John Cena signs a five-year deal as WWE ambassador

John Cena's farewell as an active wrestler does not mean a goodbye to WWE. Although his last match is scheduled for December 13, the 17-time world champion has confirmed that he will remain linked to the company for at least the next five years thanks to a new agreement as an official WWE ambassador.

In a conversation with Tom Rinaldi, Cena explained that this new stage will have nothing to do with his time in the ring, but with a more strategic and formative role within the company. His intention is to remain as a stable, representative figure close to young talent.

I will be a WWE ambassador. I have already signed for another five years. As long as I can, I want to continue being part of this family. It's not my time to perform anymore, but I have many strengths and gifts that I can pass on.

John himself detailed that this new path will allow him to focus on aspects that he could barely explore during his time as a wrestler: mentoring, character development, and direct connection with emerging talent. His goal, as he explained, is to help more wrestlers find their "spark moment," that instant that transforms a career.

Meanwhile, his farewell as a competitor continues to generate enormous anticipation. Cena will close his career in the ring by facing Gunther in WWE Saturday Night's Main Event, a clash that symbolizes the transition of eras between two very different generations. The Austrian addressed that fight last night on Monday Night Raw, where he assured that John Cena was going to face the greatest professional wrestler in history.

Beyond his new role as an ambassador, Cena explained that the decision to make 2025 his last year in the ring took shape when he saw the type of commitments WWE was asking of him in recent times. Often, he would return only to open shows with 15 or 20-minute monologues, without physical action or long rivalries. It was a difficult place: to hold the audience's attention without stealing the spotlight from the wrestlers coming up, to improvise on multiple script points, and to bear the responsibility of setting the tone for the night. For him, that was the definitive sign that his role as a performer had changed forever.

Cena himself admitted that, upon reviewing his schedule and realizing that at 48 years old he couldn't maintain an intermittent presence indefinitely, he understood that he had to make a clear decision: retire without notice or do it in a way that he could celebrate it with the audience. His initial plan was ambitious: he proposed more than 200 dates because that was the work model he had known his entire career. But WWE no longer operates with that volume of events. The company reminded him that tours have changed, that the business is managed differently, and that, no matter how much value he brought, the calendar structure would not revolve around him.

What a great exercise to learn that just because you think you have a good idea, doesn't mean it's a good idea. It means you think it's a good idea. It has brought us here and it's a great place to be.

Far from seeing it as an obstacle, Cena understood it as a lesson. He presented proposals, analyzed figures, developed revenue projections... and still had to rethink everything when the company explained its current framework. "Liking an idea doesn't mean it's the right idea," he admitted. There he found the balance: a more limited schedule, an orderly farewell, and the opportunity to start his ambassador stage while he still has something to offer. For him, this middle ground is exactly the kind of ending he was looking for.