Cody Rhodes & More Respond To John Cena WWE Retirement Match

Cody Rhodes and more have shared their reactions to John Cena’s WWE retirement match at Saturday Night’s Main Event tonight.

Cena had his final WWE match tonight as he faced GUNTHER, with GUNTHER scoring the win as Cena tapped out to a sleeper hold.

After the match, the locker room and backstage area emptied out to ringside as everyone gave Cena an ovation before he left the ring and headed to the back.

When everyone else had left, the one man who stayed at ringside what Cody Rhodes.

He was approached by Jackie Redmond for an impromptu interview, where he emotionally commented on Cena’s career.

Rhodes, through tears, said Cena “did everything right” and “by the book” with the way he ended his career and also how he went about his entire career prior to tonight.

He said he wanted to take a moment about what Cena was able to do, and added that he’s happy this show happened, but sad it happened as well.

After Rhodes, WWE lead announcer Michael Cole was also asked for his thoughts and specifically the fact Cena tapped out. He said:

“It was so unbelievable, I don’t think anybody expected it. It was so shocking when it happened.

“The match was such an emotional rollercoaster and I’ve called so many of John Cena’s matches for 23 years and each and every time there was always ‘Big Match John’ as JBL used to say.

“He’d fight back, he’d get back in the match, he’d somehow pull it out in the end and I think we all expected that tonight and when he tapped out in the last minute I think everyone was in complete shock.”

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The Miz also appeared on the post-show panel, praising GUNTHER as the future of the company, and refuting people who say him being 38 means he can’t be the “future.” He said:

“GUNTHER is the future. You look at GUNTHER he is the future, whether you like it or not. He is the future of this business.

“People are like ‘Oh, he’s in his upper 30s,’ this guy is in his prime. I have wrestled him, I have been in the ring with GUNTHER, I know how lethal, how damaging he can be.”

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Miz also pointed out how impressive it was that GUNTHER managed to turn Miz of all people babyface when they feuded a couple of years ago.