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John Cena Makes Surprising Appearance Ahead Of WWE Retirement

By Monika Thapa • Published Dec 07, 2025 06:41 EST
John Cena

John Cena is in the final stretch of his in-ring career.

Cena will hang up his wrestling boots for good on Saturday, December 13. He will face Gunther in the last match of his WWE career.

Ahead of his retirement, he made a surprise appearance at Bayley’s Lodestone 2025 women’s wrestling camp and spent an entire day there with the trainees.

Lodestone 2025 is a multi-day women’s wrestling seminar and camp created and hosted by Bayley in Florida, aimed mainly at experienced independent women wrestlers.

Cena showed up unannounced and stayed for roughly eight hours, watching around ten women’s matches and paying close attention to each wrestler.

In a recent tweet, Bayley expressed immense gratitude to John Cena for showing up despite just being a week away from his final WWE match.

THE FIRST IS FOREVER. LODESTONE 2025 Thank you @JohnCena. And as we’re exactly one week away from his last match, John showed up today.

Watched 10 women’s matches, and spent 8 hours with us. LEGIT EIGHT HOURS. No conversation or piece of advice could’ve impacted me the way he did today, by just showing up.

Not just for me, but for each person in that room. This meant the world. I’ll always strive to be what John was today. THE GOAT.

John Cena Wanted To Do A Full Year In WWE

In a recent interview with Bill Simmons of The Ringer, John Cena revealed he wanted to do “a full year” in WWE before retiring. He was available for 220 dates, but WWE only needed him for 36.

“The plan, originally, was to do a full year. This goes to show my ignorance of the business. I wanted to do 220 dates. Just take the year off from everything, hop on a bus, do a full WWE calendar, and totally say goodbye. Thank goodness the business isn’t like that anymore. I’d be done. They only needed me for 36.”

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