John Cena names ‘easily’ the toughest match of his WWE career
Facing Brock Lesnar at WWE Wrestlepalooza was “easily” the toughest match of John Cena’s career.
The bout took place in September 2025 during Cena’s retirement tour and was the last time he and Lesnar ever faced each other. A dominant victory for Lesnar, the match lasted eight minutes and was mostly poorly received by fans, who didn’t like that one of Cena’s last bouts was a squash where WWE’s purpose was to reestablish Lesnar after a long absence.
Cena spoke about the match at Fanatics Fest this past weekend and named it as the toughest of his career. Wrestling Lesnar is always physically tough, and this time was mentally difficult as well because of how the fans reacted.
“I’d always say my next match was going to be my toughest, but that’s not true now that I’m retired,” Cena said. “The toughest one was from the retirement tour against Brock Lesnar. The reason I say that isn’t just because it was physically demanding — any match with Brock is physically demanding. What was tough about that one is I’ve had my butt kicked by Brock Lesnar before, and you guys loved it. In Indianapolis, I got my butt kicked by Brock Lesnar and you hated it. So that made it physically and mentally tough. It was easily the toughest match of my career.”
The Cena vs. Lesnar match at Wrestlepalooza helped WWE kick off a new PLE era on ESPN. Cena wrestled five more times after that, ultimately capping off his career with a loss to Gunther in December 2025. In his post-retirement life, Cena remains an ambassador for WWE while mostly focusing on his Hollywood work.
Brock Lesnar’s own WWE future —
It was teased earlier this year that Lesnar was now ending his own in-ring career after losing to Oba Femi at WrestleMania 42, but that ended up just being a fakeout with Lesnar soon returning. The rivalry between Lesnar and Femi has continued, and the two will attempt to settle things in a Hell in a Cell match at SummerSlam.
SummerSlam is taking place in Lesnar’s former hometown of Minneapolis on August 1-2. Though long rumored as a potential destination for Lesnar’s actual retirement, there’s been no confirmation of that leading into the PLE.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.