With his retirement set for December 13 at Saturday Night’s Main Event, it seems like John Cena has done it all. But even after a storied career, he still has one dream match he wishes he could have had, one that only a time machine could make possible. Appearing at Fan EXPO Chicago 2025, Cena revealed the opponent he’d love to face: the one and only Andre the Giant.

“Just selfishly, Andre, because he was like the measuring stick,” Cena said. “The folklore behind Andre the Giant is mythical, and both physical, as his presence, but also in, like, the folklore of the fraternity, of the brotherhood of wrestling, especially the WWF territory. I’m sure it’s across the world, because Andre was a global phenomenon. But selfishly, yes. That would be the one, Andre the Giant.”

It is not a surprising pick. Cena’s career followed the same classic “Hulk Hogan formula” from the 1980s, battling larger-than-life villains, defying the odds, and walking out victorious. His rivalries with massive opponents like Big Show echoed the same energy that defined Hogan’s battles with Andre. It is easy to imagine Cena and Andre creating the same kind of spectacle on the grand stage.

Cena’s admiration for Andre runs deep. As a child, one of his favorite wrestling memories was Andre’s legendary clash with Hogan at WrestleMania III. Watching Hogan lift the 520-pound Giant sent chills down young Cena’s spine, a moment that helped cement his love for wrestling. Looking back, it is fitting that Cena, the ultimate modern hero, would dream of standing across the ring from the original giant who defined wrestling’s golden age.

Cena idolized Andre growing up, and that Andre played a key role in what Cena has often called his favorite WrestleMania moment of all time. That moment was the iconic clash between Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania III, still regarded as one of the biggest and most influential matches in WWE history. Hogan’s legendary slam of Andre not only defined an era but inspired countless fans, including a young John Cena, to fall in love with wrestling.

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