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WWE Superstar John Cena made an appearance on the latest episode of Cody Rhodes’ What Do You Wanna Talk About show following his retirement. Speaking to the Undisputed WWE Champion, The Franchise Player mentioned that his favorite moment in wrestling happened outside the US, in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, he also appreciated CM Punk for allowing him to witness that moment.
The 2025 Night of Champions saw John Cena defend the Undisputed Championship against CM Punk. The Second City Saint had bad blood with the Middle Eastern nation due to a 2020 tweet in which he criticized The Miz for performing shows in Saudi Arabia, calling his earnings blood money.
Speaking about it, John Cena referred to Punk by his real name, Phil Brooks, saying that watching him apologize to a fan at the NOC pre-show was his growth as a man. The Franchise Player noted that he watched as everyone in the stadium eventually forgave his opponent of the night, which made him very emotional.
“In the right moment, Phil was accountable for what he said. He gave a good explanation for the why, and what can we do after that. ‘I'm sorry,’ and then you leave it. That's all you can do. Forgiveness takes time. And when someone's ready to forgive, they'll mend that fence. That gentleman forgave him right there and broke. The forgiveness was infectious. So what I see is like holy s**t, wrestling just brought cultures together. Wrestling just brought people with different ideologies together in an embrace and excitement. Phil went on that pre-show at 5 p.m. We did a promo at like 8:30 p.m. He went from being the most hated person, to forgiving one, or saying sorry to one guy, and being forgiven. And then the whole pre-show forgave him. And then went out in front of 31,000 people, and they forgave him. There's not, I don't know if there's a better moment than that.” [50:36 - 51:41]The Never Seen 17 wrestled his last match against CM Punk at Night of Champions and defeated him to retain the Undisputed Title. With this, Cena sealed his rivalry against Punk with a 7-6 head-to-head lead.
John Cena on why he smiled before tapping out to Gunther
John Cena tapping out to Gunther in his final match at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13, 2025, saw instant heat from the fans. The crowd could be heard yelling bull***t from the stands as Cena went against his motto of ‘Never Give Up.’
Interestingly, The Franchise Player had smiled just before submitting to The Ring General’s Sleeper Hold. Talking about why he smiled on the same episode of What Do You Wanna Talk About, John Cena said that he did it because he wanted to go out peacefully.
He noted that he was very vulnerable ahead of the match and wanted to convey that after his struggle, he was leaving the business and going to a better place in peace. The RAW episode following SNME saw Gunther gloat about making Cena give up, resulting in Adam Pearce dismissing him from the show for the rest of the night.
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Edited by Sanchari Bhattacharya
English (US)