John Cena opened this week’s episode of WWE Raw to cut a promo about how he has 27 appearances, not wrestling matches, left before he retires.
“You heartless bastards, you boo him on Friday and cheer him on Friday then boo on Sunday, and I say his name and the man we all put on our shoulders last year because he finished his story now disgusts you? That’s what’s wrong with this.”
Cena continued, “There is no one in the WWE with the ruthless aggression of John Cena, but unlike you, I have a heart…”
He said that there’s no one in WWE who has the stones or ruthless aggression to step up and take the title from him. He told the fans to take a good look at the last real champion. This led to Randy Orton sneaking up and hitting an RKO to lay out Cena.
This appears to be setting up a match at WWE Backlash in three weeks, as both stars are advertised for the event. This will be Cena’s first Backlash appearance since 2009 and is expected to be his final one before his retirement in December 2025. These two stars were rivals for years with both publicly talking about wanting to wrestle each other one more time.