John Cena WWE Championship Plans Update

Published: May 12, 2025 by Dave Adamson | Last Updated: May 12, 2025 by Dave Adamson

Dave has been a website writer for WrestleTalk since October 2022, having previously written for Den of Geek, among a number of wrestling, movie and television-related sites. Dave has been around the independent wrestling scene for more than a decade, including behind-the-scenes.

Following the May 10 WWE Backlash, plans for John Cena as Undisputed WWE Champion going forward have been revealed.

The recent Premium Live Event saw John Cena retain the Undisputed WWE Championship against Randy Orton thanks to interference from R-Truth.

John Cena now continues his retirement year as a record-breaking world champion and details have emerged as to how long that reign could last.

With Cena appearing to tease a potential face turn while smiling at “thank you, Cena” chants after the Backlash main event, some have speculated that his title reign could be over sooner than we think.

However, according to Fightful Select, Cena’s title reign is now expected to run through the summer of 2025.

While the report doesn’t specify when the reign is likely to end, let alone to whom, WWE SummerSlam takes place on August 2 & 3 with Clash in Paris taking place at the end of that month.

CM Punk recently took to social media to react to John Cena retaining the championship at WWE Backlash, teasing a potential encounter.

As for R-Truth, he suffered an attack from his “childhood hero” in the WWE Backlash post-show press conference.

With Cena now down to 24 dates remaining on his WWE retirement tour, it was recently reported that his final match will take place in Boston, Massachusetts.

As noted in that report, no specific date was given for John Cena’s final match, although a Saturday Night’s Main Event is set for December 13.

Saturday Night’s Main Event returns on May 24 at the Yuengling Center in Tampa, Florida, with Jey Uso defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Logan Paul already announced.