I legitimately believe that if John Cena were to appear on “Raw” and say, “Hey, guys, this whole retirement run got a little bungled. Let’s pretend this didn’t happen and try it again in 2026. What do you say?” Fans would almost unanimously say, “Hell yeah, John. This sucked, let’s try that again.” 

He has bought enough goodwill that it could work, but John Cena is, unfortunately, a man of his word, and it appears that his final run will simply be the middling retirement tour that we’ve been watching.

The match with Logan Paul wasn’t “bad.” Cena carried the awkward YouTuber to a servicable match, but it was a little sad watching one of Cena’s final appearances wasted on a social media influencer who still kinda moves like a baby foal learning to walk. This was nowhere near the lofty standards of even the match he had with Cody Rhodes just weeks ago at SummerSlam.

WWE and Cena are counting numbered days, and between the heel run and the less-than-inspiring opponents, it feels like a lot of money has been burned and a lot of goodwill spoiled in the name of very little. Much like his ex-wife’s match, Cena is starting to leave the “Is That All There Is?” impression. But Cena at least seems to understand that, with every interview of his retirement run seemingly bringing up that WWE sets up the opponents, and he knocks them down, Cena has at least entertained the idea that “If that’s all there is, my friends, then let’s keep dancing.”