John Cena was the public face of WWE for most of two decades. Children idolized him and a large share of adult fans booed him, often in the same arena on the same night, and WWE built around that split rather than trying to resolve it.
Cena broke through in the early 2000s, first as a brash rapper character and then as the earnest, never-quit hero who carried WWE through the 2010s. He retired as a 17-time world champion, the most title reigns in company history. For a large group of fans who started watching during that stretch, he was the first wrestler they followed.
The dueling "Let’s go Cena / Cena sucks" chant followed him for years. Rather than turn him heel to quiet it, WWE kept him as the hero and let the divided reaction become part of the show. Cena worked a full schedule while building a parallel film career, and his crossover success made him one of the few wrestlers recognizable well outside the audience.
Cena announced in July 2024 that he would retire from the ring, and his farewell tour ran through 2025 across 36 dates. It ended on December 13, 2025, at Saturday Night’s Main Event in Washington, D.C., where he wrestled his final match against Gunther and tapped out in a nearly 24-minute contest, closing a career that spanned more than two decades and 17 world championships. His acting work has continued past the wrestling exit. Cena’s highest-grossing films are led by his cameo in Barbie (2023), which made over $1.4 billion worldwide, followed by his Fast & Furious entries F9 ($726 million) and Fast X ($705 million) as Jakob Toretto, the animated Bumblebee and Ferdinand, and his turn as Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad, which led to his own HBO series.