The John Cena retirement tour is winding down. There are a few weeks left and just a few shows remaining before the jorts and oversized t-shirts are hung in the rafters. There are a lot of strong opinions about how the entire final run has gone, and many of them aren’t positive. AJ Styles versus John Cena at WWE Crown Jewel Perth gave fans a glimpse at what was possible had WWE taken the time to put a quality program together. One big complaint is the matches that have been booked along the way. Here are three matches that fans missed out on and will now never happen.
John Cena vs R-Truth: Career vs Career
John Cena and R-Truth battled twice during the former’s retirement tour. The official record was 1-1, but WWE certainly dropped the ball with how this aspect of the feud was handled. Not only did the company drop the ball, but one of the biggest unforced errors of the year occurred when Truth’s contract was set to expire and WWE didn’t make the point to keep the locker room icon signed. He’d eventually get an extension which is expected to be the last one, and the story was buried, nothing more was made of the moment.
Imagine if WWE took the opportunity to tell a month-long story in which Truth and Cena put their careers on the line against each other. That would have been the perfect way to advance Cena’s retirement run and create an acceptable stage for Truth’s career with WWE to come to an end. This was a glaring hole and points to the overall creative lapse that is going on within WWE.
John Cena vs LA Knight
John Cena was once considered the best talker in the business. He’s still high up on that list, but he’s not the only one who can work a microphone. Enter LA Knight. In his brief time on the main roster, Knight has become a fan favorite, not because of his high-level in-ring work, but a character that fans quickly got behind. LA Knight versus John Cena would have been a great way to help Knight get a quick boost of momentum that could lead to something big next year.
John Cena vs Carmelo Hayes
One big mistake during Cena’s retirement run is that it hasn’t been used to build any stars for the long-term future. While there’s speculation that there may be an intention behind it, the point still remains that WWE hasn’t developed a lot of stars for the future, especially in the men’s division. One performer whose fans want to see elevated is Carmelo Hayes, and a match with John Cena would have helped that.
Just like Cena, Hayes is a Massachusetts native, and playing off that was the route to building a potential feud between these two men. Again, it’s simple storytelling. Hayes wants to be the one to retire Cena and takes a shot at making that happen. Would he have won? Of course not, but this would have been the biggest match in Hayes’s WWE run to date and helped build him into a bigger name down the line.