John Cena is wrestling his final match next weekend in Washington, D.C., at WWE’s Saturday Night’s Main Event. Cena will face either LA Knight or Gunther, the winner of the “Last Time Is Now” Tournament finals on Monday Night Raw from Kansas City.
As the “Never Seen 17” has reiterated, this will be Cena’s final match. If you haven’t gotten a chance to dance with the Champ in the squared circle, there are no more chances to make that happen.
It’s a shame Cena has been such a sporadic performer since 2018. There are several stars that he’ll never get the chance to battle in potential dream matches.
Goldberg
Bill Goldberg recently discussed having never faced Cena in a one-on-one match during their careers, which, besides the 2004 Royal Rumble, never included them in the same match at any point.
Goldberg said it would have been “cool” to fight Cena, but saw little value in that match happening during his 2025 retirement tour.
“I never got a chance to get my hand around Cena’s throat. That might have been cool. There are a lot of people I would have loved to have faced back in the day, but the fact is, what does that do for the business now? A lot of people don’t even remember me that watch wrestling right now. A lot of people don’t know me because they speak negatively of me. I think I was an innovator of sorts. There are a plethora (of people),” Goldberg told Ariel Helwani during an interview earlier this year.
Goldberg left WWE in 2004 following an infamous match with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XX, right before Cena became a main event star at WrestleMania 21. The likeliest chance the two had of having a match was in 2017. Cena became WWE Champion the night of the Royal Rumble, while Goldberg won the Universal Championship at FastLane a month later. Goldberg was put into another feud with Lesnar instead, though, and was on Raw as Cena was on SmackDown.
It just wasn’t meant to be between WCW’s and the WWE PG Era’s flagship stars.
Bron Breakker
Cena seemed destined for a matchup with Bron Breakker after the two had interactions on NXT when the latter was still part of the brand. It came off like a typical passing of the torch and a setup for a future veteran-yungin clash, but Cena didn’t wrestle any matches between their late 2023 interactions and his 2024 retirement announcement, besides a six-man tag teaming up with R-Truth and The Miz against Judgement Day’s Finn Balor, JD McDonagh, and Dominik Mysterio.
Cena’s retirement tour has been a “greatest hits” of sorts, having faced old rivals like Randy Orton, CM Punk, AJ Styles, R-Truth, and Brock Lesnar. His first-time matches came against the likes of Logan Paul and Cody Rhodes, not the 28-year-old Breakker.
Breakker looks like 2026’s breakout competitor, having pinned World Champion CM Punk in the WarGames match. It’s a shame he never got to face Cena during his retirement tour.
Omos
Omos has not been on WWE TV since 2024’s WrestleMania season. He’s been honing his craft overseas, popping up in shows in Mexico and Japan. It’s only a matter of time before the Nigerian Giant shows up again.
Whenever it is, it’ll be after Cena is retired. That’s a shame, because Cena could’ve been his greatest foe. Some of the best work in the late stages of Big Show’s career and The Great Khali’s brief run in the states came against Cena.
The West Newbury, Massachusetts, native was built to be Omos’ opponent. Too bad it will never happen.