CM Punk thinks that John Cena’s final opponent in a WWE ring may not be somebody familiar to the future Hall of Famer.
During CM Punk’s first WWE run from 2006 until his departure in early 2014, it could be argued that his greatest rival was the 16-time WWE World Champion John Cena. Most CM Punk fans would say his epic Money in the Bank 2011 match with Cena was the most important match of Punk’s career and perhaps his best match as well.
A lot of time has passed since those days and now guys like Cena and Punk are among the oldest wrestlers on the WWE roster with Cena obviously in a part-time role due to his busy career in Hollywood.
Earlier this summer, John Cena announced that 2025 would be his last year as an active WWE superstar with a retirement tour that will end at some point in December 2025. That means WrestleMania 41 will be his last time wrestling at a WrestleMania, the 2025 Royal Rumble is his last time in a Rumble match, SummerSlam 2025 is his last time at a SummerSlam, and so on.
When CM Punk was asked by Brady of 1035 KISS FM about who Cena might face in his final match, Punk gave a thoughtful answer while concluding that Cena may opt for a new opponent at the end rather than somebody from his past like Punk, Randy Orton, Kevin Owens, AJ Styles or somebody like that.
“Oh gosh. I’d have to ask John. Everybody’s gonna have their two cents of what they do. But what I love about John coming out and saying, like, ‘Hey, this is it. This is going to be a journey that we’re all going to go on together. And this is it for me.’ I really like that, because I think he gets to kind of write his love letter to pro wrestling on his way out.
“So I’ve always said this since he announced he was going to retire. If he wants to get in the ring with me, whether it’s tag or whatever, I’d be flattered. But if I’m not part of that story, then that’s great too. I’m going to be a fan, just like everybody else sitting there and watching it, like I’m excited to see what he wants to do, what he’s going to do, what’s going to happen.
“He’s had such a great career. I think it’s easy to say, you could say Randy. I think some people would say me. Knowing John, I’m assuming it’s going to be somebody new someone he can hand the baton to. So it might be Gunther, it might be somebody that he has his eye on that nobody else is really seeing. You don’t know. That’s what’s exciting to me about it really.”
It’s going to be a busy week for CM Punk. The Straight Edge Superstar is set for a discussion with Drew McIntyre on the final three-hour Raw on September 30th.
On the October 1st episode of NXT in his hometown of Chicago, Punk will be the special guest referee for the NXT Title match between champion Ethan Page and former champion Trick Williams. That’s a big night for NXT since they’re on a new network, the CW.
In one week’s time on October 5th in Atlanta, CM Punk will be locked inside Hell in a Cell with his rival Drew McIntyre in what could be the end of their rivalry, which has arguably been the best WWE feud of the year.
H/T Wrestlezone
