Why did John Cena retire in the month of December?
Why is it selfish to retire at WrestleMania?
These are among the many questions answered at length by “The Greatest of All-Time” during his appearance on the No-Contest Wrestling podcast with O’Shea Jackson Jr. and TJ Jefferson.
“I’ll tell you why I specifically chose December to retire,” Cena began when explaining his decision to retire from WWE in the month of December at a Saturday Night’s Main Event show in Washington, DC. “There is a lot of stuff going on in December. In the WWE calendar, Survivor Series is the last one, and then everyone waits for the Rumble. December is like a month in limbo.”
Cena continued, “We’ve never really been able to crack that code. With people on holiday, until the holiday season is over, tickets are tough to sell because people are spending on holiday presents. It’s a weak month for viewership and live attendance. The fan fans are like, ‘Wait until January’ because that’s how we advertise it. That’s when the road to WrestleMania starts. When I presented this idea to Nick Khan and Triple H, they were awesome. ‘Who do you want to work with?’ ‘What event do you want to retire at?’ I simply said, ‘Hunter, who I want to work with is up to you guys. It’s your department. I’ve never been that guy. I don’t want to take this last year and change who I am. You deal em, I play em.”
From there, Cena went on to explain why WWE Superstars who retire at WrestleMania are “selfish.”
“Nick, from a business perspective, the data that I’ve gathered over 23 years of doing business is December is soft,” Cena said. “WrestleMania is going to sell itself. Retiring at WrestleMania is selfish. It doesn’t do anything for the business. I retire in December, the weakest month, the middle of December, the dry zone, we put it right in the middle of December because I know when you do the holiday tour, the houses will come back and you guys will make money.”
He added, “Let’s show a profit in Q4. Put it in whatever arena you want, doesn’t matter. Let’s get ourselves in the best position to have the best December we can. I feel this is an event people will pay to see.’ Sure enough, it was. That was my thought process. Selfishly, do you want to be the last match at WrestleMania? Sure. The event sells it sell.”
