring with two Royal Rumble wins and a Money in the Bank win. 

During the Raw premiere on January 6, 2025, having entered the Royal Rumble and won the Elimination Chamber, becoming the first to tie the record of Triple H. It was the first time he had turned heel since 2003 and joined The Rock and Travis Scott, eventually defeating Rhodes at WrestleMania 41 and becoming a 17-time world champion.

John Cena is now a very strong presence in the pantheon of professional wrestling. Hailed as a peer by such figures as Kurt Angle, John Broadshaw, Layfield, and Paul Heyman, John Cena has merged in-ring success with mainstream popularity, in the footsteps of crossover legends such as Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and the Rock.

His ability and his commitment to the art are evident in iconic moments such as his one-hour-long faceoff with Shawn Michaels. Outside the ring, John Cena has been featured as the headliner of all-time record-breaking shows such as the 2012 WrestleMania XXVIII event, where his match with The Rock sold more than 1.2 million copies and generated close to 9 million dollars, a feat that established him as one of the all-time greats of WWE.

Although his full-time tenure had yielded both negative and positive reactions, both in criticism and fan cheers, including a commendation of his charisma and promotional abilities and a criticism of his domineering nature relative to others, his later career has received a much kinder reception, with a more golden era in his history being marked.

John Cena's journey from wrestling to Hollywood to music and love life

The life and career of John Cena have been characterized by high-profile relationships, blockbuster movies, and wrestling achievements. John Cena was married to Elizabeth Huberdeau, his high school sweetheart, from 2009 to 2012. He would later become engaged to WWE superstar Nikki Bella in 2017, but the couple broke off their engagement.

In 2020, Cena got engaged to an engineer, Shay Shariatzadeh, whom he met during the filming of Playing with Fire, and got married privately in Florida before organizing a second ceremony in Vancouver in 2022. In addition to his personal life, Cena has also successfully moved out of the wrestling ring into Hollywood, where he has demonstrated his diversity in terms of action, comedy, and voice roles.

He has appeared as a leading man in The Marine (2006) and performed in action thrillers such as 12 Rounds (2009) and Bumblebee (2018), comedies such as Trainwreck (2015) and Blockers (2018), and voiced a gentle bull in Ferdinand (2017). Cena also participated in huge franchises with F9 (2021) as Jakob Toretto and in The Suicide Squad (2021) as Peacemaker, the character of the same name in the HBO Max series, Peacemaker (2022-present).

John Cena has a great deal of fame due to his wrestling creation that is both legendary and remarkable, though his talent is not limited to the ring. Cena is also an obsessed rapper who first recorded his WWE theme songs, such as Basic Thuganomics and Untouchables, which were featured on official WWE soundtrack albums, which provided a preview of his musical image to the fans.

He collaborated with his cousin Tha Trademarc and put out his first album, You Can't See Me, which combined his wrestling identity and hip-hop style. The album included his classic entrance theme The Time is Now and such singles as Bad, Bad Man, with a music video spoofing 1980s pop culture, including a reference to The A-Team.

This wasn't the end of Cena's involvement in collaborations, as he was featured in remixes, had joined forces with artists such as Murs and the Perceptionists, and joined Wiz Khalifa in songs on the WWE 2K15 video game soundtrack, showing his ability to work across all types of ventures. From the wrestling arenas to the recording studios and the television soundstages, Cena has always been at the forefront in bringing the boundaries of an athlete and an artist together, demonstrating an artistic side that audiences still explore and remain proud of.

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