CM Punk Pitched Placing Titles On John Cena After Retirement Loss

CM Punk floated an idea to honor John Cena following Cena’s final match in WWE, suggesting that he and Cody Rhodes lay their world championships on Cena’s shoulders as a tribute once the bout was over.

The moment in question came at WWE’s Saturday Night’s Main Event this past December, when Cena wrestled what was billed as his retirement match against Gunther. Cena came up short, tapping out to Gunther to close out his in-ring career. It was an emotional milestone for a performer who has been one of the most recognizable faces in the company for more than two decades, and it left WWE with the challenge of finding the right way to punctuate the moment on screen.

Punk’s pitch would have seen both of WWE’s top title-holders at the time — himself and Rhodes — physically drape their championships over Cena as a show of respect immediately after the loss. Punk and Rhodes have both held world championship gold during this stretch of WWE programming, and the image of the two rival champions setting aside any storyline tension to salute Cena would have been a striking visual to close out his career on WWE television.

It’s not clear from what’s been reported whether that specific idea made it to air in any form, or how far the pitch traveled up the creative chain before or after Cena’s match with Gunther. Regardless, the detail underscores how much thought go into how to send off a performer of Cena’s stature, and how talent like Punk are willing to push their own ideas for how those send-offs should look.

Cena’s in-ring career spanned multiple eras of WWE, and his retirement match against Gunther marked the end of that chapter. Whatever creative discussions took place behind the scenes, the moment remains one of the most talked-about entries in his long goodbye from the company.