John Cena, of “Never Give Up” fame, tapped out to a Gunther sleeperhold in his retirement match last night, and the live crowd and wrestling interwebs lost their damn minds almost immediately.
Paul Levesque, the chief content officer – i.e. booker – at WWE, was serenaded with boos from fans at the live event in Washington, D.C., when he made his way to the ring for a post-match moment with Cena.
Not sure what the controversy here is.
It’s a tradition in the pro wrestling business that the retiring star loses his final match on the way out, to pass the torch to a young star – the task for the young star being, take the gift and do something big with it.
The only thing I’d question here is: Gunther?
Gunther – birth name: Walter Hahn – is already 38; for context, the legendary Ric Flair was in his eighth NWA world title reign at age 38; for that matter, Cena, at 38, had been WWE champ 12 times.
Thirty-eight, in other words, ain’t young, so if I was booing, or posting vitriol online, that would be what I’d be mad at – the act of giving a guy who is on the back nine of his career the Cena rub.
Fans weren’t booing that, though; the issue was, that Cena was booked to lose his last match at all.
As I noted, it’s been a wrestling tradition, but not so much of late – recent notable retirements included The Undertaker and Sting winning their retirement matches.
I was on hand in person for Sting’s retirement match, at the 2024 AEW “Revolution” down the road in Greensboro, which had as its main event Sting and partner Darby Allin facing The Young Bucks.
I read that one less as Sting getting the dub on his way out as the win in the tag match elevating Allin, then 31, which passes for up-and-coming in today’s wrestling business.
Seriously, there just aren’t that many young stars anymore – the top guys that I’ve got are former AEW/TNT champ Kyle Fletcher, 26; Bron Breakker, Dominik Mysterio and Austin Theory from WWE, all three at 28; former AEW world champ Maxwell Jacob Friedman, 29.
Hall of Fame wrestling manager, trainer and podcaster Jim Cornette recently devoted a lengthy podcast segment to breaking down the top stars under the age of 30 in the Year of Our Lord 1984 – and it was a who’s who:
- The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith:22; Dynamite Kid: 26)
- The Fabulous Freebirds (Terry Gordy: 23; Michael Hayes: 25)
- Barry Windham (24)
- Kerry Von Erich (24)
- The Road Warriors (Animal: 24; Hawk: 27)
- Magnum TA (25)
- Nikita Koloff (25)
- The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express (Robert Gibson: 26; Ricky Morton: 28)
- Bret Hart (27)
- Jake “The Snake” Roberts (29)
WWE could have, and should have, booked with Breakker or Mysterio to beat Cena in his retirement match, but for reasons known only to Levesque, they didn’t go that way.
As it is, having Cena lose by tapout is poetic.
He finally gave up.
No foul there.
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Chris Graham
