John Cena Drops Major Surprise About Retirement Tour & New WWE Tournament

John Cena made a massive revelation about his retirement tour and the new tournament he announced at WWE Backlash 2026.

John Cena is considered one of the greatest of all time in not only the WWE but pro wrestling as a whole. He had a legendary run from 2002 to 2025 before hanging up his boots eventually. Before retiring from in-ring competition, Cena had a retirement run for the entirety of the year 2025. The Leader of Cenation’s last match took place in December last year, in which he shockingly tapped out and lost to Gunther.

Since his in-ring retirement, John Cena has made a few sporadic appearances in the WWE, as he was the host of WrestleMania 42. Cena also showed up at Backlash 2026 this past month to announce ‘The John Cena Classic’ tournament, where stars from NXT and the main roster will compete. It was also announced that the winner of the competition will be decided by fan voting, so a star could be voted the winner even if they lost.

John Cena revealed the secret about his WWE retirement tour and the Classic

While speaking with Takedown of Sports Illustrated recently, John Cena disclosed that he had approached the WWE with the idea of his retirement tour as well as ‘The John Cena Classic’ tournament. Cena also revealed that it took a year and a half for him and the company to develop his retirement tour:

I approached them about the retirement tour. That was my idea. And so is the John Cena Classic. Now, the retirement tour took a year and a half for me to develop. It took a year and a half after I pitched and they accepted it for the WWE to curate and develop”

Cena further revealed that ‘The John Cena Classic’ tournament idea took 4-5 months to develop before he pitched it to the WWE CCO, Triple H:

That was a very long lead and the John Cena Classic took four or five months for me to get a proper situation where I could talk to Triple H and they’ve digested the information. We’ve been working out the details for about two months now and we’re going forward. We’re going to give it a shot.” [H/T Ringside News]

The official start date for ‘The John Cena Classic’ has yet to be announced by the WWE, and it will be interesting to see what Cena’s role will be in that.

Also read: New Details Emerge After John Cena Breaks The Internet With WWE Backlash Announcement