When John Cena wrestled his final match at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13, the night was filled with tributes and emotional moments. One comment from William Regal, however, stood out above the rest.
Speaking on the No-Contest Wrestling podcast, Cena shared the story of an early critique Regal gave him after one of his first WWE dark matches — feedback that stuck with him for decades.
“I really idolized William Regal, that European Fit Finlay, that catch-as-catch-can style,” Cena explained. “I loved the kinesthetic awareness of it. I loved how it was just like physical poetry.”
After the match, Cena approached Regal hoping for guidance.
“I asked him like, ‘Hey, did you see my match?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘How was it?’ His feedback was, ‘Lad, if you get yourself a pair of boots, at least you’ll look like a proper wrestler.’”
At the time, Cena took the advice literally.
“I was wrestling in bodybuilding Otomix shoes, and I’m like, ‘Yo, I just got to get boots.’”
The comment was Regal’s polite way of saying the match itself needed work. But rather than discouraging him, Cena interpreted the feedback as motivation to improve.
More than 25 years later, Cena finally received what he described as a full-circle moment.
Despite spending his entire WWE career wearing sneakers rather than traditional wrestling boots, Cena said Regal approached him on his retirement night with a final piece of praise.
“Even without boots, you’re still a proper wrestler.”
Cena said that simple sentence meant more than almost anything else he heard that night.
For years, Regal had joked about how rough Cena’s early dark match was whenever the story came up. But on the night his in-ring career ended, Regal gave him the validation he had waited decades to hear.
In professional wrestling, respect from peers often carries more weight than titles or accolades. For Cena, the approval of a technician he admired was the ultimate punctuation mark on a 25-year journey.
