John Cena’s final WWE appearances ahead of his retirement are nearly upon us, and his creative for his last matches is seemingly taking shape.
Cena’s last match will take place on Dec. 13 in Washington, D.C. at Saturday Night’s Main Event, with major appearances in Boston, New York, and at Survivor Series in San Diego set for the road up to that. Now, it seems it’s possible gold could be in his future one last time before hanging up the jorts.
Dave Meltzer reports in this week’s Wrestling Observer newsletter that Cena is being considered for a brief run with the WWE Intercontinental Championship. That would then set him up for a retirement match with the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion of all time, Gunther.
Meltzer notes in his report that this was a plan as of a few weeks ago, though it is unclear as to whether or not that is still the case.
While the end goal match may very well end up being Cena and Gunther, it still means Cena would have to win the title before his final match. Those creative plans should become clearer following this weekend’s Saturday Night’s Main Event.
Current Intercontinental Champion “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio will defend the title against Penta and Rusev in a triple-threat match, with Meltzer indicating Mysterio is likely to retain. This would then set Mysterio and Cena up for a match at Survivor Series in San Diego, a city where the Mysterio family has plenty of legacy.
In this scenario, Cena would win the belt on the Premium Live Event, setting him up for a battle with Gunther.
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The 48-year-old Cena is one of the most decorated wrestlers in WWE history, having won the world title a record 17 times. He’s also a five-time WWE United States Champion. However, interestingly enough, the one title that has managed to evade Cena his entire career has been the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
On record, Cena has only ever challenged for the title seven times in his career, and every single one of those matches has been a WWE house show and not on television. The most recent occasion was at a March 18, 2018, WWE live event in Oklahoma City, where Cena lost a fatal-four way match against then-champion The Miz, Elias, and Roman Reigns.
The previous year, he had a series of live event matches with Reigns for the title, failing to win it each time.
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