John Cena Explains Mindset Regarding WWE WrestleMania 41 Main Event
John Cena has given his thoughts on what happened at WrestleMania 41 when he became WWE Champion for the final time.
At the WWE Elimination Chamber PLE on March 1st in Toronto, John Cena won the match with five of WWE’s other top stars to earn a shot at the WWE Championship.
After the match, Cena shockingly turned heel by aligning with The Rock and Travis Scott to beat up Cody Rhodes. Cena’s heel turn drew a massive reaction from the crowd at the Rogers Centre, and it got a lot of attention since Cena was a babyface for 22 years. We didn’t know it at the time, but it was the last time Rock was on WWE TV in 2025.
In the main event of WrestleMania 41 Sunday, John Cena beat Cody Rhodes to become the WWE Champion for his record-setting 17th WWE World Title win. It wasn’t a clean win because Travis Scott helped Cena win.
The match between Cena and Rhodes was criticized because it wasn’t very good, and fans expect greater matches in a WrestleMania main event.
During an interview with The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Cena explained that the match with Rhodes at WrestleMania 41 was just act one in their story.
“The match Cody and I had at WrestleMania, it was not the end of our story. It was like the end of act one, knowing that we have Cody, we have to turn bad, eventually this going to happen, and we have to peak at SummerSlam. That’s the end.
Performers get in their head that WrestleMania is the end. If it’s the first chapter in your book, you can’t end your book at chapter one.
By design, we have a very methodical match with a simple end. We thought we would have some parts and players, those disappeared, it didn’t matter, because it was the end of act one. Then we had act two and act three.”
SummerSlam Was The End Of John Cena’s Story With Cody Rhodes
Cody Rhodes would go on to win the King of the Ring tournament, which led to a WWE Title rematch against John Cena at SummerSlam. On the SmackDown before SummerSlam, Cena dropped the heel act and became a babyface again, much to the crowd’s delight.
In the SummerSlam main event, Cody Rhodes beat John Cena in an outstanding match to win the WWE Championship. It’s a match that fans are going to remember as perhaps Cena’s best match of 2025 and a match that was significantly better than what they did at WrestleMania 41.
As Cena explained, SummerSlam put an end to the rivalry that started earlier in the year.
“If you compare what we did in April with what we did in August, that was the end of our story. That’s the ride we’re taking fans on.
We know WrestleMania is the end of our season, but when it came to Cody and I, WrestleMania is just the beginning for us, and certainly just the beginning for me after them choosing to say, ‘You’re a bad guy.’ Okay, I’m a bad guy in February. I have until the middle of April to figure this out.
What’s the best way I can do it, integrate it, and look at my morality in August? That’s a short time to accomplish that. You have to commit.”
John Cena also spoke about why he thinks AJ Styles might be the nicest human being he’s ever met.
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