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WWE legend John Cena wrestled his storied rivals and also elevated prominent talent in the company. Interestingly, the Never Seen 17 recently revealed that CM Punk surprised him by topping a big promo of his during the farewell tour.
CM Punk had challenged John Cena for the Undisputed WWE Championship at the 2025 Night of Champions. Ahead of the match, the record-setting 17-time WWE World Champion put the Second City Saint through a table and delivered his version of the pipebomb.
Many fans thought that Punk’s response to the reversal of his own legendary promo would not be able to do much damage. However, speaking to Cody Rhodes on his What Do You Wanna Talk About podcast, Cena said that the World Heavyweight Champion overcame him by stealing his entire rapping gimmick, Doctor of Thuganomics.
“Everybody was like, 'We did the thing in Chicago, the Pipebomb 2.0,' and it was like, well, 'how is he gonna top that?' He did. He came out as the Doctor of Punkanomics.” [52:24 - 52:37]Cena and Punk faced each other for the final time at the 2025 NOC, with the Last Real Champion emerging victorious owing to The Vision’s interference. With this win, John Cena also secured a permanent 7-6 lead against Punk in their iconic rivalry.
John Cena reveals what his final toast in WWE was like
John Cena made a toast in the locker room following his loss to Gunther at the December 13, 2025, edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event. Talking about it in the same episode of What Do You Wanna Talk About, Cena said that everyone from Haku to Je’Von Evans was present for the moment.
The record-setting 17-time World Champion celebrated the metrics the SNME show had achieved in terms of crowd footfall. He acknowledged legends like Haku, stating that they could achieve these numbers because of the foundation laid by them. Then he turned to the future superstars and told them that this was the benchmark they had to beat.
The Never Seen 17 said that he was made aware of the benchmark when he was a rising star in WWE, when Stone Cold Steve Austin was the top man. It would be interesting to see how Cena will stay connected with the Stamford-based promotion in the future after giving a permanent goodbye to the ring.
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Edited by Sanchari Bhattacharya
English (US)