John Cena has addressed criticism surrounding Gunther’s direction in WWE following their match at Saturday Night’s Main Event in December 2025.
Cena officially ended his in-ring career on December 13, 2025, submitting to Gunther in his retirement match. Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Cena reflected on the reaction to the match and acknowledged that fans are still discussing the decision months later.
“Folks watched and they have an opinion, and they’re kind of still talking about it, you know. And you can—all you do is you do the best you can and you hope that they carry.
I know there’s sentiment out there that, like, ‘man, they’re wasting Gunther.’ Maybe currently they are, but I don’t see the view from the penthouse. I’m not in those meetings where they’re just looking at the whiteboard, you know, connecting the dots. Maybe they’re just cooling him off. Maybe they’re putting him away from TV. I don’t know.
What I am going to do is I’m not going to challenge the opinion of, like, ‘hey, I’m not going to give this for this guy and you’re going to forget him.’ This is the work I need to do for today, and we’re going to make him look the best we can, and I’m going to give him as much steam as I can.
And what you do with it afterwards, that ain’t my call.”
Cena made it clear that his responsibility was to make Gunther look as strong as possible during their match, while what WWE chose to do with that momentum afterward was outside of his control.
Although Cena acknowledged the criticism that WWE may currently be “wasting” Gunther, he stressed that he is no longer involved in the creative meetings and does not know what long-term plans the company may have for the former World Heavyweight Champion.
